Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich advised that gravel traps should be installed at the Red Bull Ring’s final two corners to ease the problem of track limits.
Wittich gave his recommendation after last year’s Austrian Grand Prix when there were 47 track limit offences during the race, but circuit bosses opted against the idea.
The matter has been brought to attention after the farcical ending to this year’s event where the FIA investigated the final classification following a protest from Aston Martin.
F1’s governing body revealed there was 1200 instances of drivers exceeding track limits, which led to eight post-race penalties being handed out and some drivers being demoted from their original positions.
Carlos Sainz dropped from fourth to sixth place after a further 10-second time penalty, while Lewis Hamilton fell behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell having received an additional five seconds on to his race time.
In the aftermath of the race, it emerged that the situation could have been avoided had the circuit followed the FIA’s advise in the first place.
The layout at the Red Bull Ring has meant policing track limits has proved a difficult task and past attempts to deal with the matter, such as sausage kerbs, were abandoned over safety concerns.
F1 has recently adopted a strict approach to track limits by making it clear that the white lines define the circuit, but the downhill, fast right-handers at Turns 9 and 10 has exacerbated the issue further.
In the post-race report of the 2022 Austrian GP, Wittich made a clear recommendation that a small gravel trap should be added to deter drivers from running wide and exceeding track limits, but the change would have complicated matters for MotoGP, which prefers tarmac run-offs.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the amount of penalties handed out in Austria made F1 look “amateurish” and agreed gravel was the best solution.
“I think a strip of gravel or something as a deterrent to run out there [is needed],” Horner said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“The problem is it is very difficult as drivers, because they cannot see the white lines in the car, so you are purely doing it on feel.
“The circuit invites you to go there. It is something that needs to be looked at for next year perhaps – add more of a deterrent for the drivers to be drawn on to that part of the circuit.
“The argument is always MotoGP, but I think you’ve got to have something that is flexible and useful for Formula 1.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was clear that a resolution needed to be found to avoid a similar occurrence.
“Surely for the fans and spectators, and for the teams the drivers, it’s super frustrating to keep those penalties coming,” he said.
“There’s only two solutions: either you come back to sausage kerbs and break the drivers and the cars, but then no one should complain. Or just remove them overall and you let them race the fastest line. This is what Niki Lauda always said, and you may come close to some of the rails.
“But we need to find a solution for the interests of the track and all the stakeholders, because we want to achieve the same: a spectacular race that is not influenced by penalties that are given for the right reasons because the rules exist.”
