Between the racing lines | Formula 1 is complicated, confusing and constantly evolving. This story is part of our guide to help any fan – no matter how long they’ve been watching the sport or how they discovered it – navigate the pinnacle of motorsport.
A drinking game that Formula 1 fans shouldn’t play during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend: one shot for every track limit infraction.
Given last year’s Austrian GP weekend, this could be a real head-scratcher. Friday’s qualifying session alone saw 47 lap times deleted, a marginal increase on the 2022 race (43). Over the course of the grand prix, race control reviewed over 1,200 moments where a driver had potentially exceeded track limits. Yes, 1,200. In the end, they deleted 83 lap times, resulting in penalties for eight drivers. The final classification of the race didn’t come until nearly five hours after the chequered flag fell after a protest from Aston Martin claiming that many drivers had exceeded track limits and had not been penalised. And the team was right.
The limitations of tracking seem simple: stay within the white lines and you’re golden. But on some slopes, it can be trickier – as can monitoring and enforcing penalties for missteps.
“In racing, you have the dirty air from the car in front of you, which carries you even more out of the corner, making it even harder to stay,” Carlos Sainz said in Austria last year. “You no longer have full control over how the car reacts to the dirty air from the car in front of you.”
Rules and sanctions
Simply put, “exceeding track limits” occurs when all four tires cross the white line surrounding the racing surface.
In accordance with Article 33.3 of the Sporting Regulations, “Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason.
“Drivers will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it and, for the avoidance of doubt, all white lines defining the edges of the track are considered part of the track, but kerbs are not.
“If a car leaves the track, the driver may rejoin it, but this may only be done when it is safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage. At the sole discretion of the Clerk of the Course, a driver may be given the opportunity to fully return any advantage gained by leaving the track.”
Over the years, it has become a hotly debated topic due to the way track limits violations are policed during the various sessions. During qualifying, there is an automatic deletion of lap times. During a grand prix, drivers are given two warnings if they exceed the limits (and gain an advantage) before being shown a black and white flag on the third violation. Think of this as a warning flag because on the fourth violation, it is then sent back to the stewards for consideration of a penalty.
The penalty starts at five seconds, but it gets worse if the driver continues to exceed track limits. The fifth is a ten-second penalty, and then the clock resets. Take for example the total penalties handed to Esteban Ocon for track limits violations at last year’s Austrian Grand Prix. It was 30 seconds (two five-second penalties and two ten-second penalties) because he exceeded track limits ten times.
The 2023 Austrian GP was marred by a plethora of track limit violations. (Stiefel Udo ATPImages/Getty Images)
Austria’s ‘unprecedented situation’
After the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, the FIA revealed that race management was reviewing more than 1,200 cases of drivers potentially exceeding track limits, and race direction was in the process of reviewing them before Aston Martin does not file its protest regarding the provisional result of the race.
The track layout (long straights and corners where it is easy for drivers to go wide) and repeated violations reported by drivers leaving the track led to an “unprecedented situation” in which officials could not review all potential violations while the race was underway, an FIA spokesperson said at the time. The governing body gave the circuit recommendations on how to address the problem in the future: “a gravel trap at the exit of Turns 9 and 10.” Every violation occurred at those two corners during the 2023 Austrian GP.
The circuit has added a gravel trap, which will serve as a natural deterrent to breaking track limits. Additionally, the circuit has added a blue line to portions of the Red Bull Ring as a visual aid to help race control judge potential infractions. Traditionally, a white line is followed by a kerb, but now, some parts of the Red Bull Ring will show the white line, a blue line, and then the kerb. Some corners of the Red Bull Ring in Spain Barcelona-Catalonia Circuit I also had the visual aid.
Finally, there have been changes at the police level. The FIA has trained artificial intelligences to speed up the decision-making process regarding potential track limits violations. This began in Abu Dhabi last year, although the final decision is still made by a human. The training process is still ongoing but has been operational throughout the 2024 season and should help reduce the waiting time for decisions.
– Additional reporting by The AthleticThis is Luke Smith.
Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic
