Racing
© fuji.tim
Max Verstappen has reached a clean-slate moment in Formula 1, with the three super licence penalty points he received for his 2025 Spanish Grand Prix collision with George Russell expiring on 1 June 2026 and leaving the Red Bull driver on zero active points after previously sitting on 11.
That matters because the Barcelona penalty had left Verstappen just one point short of the 12-point threshold that triggers an automatic one-race ban. For the past year, every stewards' decision carried extra weight for the reigning Red Bull driver because another penalty point would have forced him out of the next grand prix.
Those final three points came from one of the most contentious moments of Verstappen's 2025 season. In the closing stages at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, after a safety-car restart, Russell attacked in his Mercedes and Verstappen went down the escape road to avoid heavier contact. Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase then instructed Verstappen to give the place back.
What followed brought the punishment that hung over Verstappen's licence for the next 12 months. As he ceded the position, Verstappen made contact with Russell, driving into the side of the Mercedes. The stewards ruled the collision was "without doubt caused by the actions of Verstappen" and handed him a 10-second time penalty along with the three licence points that have now dropped away.
The race penalty also hit his result immediately. Multiple summaries of the incident state that Verstappen fell from fifth to ninth in the final classification, while one account lists him as dropping to 10th, but all agree the sanction turned a points finish into a significantly worse outcome. One summary says the punishment cost him nine championship points.
That loss mattered beyond Barcelona. The points dropped in Spain were described as a factor in Verstappen missing out on a fifth consecutive drivers' championship, which gave the clash with Russell a significance that went well beyond the post-race debate over blame and etiquette.
Verstappen later acknowledged the ugliness of the moment. Speaking to Viaplay later that year, the Red Bull driver said: "What happened there was obviously not pretty, but it also happened because I really care about something."
With those three points now expired exactly 12 months on, the most immediate consequence of the Russell collision is gone. Verstappen starts June 2026 without any active super licence points, removing the suspension risk that had shadowed him since Barcelona.