F1 2026 penalty points: Oliver Bearman faces immediate race ban threat. Oliver Bearman heads into the 2026 Formula 1 season just two penalty points away from a race ban.

The 2025 World Championship has only just come to an end, but the countdown to the next season has already begun. After the many test sessions scheduled between January and February to refine the brand-new cars, serious business will start on 8 March with the Australian Grand Prix, which will open this new and highly anticipated era of Formula 1. Paradoxically, however, some drivers will arrive at that appointment already with their backs against the wall.

With the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the penalty points situation for all drivers has now been defined and will naturally remain unchanged until the start of the next season. Particularly worrying is the case of Ollie Bearman, the young British Haas driver, who in his rookie season showed anything but an ideal relationship with the stewards.

Bearman under scrutiny

Throughout the second half of 2025, the Ferrari Driver Academy product dangerously ‘flirted’ with a one-race ban. Fortunately for him, the suspension never materialised, but even at Yas Marina the #87 picked up another sanction, receiving a five-second time penalty and, more importantly, a penalty point for making more than one change of direction while defending against an attack from Lance Stroll.

With this latest sanction, Ollie Bearman has climbed to a total of 10 penalty points accumulated between May and December. This means that until 23 May 2026 – effectively for the first six Grands Prix of the new season – the Ferrari junior will be just two points away from a race ban. Not exactly the ideal way to begin his second full season in Formula 1, especially at the wheel of cars that will be completely new and will inevitably require time to be fully understood by the drivers themselves.