Magnussen got a ban but Verstappen now has the most penalty points in F1 history · RaceFans

Kevin Magnussen became the first driver to receive an automatic race ban for reaching 12 penalty points on his licence earlier this year.

But one of his Formula 1 rivals has collected even more more penalty points than he has since the FIA introduced them. Penalty points were first issued to drivers in 2014, but a driver who wasn’t even on the grid that year has earned the most since then: Max Verstappen.

So far the three-times world champion has managed to avoid the same fate as Magnussen. Although he picked up more penalty points in the last two race weekends, today he has moved further away from the risk of a ban. The two points he picked up at the Las Vegas Grand Prix 12 months ago today have expired, meaning he is now on five points.

Of course having the most penalty points doesn’t necessarily make him ‘baddest boy’ on the grid. As Masgnussen’s fate shows, drivers who pick up points at too high a rate risk getting into trouble. Magnussen has collected penalty points at an average of 0.2 per grand prix weekend compared to Verstappen’s 0.18. Some past drivers had even higher averages, notably Daniil Kvyat (see below).

Since Verstappen made his debut for Red Bull’s second team in 2015 (Toro Rosso, now known as RB) he has picked up a total of 39 penalty points, two more than Magnussen. He received eight during that first season alone, including his sole three-point violation, when he was given a drive-through penalty for driving too quickly during a Safety Car period.

The following year, when he was promoted to Red Bull at the fifth round, Verstappen largely stayed out of trouble. By the time he began his first full season as a Red Bull driver he only had one point on his licence. Although he got more than halfway towards a ban in 2018, through 2020 he managed to keep a clean sheet.

However during his intense battle with Lewis Hamilton, both drivers collected penalties. Out of the four occasions Verstappen picked up points that year, three were for incidents involving his championship rival. But Verstappen repeated his title wins in the next two seasons with only a single incident deemed worthy of penalty points each year: One for another clash with Hamilton at Interlagos in 2022, and then his incident at Las Vegas a year ago today, when the stewards found he forced Charles Leclerc off the track at the start of the race.

This year, Verstappen again kept a clean sheet except…