The Grand Prix of Austria it ended with hugs and tears from those among us victories and superhuman performances, he found the ups and downs of the Red Bull Ring to be a rather fun and stimulating playing field. Many have tried everything, challenging themselves to the limit like tightrope walkers, suspended from an invisible line, as dangerous as the strip of gravel or grass surrounding the track. This invisible line, represented by track limits, it inevitably took something away from the competition, making it less authentic. The drivers also complained about this unsportsmanlike yardstick, both during the race and afterwards. “It's bullshit", He says Lewis Hamilton after being warned by the team for having reached the maximum limit of "going off track", if you can call those 2-3 centimeters beyond the white line that way. A road that the new direction of the FIAin F1, he took at the beginning of the season, But that is not convincing pilots that they feel cheated and what time they ask for a change of direction.
43 violations and penalties that distort the race
In Austria we were really struggling to follow the penalty situation between warnings and communications from the FIA. During the Grand Prix alone, the stewards reported 43 different ones violazioni of the runway limits. Norris, Zhou, gasly, Vettel have fallen, more than the three times allowed, into the trap of track limits, so much so accumulate penalties on penalty. Besides them, many risked getting a 5 second penalty, like Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton.
Everyone is on a razor's edge, forced to mentally construct the trajectory down to the millimeter to escape the very annoying sensors. All this on a car weighing almost 800 kg at more than 300 km/h, perhaps even with pouring. A theater of the absurd in which skill and talent had nothing to do. The same problem had already been highlighted during F2, another absurd race precisely because of the track limits.
Where is the consistency?
One of the objectives that we wanted to achieve with the single-seaters of the new era concerns the fact of make battles more exciting. With a compact center group, having now reached the halfway point of the calendar, we can say that this objective has partly been achieved. In Austria we saw some spectacular 5-way fights to say the least. But precisely for this reason, the decision of the FIA and the new race direction to keep the reins tighter when talking about track limits made everyone in the paddock turn up their noses.
“The track limits debate this weekend has been a bit of a joke, not only in F1 but also in F2 and F3. said the Red Bull driver Max Verstappen which continued. “It's easy to tell from the outside, yes, but you just have to stay within the white lines. It seems very easy, but it's not, because when you go through a corner that fast especially in the blind ones, you have a little more understeer, the tires wear out and it's easy to go over the white line. Furthermore, it doesn't necessarily mean you save time. To be honest, it's only two or three corners where you can go a little bit wider. At most you can add a wall or bring back some gravel but that's not good for this sport.”
Norris: You have to guess
An inconsistent thing too Lando Norris who claims to have lost about a second despite having exceeded the limits of the track. "You can't see the white line, cars are higher at eye level. In a way it's more about risk-reward. In Turn 1 I hit the sausage [curb], lost about a second – and then got track limits for it. I've been punished enough, because I lost a second.” When asked why it was so difficult to stay within the white lines, Norris explained that it was because they were not visible from the cockpit and it is mainly about “take a guess". Furthermore, according to him, the lack of consistency in setting the limits both in the first and last corner would have been a "stupid" move, which cost him P6.
It's called comparison
Although the FIA claims to have acted in accordance with the requests of the drivers who asked for uniformity regarding the track limits, they are still trying to find a point that everyone can agree on. Especially in view of the next races. “It's a point to analyze, to see if we can improve it for the next event, because I think especially at Paul Ricard it will be a big concern" says Mick Schumacher.
Source statements: Motorsport.com
