Max Verstappen will start the Monaco Grand Prix weekend with a completely clean FIA superlicence, having watched the last of his penalty points expire at the start of June.
It is a striking turnaround. Not long ago Verstappen was the driver most at risk of a one-race ban, his licence loaded with points that traced back to incidents including the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. Under the FIA's rolling 12-month system, penalty points fall off a licence a year after they are issued — and Verstappen's final three dropped off at the beginning of June, taking him from the edge of a suspension to a spotless record.
The reset means the four-time champion arrives in Monaco with zero points and no immediate jeopardy, removing a layer of caution that had hung over his racing through the early part of the season.
With Verstappen wiped clean, the unwanted title of 'closest to a ban' now passes to Haas driver Oliver Bearman. The young Briton sits on eight points, having climbed as high as ten earlier in 2026 before two of them expired after the Canadian Grand Prix. Bearman first moved ahead of Verstappen in the standings at the 2025 Italian Grand Prix and remains the man with the least margin for error.
Perhaps the most telling statistic of all is that no driver has been awarded a single penalty point so far in 2026. That is partly a product of revised stewarding guidelines, under which points are reserved for dangerous, reckless or apparently deliberate actions that cause a collision, or for other unacceptable or unsportsmanlike behaviour — a higher bar than in previous seasons.
For Verstappen, the timing could hardly be better. Monaco is the most unforgiving circuit on the calendar, where a single error against the barriers can end a weekend and where wheel-to-wheel combat carries outsized risk. Knowing that a moment of contact will not nudge him towards a ban gives Red Bull's lead driver a freer hand at exactly the track where he may need it most.
It also draws a quiet line under a turbulent stretch. Verstappen's frustrations during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend prompted debate over whether his conduct warranted sanction, but with no points issued anywhere on the grid this year, he leaves North America with his record — and his licence — entirely intact heading into Formula 1's showpiece event.
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*Originally published on [Newsformula One](https://newsformula.one/article/verstappen-clean-penalty-points-monaco-bearman). Visit for full coverage.*