F1's Track Limit saga

Where did F1 go wrong with Track Limits in Austria and how can it take Inspiration from MotoGP and develop a solution to the track limit policing issues it faced.

How the 2023 Austrian GP Revealed a serious problem in F1’s track limit system

This Sunday's Austrian GP saw multiple track limit violations by the drivers. The FIA estimated around 1200+ offenses, which the Race Control couldn't completely look over during the race period. This meant that the provisional race classification wasn't confirmed until 5 hours after Max Verstappen took the chequered flag to continue his dominant run of 5 race wins in a row.

The FIA penalized a total of 9 drivers, 8 of which were further penalized after the race ended, including Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries, and Yuki Tsunoda. Ocon received a whopping 30 seconds time penalty in total, for violating the track limits. This begs the question: why on earth were there so many track limit violations?

Track Limits in F1

Track limits are the white lines around the edge of a circuit. Article 33.3 of The Sporting Regulations states "any white lines defining the track edges are considered to be part of the track but the kerbs are not”, which means that if the car has all four wheels outside the white lines, it's a violation of the track limits. The first two times a driver breaches track limits, race control gives them a warning. A third infringement leads to the driver being shown the black-and-white flag, which essentially is a final warning. For four infringements, a five-second time penalty is added to the driver's time, while a fifth infringement adds a ten-second time penalty.

What went so wrong?

The Red Bull Ring track is notorious for track limits, which has been the case every year, not just in 2023. The track's aggressive elevation change makes it very difficult for the drivers to see the white line at the edge of the track, particularly in turns 9 and 10, where a lot of these offenses took place. However, prior to 2022, the FIA used to allow running wide onto the kerbs on some corners, which included turns 9 and 10 in Austria. Since 2022, the white line has been the definitive edge of the track, with no exceptions made for any corners.

The elevation change in T9 and 10, along with no exceptions to the white line rule, made going wide inevitable, resulting in 47 deleted laps in the Qualifying on Friday, and "well over 1200 instances where a car was reported as potentially leaving the track", as reported by the FIA. Due to the excessive amounts of offenses, a "reset" was allowed after the fifth infringement, restarting the count of violations, with the same penalties as stated above. A Bird's Eye View of Spielberg.

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MotoGP does a better job at track limits

In 2021, MotoGP race director Mike Webb announced that brand-new track limit detection sensors were installed for the new year. These pressure sensors made detecting track limits very fast and accurate, making the controversial task of penalizing for track limit violations much fairer and consistent.

Earlier, much like F1, MotoGP used to rely heavily on camera feeds to check if any track limits were violated. This system was fairly inconsistent and gave rise to various controversial decisions, both in MotoGP and Moto2. Sounds pretty similar to what F1 has faced several times over the years, especially when the title battle was heated up. With the use of these new sensors, such problems have been reduced massively, to the point that using cameras for checking track limit violations isn’t required on many occasions.

F1 needs to rethink their policing system

All of this fiasco points in one direction, there's something terribly wrong with F1's policing system for track limits. Despite being considered the 'pinnacle of Motorsports', F1 still heavily relies on camera feeds for detecting potential track limit violations, even though there are a few sensors on the track to detect these offenses. Turns 9 and 10, as well as turn 1, have sensors installed to detect any violations, but the stewards still rely on camera feed to confirm it.

The system that MotoGP currently uses to detect a track limit violation has been working perfectly since its implementation. Even football has been using its goal-line technology since 2012, to detect if the ball crossed the goal line or not, in close calls, and has been working excellently.

How F1 could ‘re-engineer’ their system

After the race, the FIA, the governing body of F1, recommended: “the circuit to add a gravel trap at the exit of Turns 9 and 10”. Although this solution won’t be suitable for other series that race here, particularly MotoGP - FIM requires asphalt runoff outside the Kerbs followed by a Gravel trap, and vice versa to what FIA suggested for F1. Karun Chandok expanded on the same on SkyF1's post-race podcast where he share.

A similar sentiment was shared by the race winner, Max Verstappen, who said
“For us putting gravel there is fine, but for a bike, it’s a bit different. So we need to think about maybe a different solution”. The two-time world champion suggested painting a wider white line. “I think we’ve already tried on a few tracks where we painted a bit of a wider white line, which I thought helped a bit because I think the white line in some places is quite narrow with the high speeds we are achieving in that particular corner. So this is maybe something we can look into.”

Another suggestion was from Jolyon Palmer, commentator for F1 TV and former F1 driver, who said, “I think the grass seems like a pretty good idea, it’s a sensible idea.” Williams’ Logan Sargeant, who also had to suffer a penalty, suggested a similar solution of adding “a strip of grass about a car’s width outside the corners.”

A better way to mitigate all chances of errors across all tracks is utilizing a similar system like MotoGP. F1 could place the pressure sensors on the white lines, as well as somewhere outside the track, such that when the car goes over the sensor on the outside, but not over the white line, a track limit violation could be detected. The width of the F1 car could be used as a rough estimate for the location of the sensors on the outside of the track. F1 and FIA could certainly come up with a more robust solution, and they need to, since relying heavily on camera feeds is definitely a slow and inconsistent system.

Track limits will certainly be one of the hot topics in the upcoming race weekend at Silverstone, a track that is equally prone to track limit violations, particularly at Copse and Stowe.