Lewis Hamilton has encouraged the FIA to learn from one key change to the Qatar Grand Prix circuit in an effort to combat controversial track limits penalties.
Mercedes’ Friday was boosted by late track limits penalties for McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. As a result, Hamilton will start Sunday’s race from third, behind team-mate George Russell and polesitter Max Verstappen.
Speaking after qualifying, Hamilton said that he believed exceeding the new kerbing introduced at the Lusail International Circuit was enough of a penalty itself, and that Lando Norris, who had qualified second, was deserving of that position.
“I think these new kerbs are great,” said the seven-time champion. “When I went round the track yesterday on the scooter, I thought the kerbs looked quite big.
“But I think they’re actually really good. When you go beyond the highest point of the kerb you lose time, so I don’t feel like at this track we need to have track limits.
“It’s something that the new stewards brought in a couple of years ago. Lando should be up here.
“I think we can take these kerbs as a good learning. We can take these kerbs to a bunch of other tracks.”
Hamilton’s comments offer a more tolerant view than those made by Yuki Tsunoda, who warned that the revised exit kerbs could prove to be “floor destroyers”.
During this year’s Austrian Grand Prix, the FIA was left to sort through over 1200 cases of possible track limit infringements of which 83 were noted and 15 time penalties applied accordingly.
The Briton has suggested that the solution used at the Qatar circuit could be implemented elsewhere to prevent a repeat of events.
“Obviously, MotoGP [which also visits Qatar] are fine with these kerbs and we can have these in like Austria, for example,” he added.
“When you go beyond them, you should be able to utilise as much as possible but when you go beyond them you lose time. So, it shouldn’t be the white line [that is] necessary, but anyway, it’s not for me to decide.”
Hamilton was left “not massively” impressed by his qualifying performance but is prepared to play the team game in Sunday’s race, with Mercedes eager to fend off Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
“It’s just great for the team to be on the first two rows,” he said. “Second and third is great for the team. A difficult beginning to the session, tricky conditions out there with the wind but ultimately it was a pretty average session for me.
“No one really did any long runs so, a bit of a first for all of us [going into the race]. I have no idea [what to expect].
“Just going to give it everything and try bag those points. It’s great that we are ahead of the Ferraris which is really, really key. I’ll try and back-up George.”
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