While many of us go through life and the roads only with God’s permission, Formula 1 drivers have a Superlicensea document that we hear about during races and especially when a team is interested in recruiting young drivers.
Both the 20 starting drivers of the season, as well as the reserve drivers must have this famous Super license to participate in a Formula 1 Grand Prix and we’ll tell you what’s up with this document.
What is the Superlicense and what does it look like?
In short, the Superlicense is a permit for someone to get into a Formula 1 car and compete in a Grand Prix. This document is issued by the International Automobile Federation (FIA)which at the same time is in charge of ensuring that all the requirements are met, which are increasingly demanding.
The objective of the FIA is to ensure that Only the best drivers in the world make it to Formula 1, and it is that many years ago, if you bought or founded a team, you had the freedom to run a single-seater, even if you were a kaffir behind the wheel.
Physically, the Superlicense does not look like an ordinary driver’s license, but rather It is a certificate (a sheet, then) signed by the FIA and that only serves for Formula 1.
How can I process my Superlicense?
As we said, the Superlicense is not just anything, and you must meet six requirements to ensure before the FIA that you have the skills to drive cars at a sporting level.
The first two requirements are simple, since you must have at least 18 years old, in addition to having driving license y pass a theory test with questions about FIA rules and the F1 sporting code. So far millions of people can get excited about processing a super license with a good study of the FIA regulations.
Things get complicated when you find that you also need a international competition license, Grade A, that is to say, that you drive at a sporting level.
You must also have the record of having competed in at least the 80% of two seasons of open-wheel championships that give Superlience points. In other words, even if you shine in Nascar, you cannot aspire to a Formula 1 seat. Finally, you must have at least 40 points to process the superlicense.
Six requirements to obtain the Superlicense
- Have a driving license
- International Competition License Grade A
- Pass a theoretical exam with the FIA rules and F1 sporting codes
- Compete at least 80% of two seasons in formula-type championships
- Add 40 Superlicense points
What are the championships that give points for the Superlicense?
In total they are seven championships that help you achieve points in the super license, although only two of them, Formula E and IndyCar, give you 40 points in a single season: Formula 2 and IndyCar.
The rest of the championships are designed and configured as seedbeds for pilots, in which underage pilots compete, therefore it is impossible to see another case like that of Max Verstappen, who arrived at the Great Circus at the age of 17.
Here we leave you all the championships that deliver points to the Superlicense and how these points are distributed depending on where a driver ends up in a season.
| Championship | First place | Second | Third | Room | Quinto | Sixth | Seventh | Octavo | Nineth | Tenth |
| Formula 2 | 40 points | 40 points | 40 points | 30 points | 20 points | 10 points | 8 points | 6 points | 4 points | 3 points |
| IndyCar | 40 points | 30 points | 20 points | 10 points | 8 points | 6 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
| Formula 3 | 30 points | 25 points | 20 points | 15 points | 12 points | 9 points | 7 points | 5 points | 3 points | 2 points |
| Formula E | 30 points | 25 points | 20 points | 10 points | 8 points | 6 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
| FIA WEC | 30 points | 24 points | 20 points | 16 points | 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 6 points | 4 points | 2 points |
| European Regional Formula | 25 points | 20 points | 15 points | 10 points | 7 points | 5 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point | – |
| super formula | 25 points | 20 points | 15 points | 10 points | 7 points | 5 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point | – |
What happens when I already have the F1 Superlicence?
When you obtain the necessary points in the Superlicense, you must make sure to activate it with a payment of 10 thousand euros and once this is achieved, the challenge is not to lose points, and that is that each infraction to the regulation represents a reduction of points.
Each pilot can spend 12 negative points over the course of a year and if it exceeds that amount, the driver is suspended for one race, although that hasn’t happened yet.
Another way to lose the superlicense is let three years go by without track activity in an official Formula 1 event. If that period passes, the super license becomes inactive and the only way to activate it again is with a 300-kilometre test. This situation was what kept Esteban Gutiérrez out of competition, who was unable to replace Checo Pérez in 2020, when he tested positive for COVID during his time with Racing Point.
