diff --git a/libavcodec/vaapi_encode.c b/libavcodec/vaapi_encode.c
index f5785ce4c5..36c85a3815 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vaapi_encode.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vaapi_encode.c
@@ -1096,10 +1096,10 @@ static av_cold int vaapi_encode_config_attributes(AVCodecContext *avctx)
                 goto fail;
             }
             if (avctx->max_b_frames > 0 && ref_l1 < 1) {
-                av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_ERROR, "B frames are not "
-                       "supported (%#x).\n", attr[i].value);
-                err = AVERROR(EINVAL);
-                goto fail;
+                av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_WARNING, "B frames are not "
+                       "supported (%#x) by the underlying driver.\n",
+                       attr[i].value);
+                avctx->max_b_frames = 0;
             }
         }
         break;