FIA: Circuits Could Lose Their Place In F1 If Track Limits Issues Aren’t Fixed

Posted on October 13, 2023 | by Charley Williams If we were to dress up as anything this Halloween, it would be track limits. Possibly the only thing to scare absolutely everybody. You have two choices: Austria or Qatar ???? Track limits infringements have been a common theme between both races, but although Austria was somewhat crazier, it seems the recent Qatar GP may have been the final straw for the FIA President. He indicated to selected media that certain tracks could drop from the F1 calendar if a solution to track limits isn’t found. There were a total of 51 infringements during the Qatar GP last weekend, with four of the drivers picking up multiple time penalties for repeatedly exceeding track limits. Even during qualifying, lap times were being deleted! Oscar Piastri found out during his post-quali top-three interview – which he was only in because his teammate’s lap had been deleted – that his own lap was also invalid, dropping him down to 6th. At the Austrian GP earlier in the year, the FIA had to manually process and review over 1,200 track limit violations after the race, and we didn’t receive the final results until hours after it had finished. And yes, that was the race in which Esteban Ocon was given 30 seconds’ worth of penalties. Poor Estie. Because of those instances, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has stated the relevant venues could miss out in the future. He said: “We had the same issue in Austria [as Qatar], it was 1200 [offences]. “I have to say congratulations to the stewards because they spotted it. But is that the solution? No. The solution is to improve the track itself. “I know some are resistant to it, but to tell you the truth, if they don’t, there is no race. It’s as simple as this. We cannot afford this.” Several solutions have been thrown around since Austria, such as making the track slippery when drivers go off, adding gravel or increasing the height of the kerb – though, we saw in Qatar that pyramid kerbs obviously weren’t doing the Pirelli tyres any favours. It would be a shame to see circuits go for this reason!