Austrian GP: Lando Norris and Max Verstappen slam ‘stupid’ track limit penalties after race director debate returns

There were a total of 43 abuses of track limit rules during Sunday’s Austrian GP, ​​while four drivers were handed five-second penalties; Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have criticized the decisions, while George Russell believes F1 should revert to a race director.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen called the onslaught of track limit penalties at the Austrian GP ‘stupid’ and ‘a bit of a joke’, while George Russell reopened the debate over F1’s race director calling for more consistency.

F1 has strict track limit rules for this year and in Sunday’s race there were a total of 43 infractions for crossing the white track line.

Norris, Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu and Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, all received five-second penalties for repeated abuse.

“You can’t see the white lines,” Norris, who finished eighth, told Sky Sports F1. “It’s just guessing and I’m obviously not good enough at guessing.

“But I got a warning from Turn 1 and it was just a total mistake. I lost time, so when you look at it that way I can say it’s a bit stupid.

Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player

Lewis Hamilton fumes over the team radio after being given a black and white flag for going over the track limits.

“I locked out, hit the exit curb, lost about three or four tenths. So it’s not like not punishing myself for the last corner where you just commit to running away and take advantage. it was just me making mistakes. so I don’t think I should be punished for that.

Top three Charles Leclerc, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were among many to be warned of the track limits, prompting angry reactions from the Mercedes driver who at one point said the rules were “BS”.

Verstappen admitted penalties were “not a good look for the sport”.

“I think the debate over track limits this weekend was a bit of a joke,” said the world champion and current title leader.

“It’s easy to say from the outside, ‘yes, but you just have to stay in the white lines.’ of them are a little blind, if you have a little more understeer, if the tires wear out, it’s easy to go over the white line, but do you really save time?

“I don’t think we should have that value over a millimeter above it’s a penalty or whatever. Then just add a wall or put some gravel back in. I think that’s great because there is gravel, you punish yourself if you stray.

“So those are things where we have to look at how we can improve it because also for the marshals and just the people involved in checking those track limits, it’s almost impossible to check those kinds of things because you almost need a guy on a car the whole race to check the whole lap if he doesn’t get off the white line.

“Things like that, I think it doesn’t look good for the sport.”

Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player

Ted Kravitz looks back on an epic race at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Russell wants race director as F1 debate reopens

The track limits penalties and comments from Norris and Verstappen follow Russell calling on F1 to abandon its current system of race director rotations.

After Michael Masi was dropped earlier this year for his handling of last season’s title decider, the sport switched to a rotation system with Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas refereeing the races.

But tension is mounting over the consistency of penalties in race battles and on Friday Sebastian Vettel was given a suspended fine for storming a drivers meeting early.

Russell, speaking in Austria on Saturday, said there was “no accountability” at the moment and called for more consistency due to “boundary decisions”.

Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player

The best of the action from an epic Austrian Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc took victory.

“We don’t want to inflict penalties left, right and centre, but there has to be an element of consistency somewhere and I think we have to look at the root cause of the problems,” he said.

“I agree that we have to stick with one race director.

“We need to have a bit more consistency with stewarding. We come to the next event and often the steward from the previous event is not there.

“So there’s no accountability, no explanations of decisions and we ask questions and it’s hard to get a straight answer because – I wouldn’t say blame but almost blame – is put on someone else who wasn’t there

“It’s tricky. Everyone has their own interpretations.”

Sunday’s race winner Leclerc agreed: “I think with one race director it might be a little easier to manage.”

Verstappen, however, said: “I don’t think it’s necessarily about a race director, I think it’s more about working with the drivers as opposed to just keeping your position and just being stubborn. .

“We want to make things better for everyone and it’s not like we’re fighting for ourselves. We have good conversations between the drivers and at the end of the day, more or less, on most things, we agree.”