Alpine held talks with Pierre Gasly in a bid to prevent the Frenchman achieving an unwanted Formula 1 first.
Under the current rules, any driver who picks up a dozen penalty points within a 12-month period must serve a one-race ban. It is a punishment that has never been triggered in F1.
But Gasly has come close to it in recent months. Alpine signed him from AlphaTauri last year knowing that he was sat on 10 points, the first of which weren't due to expire until several weeks into this season.
