Six-time driver of the day now nearing F1 race ban alongside Kevin Magnussen

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Kevin Magnussen has been lingering on the brink of a one-race ban since the Miami Grand Prix in May. Magnussen has accrued 10 penalty points, and just two more will trigger a suspension.

Under the regulations, a driver will have to sit out one Grand Prix weekend if they incur 12 in the space of a one-year period. Magnussen is potentially just one indiscretion away from hitting that figure.

Significantly, he’ll be in this position until 9 March next year. That’s because the points don’t expire for 365 days.

There’s a possibility that he could lose his spot on the Formula 1 grid before then. Journalist Lawrence Barretto said prior to the Austrian GP that Magnussen looked like a man ‘preparing for a career outside of F1’.

Nico Hulkenberg has left Haas, with reserve driver and F2 star Oliver Bearman poised to replace him. Esteban Ocon is the favourite to take over from Magnussen in the other seat.

The Dane doubled his haul of penalty points in Miami by leaving the track on multiple occasions during the Sprint, and then taking Logan Sargeant out of the race. He’d previously run up his tally at the Saudi Arabian and Chinese GPs.

Fernando Alonso also at risk of F1 race ban after Zhou Guanyu crash

After the events of Austria, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso is also creeping towards a ban. As pointed out by RaceFans, Alonso has now amassed eight penalty points, and that number can only increase until March 2025.

The Aston Martin driver attempted a late move down the inside of Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu at turn three, but he locked his right front brake and ended up barging him off the track. That earned him a 10-second penalty in the race, and two points.

Alonso, who’s won F1’s driver of the day award six times, previously received three points apiece for two separate incidents. The stewards ruled that he caused a collision with Carlos Sainz in the Chinese GP Sprint, and had driven in a potentially dangerous manner before George Russell’s Australian GP crash.

The 42-year-old joins Sergio Perez and Sargeant on eight points. Teammate Lance Stroll has seven.

Martin Brundle asks Aston Martin ‘what’s going on’

While Alonso has slightly more breathing room than Magnussen, his penalty points will also hang over him until next year’s Chinese GP, as you can see in the table below. That adds a level of jeopardy to his midfield battles.

It was a miserable weekend all round for the Spaniard in Austria. He finished 15th in the Sprint, outqualified and outraced by Stroll, and ended up coming home 18th in the main Grand Prix.

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle was left asking ‘what is going on with Aston Martin?’ after another race without points. He feels that Alonso has lost some of his ‘attacking spirit’ ahead of the team’s regression.

He isn’t the only one who’s growing frustrated. Team owner Lawrence Stroll apparently got ‘pretty loud’ after a disappointing race at Imola in May as Aston’s upgrades failed to deliver the expected results.

Ahead of this weekend’s race at Silverstone, only a couple of miles from the team’s base, they sit a lonely fifth in the championship. Mercedes have now built a 138-point gap, while RB are 28 behind.