Next season will almost definitely see the introduction of a penalty points system after a majority vote amongst the teams went in favour of the move.
However the drivers are yet to decide whether it’s a good move, with a discussion taking place during the pre-race weekend driver meeting.
Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo is one of those who is undecided, but he says he can see both benefits and drawbacks of the system which could see a driver banned should they accumulate 12 points on their license.
“It’s been a topic we discussed a little bit today, just trying to understand how it would work and if it’s a good thing or not,” he said.
“We’ve obviously got to discuss this and make sure that it is not a bad thing. I think everyone’s looking for clarity so between an incident people want to know ‘Alright, this guy crashed in to me, is he going to get a drive-through? Is he going to get a five-place grid penalty? Is he going to get anything?’
“So I think just having maybe a points system like this could clarify what exactly the cost of an incident is. But saying that if they start bringing things in like unsafe pit release and you get a deducted point that’s not really your fault that’s the team’s fault. They have to be careful with how they do it, so we’ll see.”
When asked if the final penalty – a one-race ban – was harsh, he added: “It’s a tough one because a one-race ban is a really big penalty, but obviously it will take a bit to get up to 12 points so you’ve probably earned your one-race ban if you lose 12 points.”
