Regardless of all of the doom and gloom, there’s one space by which Lewis Hamilton has excelled up to now this yr – he doesn’t have a single penalty level on his licence
Lewis Hamilton is definitely not having the debut season with Ferrari that he would have dreamed of when he put pen to paper on his deal to affix the Scuderia. Save for an early-season victory in a dash race on the Chinese language Grand Prix, there was little to jot down dwelling about.
Hamilton heads into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix sixth within the championship, having scored 109 factors throughout the primary 14 rounds of the yr. His team-mate Charles Leclerc is one place forward however with 42 factors greater than the seven-time System 1 champion.
Leclerc has additionally managed 5 Grand Prix podiums up to now this yr, and was unfortunate to overlook out on a sixth final day out in Budapest after qualifying on pole earlier than struggling a worrying drop in efficiency mid-way by the race having held off the charging McLaren vehicles within the early phases.
In distinction, Hamilton has not made it to the highest three in any Grand Prix up to now, a trio of fourth-placed finishes in Imola, Austria and Silverstone his greatest outcomes of the yr. In Budapest, whereas Leclerc excelled in qualifying, Hamilton didn’t make it to Q3 and crossed the end line a lowly twelfth.
Regardless of all of the doom and gloom, there’s one space by which Hamilton has excelled up to now this yr – he has stored his nostril clear admirably, to the purpose he doesn’t have a single penalty level on his licence.
He’s one among simply 5 drivers on the grid who haven’t incurred the wrath of the stewards during the last 12 months. The others with utterly clear licences are Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, in addition to rookies Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto.
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On the different finish of the size, there are two drivers who’re pretty near triggering a race ban. The present guidelines dictate that any driver who amasses a dozen factors inside a 12-month interval triggers an automated suspension.
One among them is Max Verstappen who, with 9 factors on his licence, is the closest to a ban of everybody on the grid. At one level earlier this yr, he had 11 and was one tiny mistake away from being pressured to overlook a race, however gained slightly extra respiration room after the Austrian Grand Prix when two of his factors expired.
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Verstappen should be on his greatest behaviour as his present factors is not going to start to run out till the tip of October. It’s nonetheless doable that one incident may result in a ban for the Dutchman, because the stewards have the ability handy out as much as 4 penalty factors for a few of the extra severe infractions drivers could make.
Oliver Bearman, on eight factors, is aware of all about that having picked up 4 for ignoring pink flags and crashing within the pit lane at Silverstone. That got here after the British Haas driver had picked up two for one more pink flag infraction in Monaco, including to the 2 he earned final November for inflicting a collision on the Brazilian Grand Prix.
