F1 News: These Are The Fines Each Driver Picked Up in 2022
As the 2022 F1 season has come to an end, we are looking back at the season and particularly the fines that each driver picked up throughout the season.
According to Motorsport.com, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton leads the way with fines worth €25,500, closely followed by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz with €25,000.
One of Hamilton's fines was for not attending the 2021 end-of-season gala to celebrate Max Verstappen's title win. Speaking about the fine, Hamilton explained:
"There will be some sort of fine re. the gala but we have worked together to make sure that the money will be put towards youth from underprivileged backgrounds getting into motorsports engineering."
Following Sainz with the third highest amount of fines is Zhou Guanyu. In his debut season in the sport he racked up €15,000 worth of fines.
Sebastian Vettel had €11,300 worth of fines. If you cast your mind back to close to the beginning of the season, one of the funniest moments from the German driver was when his Aston Martin suffered an engine failure during the first free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix. He then decided to drive a moped back to the pits one-handed whilst waving to the fans and with no helmet on. He received a €5,000 for this due to safety concerns and for unauthorised access to the race track.
Behind Vettel is Red Bull's Sergio Perez with €10,300 and Daniel Ricciardo, who has just signed as Red Bull's reserve driver for 2023, with €10,000.
Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas had €8,100 worth and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was given €6,300 worth of fines. The last two were Lando Norris with €5,000 and Yuki Tsunoda with €3,300.
Although Hamilton and Sainz had the most amount of fines, they both have 0 penalty points. Zhou Guanyu has 4 penalty points at the moment, Vettel and Perez both have 2 each. Daniel Ricciardo has 8 points, as well as Lance Stroll. Valtteri Bottas only has 1 penalty point, Lando Norris has 3, and Yuki Tsunoda has 6.
Once a driver gets 12 penalty points over a 12-month period they are given a race ban. Although Pierre Gasly did not come in the top ten for his fines over the season, he currently has 10 penalty points.