After track violations at races last year, new F1 race directors Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas defined the track edge as the white line for this year’s races, and violations were penalized accordingly. Yesterday’s race in Austria found 43 separate track violations, one lap time was deleted and Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu were also given a five-second time penalty for exceeding three violations.
“The track boundaries debate this weekend was a bit of a joke, not just in F1, but also in F2 and F3,” reigning champion Max Verstappen said after the race. While Norris stated that the runway boundary rule should be applied equally and consistently for everyone, Mick Schumacher stated that the runway boundaries are a big problem and should be discussed.
After the race, the FIA recalled that the use of the white line as the track boundary “was implemented following discussions with drivers and teams to improve consistency and clarity for opponents and fans”.
