From drivers who collected multiple penalties for exceeding track limits, to those who almost kept a clean sheet, none were satisfied with how the row reflected on Formula 1 last weekend.
Many expressed a desire to see the situation fixed before F1 returns to the Red Bull Ring for next year’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who dropped from ninth to tenth due to a 10-second track limits penalty, said the rule requiring drivers to remain within track limits should be relaxed.
“I was chasing Fernando [Alonso], I could see him pulling away and I was like it’s worth trying and taking every risk possible,” he said. “Unfortunately I went once too many out of the race track for maybe one inch, which is obviously frustrating.
“But that’s the rule as it was this weekend for everyone. And I’m going to stop here. I just feel like it will be a lot easier for everyone in the stewards’ room, fans, drivers just to live without it. Anyway, if you go ten centimetres too wide, you’ll damage the front wing and for two centimetres I don’t think it was worth it. That’s the rule.”
Gasly said the track limits rule “definitely need to be reviewed” because of the confusion it causes for fans.
“The answer needs to be properly thought through because at times, we as drivers will always request consistency but in other times common sense just pushes you to have more case-specific and track-specific like this weekend,” he said.
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“When you have 43 lap times in qualifying deleted, it just doesn’t seem right. I had my grandma [watching] in front of the TV she didn’t understand a thing. She was like, ‘what the hell is actually going on? Lewis [Hamilton] is once P1 then two seconds later he’s P18’. It just doesn’t seem right, but we’ll see.”
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, said the Red Bull Ring is “a fun track, but it’s bullshit when it’s like that. It ruins the whole thing, ruins the fun.”
He said the width of the kerbs in places at the track made it possible for drivers to run too wide.
“It’s better when it’s just a natural limit, and I actually think this track does have a natural limit.
“With these low cars and these big kerbs, you wouldn’t be going faster if you went over but you can kind of go all the way to the limit of that second kerb, and then you get a track limit offence. So I think it’s unnecessary and I know that the FIA is looking at a better solution.”
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also hopes “it’s something that it can be fixed” for next year’s race.
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The weekend’s biggest track limits offender was Ocon, who had 20 lap times deleted over the three days and copped 30 seconds of penalties in the race, said he had tried to be careful.
“I never go off the track and this weekend I was quite disappointed that I did so in qualifying,” said Ocon.
After the race he believed he had gone “all the way up to the limit, three strikes” and avoided a penalty. “Then I backed off from there, and I took more margins.” However the stewards later identified six further infringements which led to four separate time penalties.
Tsunoda, another of the most prolific offenders who had 18 lap times deleted in total, said he rarely felt he’d gone beyond the edge of the track.
“I got the warning, but on some of the track limits, I didn’t feel like I was outside of the white line,” he said. “[I don’t know if they’re] being super too harsh or whatever, but like some of the track limits I don’t feel I was outside of the white line. I have to check properly, but it was still pretty bad.”
“It would be nice” for the rules to be changed, said Tsunoda, but he believes “it’s a bit too difficult” to do so in a way that can be applied across all circuits. He suggested using the outside edge of the kerb as the track limit, a practice which was often followed until the beginning of last year, when the rule was changed.
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“I think [using the] kerb is easier. On kerbs at least you feel first from the outside wheel,” explained Tsunoda. “But the white line, you don’t feel any vibration, you just have to adjust it from entry.”
Some drivers said the large front wheels of modern Formula 1 cars, the size of which also increased at the beginning of last year, made it difficult to see track limits too.
So many potential track limits infringements were identified – over 1,200, according to the FIA – that during the race they were unable to apply penalties as quickly as drivers incurred them. Lewis Hamilton repeatedly asked why some of his rivals did not get penalties and Lando Norris, who followed him early in the race, was asking the same about the Mercedes.
“I mean, if you go wide, you get a penalty, but somehow he didn’t get a penalty. So I’m a bit confused,” said Norris before Hamilton was given a second penalty after the race.
He described how difficult it is for drivers to avoid falling foul of track limits at corners like the final two turns at the Red Bull Ring.
“To stay ahead of a quicker car, who’s got DRS, you’re pushing in every single corner. You have one little snap, you have the wind changes, all of a sudden through the corner you can end up off the track. So the fact you get penalised because of, let’s say, ‘nature’ in the middle of a corner, is a bit of a nasty thing. It’s just very difficult.
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“It’s easy to understand. Of course it makes us look a bit silly from the outside, but it’s also life. It’s just the rules. We have to stick to it.”
As teams realised how many penalties were being issued, they passed on warnings to their drivers, some of which began to drive mor conservatively. “I was holding my breath for 35 laps, 40 I think,” admitted Lance Stroll.
“I used up all my jokers in the first half of the race and I was like, ‘damn, I have to be pretty precise’. It’s tricky here with the nature of the track, high-speed corners, so 71 laps, it’s not easy here.”
While some drivers would like to see the gravel traps reinstated at the final two corners, Norris pointed out two potential drawbacks with this solution. It would pose problems for the Moto GP championship which also visits the circuit, he said, and noted drivers did collect some penalties for going wide at corners which have gravel.
“As drivers, we want to put gravel there like we have on the exit of turn four and the exit of turn six. But even there we get penalised because of the space of two centimetres to be over the white line and not touch the gravel. We get a penalty if you do that, even.
“For me, that’s silly. We should just be able to use the gravel as our limit. If you go on the gravel, we’ve messed up, we make a mistake, we get punished. You can’t do that everywhere because Moto GP races here, and the reason you can’t do is because of Moto GP in the last two corners. That’s where everyone got the majority of their limits.”
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However there was a general acceptance that what unfolded on Sunday had not reflected well on F1. Both Oscar Piastri and Zhou acknowledged the track limits fiasco required a reaction.
“It’s never fun to have to go through a race and work out who’s got penalties, and in qualifying crossing the line and then waiting for a minute to see if you’re in or out because of track limits,” said Piastri.
“I know it’s the same for everyone, but I think we can try and do things to make the spectacle a bit better for everyone. For us as drivers, everyone watching on TV.”
Zhou added: “We need to see what we can take action, maybe make the white line bigger or thicker. But unfortunately what we did on Friday was quite bad for the TV or for the fans watching because it looks not very professional.”
The pair were two of the ‘best behaved’ drivers in terms of laps deleted over the weekend. Rookie Piastri exceeding track limits four times, Zhou twice.
Among the others to dodge a penalty were Fernando Alonso, who went off just three times, while Russell only exceeded the limit once.
Alonso said his tally “shows it’s not too difficult” to stay within the track limits and joked he was “very proud”. However Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director Russell said he “doesn’t take any pride at all in that fact” after he went violation-free throughout the grand prix, while admitting “it’s so, so difficult to stay within” the Red Bull Ring’s track limits.
