Track Limits Ruin Austrian GP

This past weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix was… well, partly predictable (Red Bull, Verstappen), and partly frustratingly silly because of all the penalties for track limits. It’s the latter that kinda ruined the race for me. But then, what really ruined it for me was all the excuses and finger-pointing from many of the drivers.

According to a FIA statement, “During the Grand Prix, race control was tasked with reviewing well over 1200 instances where a car was reported as potentially leaving the track.”

“Reported”? I don’t know which is worse, the fact that officials need to officiate that many instances of rules abuse, or that the drivers were tattling on each other like a bunch of school kids. I know the teams were also asking the drivers to tell them when a competitor went off track, but it all just got a little too childish, and not something that I expect from what the FIA, Liberty Media, and the F1 community itself claims to be the highest level of our sport.

Seven-time World Champion, Lewis Hamilton: “(Lando Norris) was going off so much it was insane. As soon as he got past me he went off at least 10 times, so did (Sergio) Perez, he was Turn 9, Turn 10, didn’t get a penalty. That’s obviously… you should be able to go off and none of us get a penalty.”

Even Toto Wolff got fed up with Hamilton’s tattling and complaining, telling him to focus, and eventually, “Enough is enough” (sounding a bit like a mother scolding a 5-year-old). I don’t know whether his radio messages made any difference during the race, but afterwards the excuses continued. In Chris Medland’s article on Racer.com, Hamilton said “his track limits penalties in the Austrian Grand Prix were a result of a poor setup choice pre-race that hurt his car’s handling.”

“We knew we had a really bad rear end here, so we took out a lot of front wing so that we could go long,” Hamilton said. “Massively under did it, and I was like almost full lock round the last two corners – Turn 10 was just sliding and I couldn’t do anything about it. Through the stops we then added a lot of wing and the car started to slowly come back to at least getting round and staying on the track.”

“…I couldn’t do anything about it.” ???

Drive the car to its limit, no more, no less (that’s the job description for race drivers). If the car understeered because of the setup, then drive it to that limit. If there’d been a concrete wall – or, as Hamilton and many others have suggested, a gravel trap at the edge of the track – would he have gone beyond the track limits as much?

I’ve never heard Novak Djokovic complaining that the setup on his tennis racquet caused him to hit the ball just beyond the line too many times. When a NFL receiver steps out of bounds, he doesn’t blame the ball. Work with the limitations of your equipment during the race, make changes when you can, and drive within the rules.

Again, “I couldn’t do anything about it”? Apparently, Charles Leclerc could. And Fernando Alonso could, as he didn’t have a problem with track limits (based on Alonso’s qualifying results and race pace, his car was no better than Hamilton’s). Was this a case of the wily ol’ fox knowing when to drive to his car’s and the track’s limits, somehow having a feeling that others wouldn’t?

I’m not just picking on Hamilton here, because many other drivers exceeded the track limits so often that they got penalties, too. But a driver of Lewis’ level doesn’t need to make excuses and blame things that are within his control. Unfortunately, it takes away some of his shine.

I do agree that the way many circuits are designed encourages drivers to explore the edges of the rules. That’s a driver’s job, too. But, there are limits, even to that. And many circuits, like the Red Bull Ring, really should make changes to improve the racing. When officials have to review 1200 incidents, and the results are changed hours after the event, who’s really racing: the drivers or the officials?

Now, if the edges of tracks had moats filled with electrified alligators, I bet there wouldn’t be a need to have tennis linesmen making judgment calls in racing.