Max Verstappen says the policing of track limits over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend was a “bit of a joke” and “doesn’t look good” for Formula 1.
New F1 race directors Neils Wittich and Eduardo Freitas have adopted a stricter approach to track limits this year after the matter became a constant issue at many races in 2021.
In the pre-event notes, the white line has now been defined as the edge of the track at every race so far this season, with drivers penalised should they breach the ruling too many times.
Due to the layout of the Red Bull Ring, drivers often run wide at several corners, making them a main point of focus for race control throughout all sessions.
Sergio Perez had all his Q3 times deleted after he was found to have breached track limits during the previous segment, seeing him demoted from his fourth place grid position to 13th.
In Sunday’s race there was a total of 43 track breaches, which saw four drivers – Lando Norris, Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly and Zhou Gyanyu – handed five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits more than three times.
“The track limits debate this weekend has been a bit of a joke, not only in F1 but in F2 and F3,” said Verstappen, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“It’s easy to say from the outside, yeah, but you just have to stay within the white lines. It sounds very easy, but it’s not, because when you go that quick through a corner and some of them are a bit blind, you have a bit more understeer, tyres are wearing, and it’s easy to go over the white line.
“But do you actually gain time? Maybe yes, maybe not. To be honest, it’s only like two or three corners where you can go a bit wider.
“I don’t think we should have this, ah you went 1mm over, that’s a penalty or whatever. Then just add a wall or bring some gravel back.”
Verstappen went on to say the situation “doesn’t look good for the sport”, especially when there are areas on the circuit where drivers are “naturally penalised” for running too wide.
Norris, who received his time penalty after a black-and-white flag for his third infringement, was left frustrated he was given a warning by the stewards for going off a Turn 1 when drivers lose time at that corner anyway.
“I had one in Turn 1 or wherever my penalty was, Turn 1, and I just like locked up the front tyre, I hit the sausage [kerb], I’ve lost like a second up the hill – and then I just get track limits for that,” Norris said.
“I’ve been punished enough, because I’ve lost one second. It’s a bit stupid, some of them. And it’s life and it’s the same for everyone, and we want consistency and so on.
“We’ve argued it, we’ve also said that we want it to be strict since last year, and we want it to be the same every time and so on. Us drivers always want something different and something better and so on, so we’ll see.
“It’s a difficult track to judge the limits so finely on.”
Haas driver Mick Schumacher felt the matter would need to be discussed to see what could be improved, but warned it would likely be a bigger concern at the next race in France.
“It does look a bit silly if for going a centimetre of track you get a penalty of five seconds, and most of the time when you go off you don’t gain any lap time, which is worse,” Schumacher said.
“It’s something to be discussed, something to see if we can improve it for the next event because I think in Paul Ricard especially it will be a big concern.”
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