AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat says the ongoing discussions over track limits in Formula 1 “kills a lot of racing” and ruins great circuits.
Formula 1 has clamped down on track limits this year with several raised kerbs removed in order to minimise the risk of teams incurring greater costs through damaged components.
Officials have been monitoring track limits at grands prix this year and have issued advice to drivers prior to practice sessions.
At Portimao the rules were changed after practice, with the track limits redefined, and a similar situation has occurred at Imola regarding Turns 9 (Piratella) and 15 (Variante Alta).
“I think… oh Jesus, we don’t need these white lines, you just need old school gravel trap and go off and if you go off you just go off, without all this ‘cross white line’, ‘don’t cross white line’ bulls**t,” said Kvyat.
“It makes me quite upset because it kills a lot racing. And it just kills such a great track as well. That’s the problem.
“In Mugello there was never a problem with runoff, with track limits. There were gravel traps, simple as that.
“I think most of us would agree that this was the best solution, but unfortunately not on every track we can have that. So, we’ll need to probably look for a better solution.”
Red Bull’s Alexander Albon, who had several lap times deleted on Saturday, expressed frustration at the situation.
“I’m sure people will comment that drivers need to respect it, but we’re pushing out there and these cars are so well built that for us, it’s basically, there’s no risk or no punishment for going too wide, it’s just pure lap time,” he said.
“So the more you can get close to that white line, you can just go faster and faster.
“What’s annoying in some respects is not the inconsistency, but you’ve got different corners with different things.
“I know in the briefing for instance, there was a question raised, why are we doing a white line for Turn 9 and why do we not just keep it the same as the rest of the circuit.
“Things like that, it’s a bit like, why is that the case? Really, if you go past that jagged tooth, the green diamond kerbs, it’s slow, it’s really slow. You bottom out and you get pulled along the outside of the circuit. I think that’s a good enough punishment.
“I don’t think we need the white line to be the reason for it.
“Obviously I understand that they [the circuit owners] have got to take into consideration MotoGP and bikes, so I’m not one to direct anyone about how to do it.
“But it was, I guess for you guys as well, it’s a bit frustrating and scruffy to see all of these lap times being deleted.”
May as well get rid of corners, they are such a pain
The real problem seems to be that FIA do do not have a design/engineering/safety culture that has a real way to compare conflicting issues and make logical and consistent decisions.
All the circuit design components have predicable benefits and drawbacks. If they could be qualitatively of quantitatively measured with the likelihood of happening the balance could be debated more easily.
The large sausage kerbs damaged cars/drivers if the track limits were exceeded.
A manual or better automated track edge detection indicates drivers have to be more disciplined as the penalty is softer than before.
What is really crazy is making a rule (white line) and then relax it (kerbs) because some drivers can’t drive!!
But remember the reasons again for why gravel traps were removed as well. And distances to barriers hard or soft.
All of these factors should be decided together not one by one.
See Jules Bianchi Accident Panel Rec 6 !!
Never seen any action addressing it specifically or generaly.