Why are F2 drivers getting more penalty points

For the second time this year, there will be an enforced change to the Formula 2 grid this weekend due to a driver accumulating enough penalty points to be handed a race ban.

The first time it was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Amaury Cordeel, who had to miss the Silverstone races due to clocking up 12 penalty points through a variety of offences. These included speeding under red flags conditions, speeding in the pit lane, track limits violations, failing to line up for a restart correctly, not entering the pit lane when required, and colliding with another driver.

Now it’s Campos Racing’s Olli Caldwell who is missing out on the action, sitting out of the Spa-Francorchamps weekend for a number of different track limits offences, a formation lap violation of his own, impeding other drivers during qualifying and nearly hitting a tyre trolley and a mechanic in the pitlane.

It’s not like these are the only ‘bad boys’ of F2 this year though. Race stewards have handed out penalty points 68 times and to 22 different drivers. The only two to have avoided their wrath so far is Charouz backmarker Cem Bolukbasi, who missed four races through injury, and Williams junior Logan Sargeant, the only driver to have kept a clean sheet despite starting ever race, and currently third in the points with Carlin.

The most frequent cause of ‘earning’ penalty points is exceeding track limits four or more times in a race. Four violations in one race equals one penalty point on a driver’s licence. But rather than that turning into two penalty points once you run wide at a corner for a fifth time, it instead adds two points to the one originally earned. And a sixth violation doesn’t mean an accumulated three penalty points, it actually means another two penalty points to the three already earned, plus an escalating severity of in-race penalties starting with time additions, then a drive-through penalty, a stop-go and eventually disqualification.

Running wide eight times in a race could bring a driver nine penalty points and multiple pit lane penalties they would have to serve, despite their track limits antics possibly not handing them any kind of advantage or putting any other driver at risk in the first place.

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In comparison, during the Imola round Cordeel was caught going at 99.2kph (61.6mph) through the pitlane when the speed limit is 60kph (37.2mph). He was handed…