Max Verstappen finds himself at the risk of a Formula 1 race ban after accumulating three penalty points on his FIA Super License following a controversial crashing incident with George Russell at the 2025 Spanish GP.
The Red Bull racer’s Sunday exploded on Lap 61 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya when a late safety car left him compromised on hard tyres as his rivals all fitted the grippier and quicker softs.
So it was no surprise when he almost lost the rear of his RB21 out of the final corner when the restart occurred, as Charles Leclerc looked to swallow him up in the Ferrari into Turn 1 and Russell quickly followed suit in the Mercedes.
Yet, the Brit got his line slightly wrong and ended up banging wheels with the four-time world champion, forcing him to bail out down an escape road and forcing his emotions to boil over in Montemelo.
Although the Dutchman felt he deserved to keep the place under the rules, his race engineer eventually told him to yield the position as they became weary of a time penalty with the rest of the pack lingering closely.
However, whilst their 27-year-old driver initially seemed to be complying with the order as he slowed down at Turn 5, he then demonstrated he was in no mind to yield and dove into the corner, almost smashing into Russell.
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As a result, he collected a 10-second time penalty that dropped him from fourth at the flag to 10th as he lost valuable points to the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the title picture.
Matters were made much worse later when the FIA also handed him three points on his Super License, meaning Verstappen is now at risk of a race ban after the Russell incident at the 2025 Spanish GP.
Handed three penalty points, he is now up to 11 for the 12-month period. That means if he collects one more, for any reason the FIA deems appropriate, he will be forced to miss the next race he was due to compete in.
Could Verstappen be replaced if he gets a race ban after 2025 Spanish GP?
Fortunately for Red Bull, they would be able to replace Verstappen for one weekend if he manages to collect a race ban for exceeding the FIA’s penalty points limit on his Super License.
It would likely see Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar promoted to Christian Horner’s team for one weekend, with Ayumu Iwasa or Arvin Lindblad stepping into the role that would be vacated in the junior team.
For example, when Kevin Magnussen was banned for for the 2024 Azerbaijan GP for exceeding the limits, Oliver Bearman stepped into his Haas car and went on to finish 10th, just behind Lewis Hamilton.
Magnussen then returned for the next weekend with zero penalty points on his record, but was ultimately replaced permanently by Bearman at the end of the year.
