On a day that witnessed 43 breaches of the track limits, the FIA insists its clampdown on the practice was fully justified.

Other than reliability, tyre deg and the chance of being hit by a rival, another factor drivers had to contend with during the Austrian Grand Prix was track limits.

Barely anyone escaped the attention of the stewards, who in total reported 43 breaches.

Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel, and Yuki Tsunoda all received 5s time penalties for repeated offences, while Lewis Hamilton was shown the black and white flag and Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen both had two breaches to their credit.

Ahead of the weekend, it was made clear to the drivers that, as has been the practice all season, the white lines define the edge of the track.

At the end of a race which threatened to be compromised by the sheer number of breaches, especially if one of the leaders was concerned, the FIA stood by the clampdown.

"The monitoring of track limits during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix has been consistent with all previous events this year," it said in a brief statement.

"At each circuit, the white line is used as the defined limit of the track, and this has been implemented following discussions with the drivers and teams to improve consistency and clarity for the competitors and fans.

"The number of penalties today is proportional to the number of infringements of Article 33.3 of the Sporting Regulations, with drivers during the race given two 'strikes' for crossing the white line with all four wheels, followed by a black and white flag for the third infringement, and referral to the stewards for each subsequent infringement."

The policing of such rules has come in for a lot of criticism in recent times, with drivers unhappy about the lack of consistency in the application of the rules, a factor that Grand Prix Drivers' Association director, George Russell putting down to the fact that there are now two race directors.

On Friday, such was his frustration that Sebastian Vettel stormed out of the drivers' briefing without permission, in itself a breach of the regulations which consequently earned him a suspended €25,000 fine.

Speaking at the post-race press conference, Verstappen was asked about Russell's comment, and the Dutchman used the track limits clampdown as an example of why drivers are unhappy.

"Of course everyone has their own opinions about certain things," he said, "but like track limits, I think track limits debate this weekend has been a bit of a joke. Not only in F1 but in F2 and F3.

"It's easy to say from the outside, yeah, but you have to just 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, if you have a bit more understeer, tyres are wearing, it's easy to just go over the white line.

"But do we actually gain time? Maybe yes, maybe not, and to be honest, there's only two or three corners where you can really just go a bit wider.

"I don't think we should have this value on one mill over that's a penalty or whatever. Just add a wall or put some gravel back where we... like Turn 6 on the exit. I think that's great because there is gravel, you punish yourself if you go wide.

"These are things where we have to look into how we can make it better because also for the stewards and just the people involved with checking these track limits, I mean it's almost impossible to check these kind of things because you need what... almost like one guy on one car the whole race to check the whole lap if he's not going outside of the white line, where on this track, at least, in some places, you get naturally penalised if you just you know go a bit wider and you touch the gravel.

"These kind of things, I think it just doesn't look good for the sport as well and this is just one thing. Then the other thing is racing incidents and stuff. Yeah for sure we can do better. I think we will work on it we'll try to make it better."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 13/07/2022 23:44

"@ Tardis40...AFAIK in order to incur a penalty the car must have all four wheels over the white line at the same time. What that means is that the driver is a minimum of 2 metres/6 feet or so beyond the track limit/white line!! Interesting to note that most drivers were able to keep within track limits' after' they received a couple of warnings. Did it actually reflect in their lap times? "

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2. Posted by Tardis40, 12/07/2022 17:41

"Must the car keep both wheels on the racing surface or is one good enough?"

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3. Posted by rambler, 12/07/2022 4:16

"F1 cars are supposed to be the pinnacle of automobile technology but most modern cars have some form of lane assist. Get rid of the crotch cam and put a camera on the right hand side of the roll hoop. Use the output of these cameras along with computer vision software to flag when the driver has crossed the white line.
I would have thought, given all the little wings that get knocked off the floors of F1 cars it would be better if they kept off the curbs. "

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4. Posted by Pavlo, 11/07/2022 22:16

"@Hector - I pay to see drivers and cars go as fast as they can within F1 rules. On contrary, I would be skimmed of my money if someone will suddenly use a shortcut between second straight and corners 6-7, which is technically open during the race and allows to score twice faster lap time.
As a person who tried driving racing car, I don’t see any issues driving within white lines."

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5. Posted by GreenFlag, 11/07/2022 21:33

"Many sports require the participants to play within the lines, like tennis, football, rugby. F1 drivers are supposed to have reasonable car control, you'd think they could keep a few centimeters of a 2m wide car on the correct side of the line."

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6. Posted by Mad Matt, 11/07/2022 14:53

"I want to see the drivers complete the laps as fast as possible within the white lines, as the rules state. That's the skill.

I don't want to see the referee when I watch a game of football but I do expect a throw-in to be given if the ball goes out of play.

I don't want to watch the umpire when I watch a game of cricket but I do expect an LBW to be given if the ball touches the batter's leg."

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7. Posted by Hector, 11/07/2022 13:17

"FIA got it wrong with the track limits. Let see, did you pay your ticket or TV Channel to see the fastest men and cars or did you pay to see the race director? If you answered the race director everything is ok. Otherwise, you are been skimmed of your money because those men and cars are not going as fast as they can. The tracks most be modify so nobody exceeds the track limits going as fast as he can on that particular corner. Thank You for reading"

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8. Posted by kenji, 11/07/2022 12:37

"Just to put another spin on it....a current F1 car is 2 metres wide so when a driver gets a penalty that means that he's put his car 2.01 mm over the white line! That's quite a distance that's actually allowed for discretionary car placement. They certainly don't get that allowance in Monaco yet they can compete successfully. If as one poster says ' there should be no room for human error', I think the aformentioned explanation allows for 2 metres of human error..or is it intentional in order to get a better lap in flagrant dieregard for the track limits?"

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9. Posted by kenji, 11/07/2022 12:19

"Just to put another perspective...an F1 car is 2 metres wide so when we talk about a car being over the track limit we are talking about some 2 metres 'outside' the white line. That means that drivers have a distance of 1.99metres in which to drift out without penalty! Rather changes the outlook somewhat when this aspect is taken into account."

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10. Posted by Superbird70, 11/07/2022 12:03

"It may be a 'blind' corner, but it's the same 'blind' corner 72 times. Nothing changed from the simulator, FP1, FP2, and Sprint race in terms of track limits."

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11. Posted by Burton, 11/07/2022 9:35

"Drivers are more than capable of doing it, as we see in Monaco, Singapore, etc every year. They're not passengers as Max V makes it seem with that quote."

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12. Posted by Spindoctor, 11/07/2022 8:47

"If we must have this superficially rigid enforcement, then there should be no room for human error - it should be fully automated. Personally I feel this increasing burden of not necessarily very rational "Rules" is more about Soap than Sport...."

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13. Posted by Pavlo, 11/07/2022 8:19

"I had a feeling that some drivers crossed the line and it was ignored. Therefore a question - is there any automatic system, or are they really have people watching cameras? The latter is not really a sustainable solution.
Ideally there would be sensors making this decision - even if not perfect, it's same for everyone.
And ideally would be applied to drivers forced off track as well. Just to avoid manipulations. Like gravel trap - same for everyone is fair :)"

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14. Posted by kenji, 11/07/2022 8:07

"This whole issue of track limits has been clarified AFAIK. The white lines are the definitive mark of the track outline/limits. You are either in or you are out. There can be no other guideline as it would then be self defeating and open to dispute. The FIA have cameras set up for the benefit of having evidence to guide them in their decision making. If these drivers are the best in the world then they are expected to be able to drive within these guidelines. Proof of that is drivers yesterday, after getting three warnings, were mostly able to improve their drive lines and avoid penalties. I think by memory, five time penalties were given out, of forty three warnings. That's proof that they can do it. Did they sacrifive lap times as a result? Who knows....If drivers want a higher level of certainty with decision making then they must accept the FIA's rulings on track limits."

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15. Posted by Mad Matt, 11/07/2022 8:01

"I've got no problem with the rules being enforced as long as it is consistent, so fine if it will be the same next race. Not every driver even got a warning so it is clearly possible to race between the white lines :-) I think the BTCC has also shown that it can be "automated" with pressure pads.

On the other hand I agree with Max's point that it males for better racing if there are more "natural" consequences to going wide, like grass or a gravel trap..... or a wall....."

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FIA stands by track limits penalties

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