Max Verstappen critical of F1’s policing of track limits: ‘It’s been a bit of a joke’

Verstapp⛦en, who finished in second place at the Red Bull Ring, was one of many drivers warned by ༒the stewards for exceeding track limits.
There were 43 recorded cases across the 71-lap race in Austria, while a handful of drivers were hit with five-second pen𝐆alties for excessive abuse.
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A number of drivers were impacted in Friday’s qualifying, most nota🦄bly Sergio Perez, who had all of his Q🦋3 laps and final Q2 deleted after the FIA missed his initial offence in the second segment.
F1 has deployed a stricter policy with how it monitors track limits in 2022, headed by the two♍ new race directors, Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich.
Regardless💜 of whether a driver gains a lasting advantage or not, should someone put four wheels beyond the white line, then their lap is invalidated.
Asked for his view on the stewarding situation in F1, Verstappen said on Sunday in Austria: “Of course everyone has their own opinions about certain things, but like track limits, I think track limits debate this weekend has been a bit of a joke, not on🦩ly in F1 but in F2 and F3.
“It's easy to say from the outside, yeah, but you have to just st☂ay 💝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✅. And yeah, I don't think we should have this value on one mill over that's a penalty or whatever. Then 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.”

Verꦓstappen thinks the over-policing of track limits is ta🎉rnishing the sport’s image.
“So t⛎hese 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 thജese 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 gravels.
“These kind of things, I think it just doesn't look good for the sport as well and 🍒this is just one thingꦅ.”
“It’s a bit stupid”
La🎃ndo Norris also felt that the monitor♛ing of track limits went too far in Sunday’s race.
Norri🍌s was hit with a five-second penalty for it, which cost him in his battle wit🥃h Mick Schumacher for sixth.

“You can’t see the white lines, it’s just guessing and I’m obviously not good enough at guessing,🎐” Norris explained.
“Iꦛ think when I really had to be I could be, it’s just you’ve got to back off a bit, so it’s more about risk reward in ꧑a way.
“But even sometimes, like I got a warning from Turn 1 and it was just a complete mistake, I lost time, so when you look at it that way, I can say it’s a bit stupid. I’ve locked up, I’ve 🍷hit the exit kerb, I’ve lost like three or four-tenths. So it’s not like n꧅ot punishing me for the last corner where you just commit to running off and gaining an advantage.
“This was just me making mistakes. So I don’t feel like🎐 I s𒊎hould be punished for it.”

Schumacher reckons it could be a bigger📖 issue next time out at the Circuit Paul ꦇRicard, given its sizeable run-off areas.
“It does loo🙈k a bit silly if for going a centimetr𝓡e of track you get a penalty of five seconds, and most of the time when you go off you don’t gain any lap time, which is worse,” Schumacher said.
“It’s something to be discussed, something to see if we can improve it for the next event because I t♒hink in Paul Ricard especially it will be a big concern.”

With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased repor⛎ting.