Alexander Wurz believes drivers in Formula 1 should be able to stay within track limits after the host of penalties at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Several penalties were handed out during the race and even more afterwards following a protest by Aston Martin which saw the order shaken up in the final standings. Esteban Ocon was hit worst of all with 30 seconds worth of penalties over the course of the race.
Wurz believes while it is easy to step over the limit at Turn 9 and Turn 10 in particular, the best drivers in the world should be able to keep within the boundaries on enough occasions to avoid penalties.
“If someone is being paid millions to drive, you should be able to assume that they will manage to stay between the white lines,” Wurz said, as quoted by Motorsport Magazin.
“We simply have to respect what the race director does one hundred per cent. And once the culture settles in our heads, we might be happier with it anyway.
“If you see that the curb or some gravel is putting it across, then everyone understands it immediately.
“Then we commentators scream, ‘Oh, he’s making a mistake’. I don’t want to scream: ‘Ah, if it weren’t for the track limit’.
“It’s really all about how we want to sell ourselves. But I see it like you, we don’t need to make an elephant out of a mosquito.”
How to fix the problem
Gravel or grass on the edge of the track is the obvious solution here but the Red Bull Ring seems to think that will cause issues for MotoGP. Let’s not forget, though, that MotoGP goes to Jerez every year with almost no tarmac runoff and you never hear the riders complaining.
If having gravel and grass near the track is a problem then maybe the discussions have to be had between F1 and MotoGP where they start going to different tracks rather than the same.
In the current motorsport climate, F1 will win out over MotoGP in the vast majority of markets and tracks so it won’t be a problem for the world’s premier motorsport if that becomes the case.
Where is the next F1 2023 race?
With the F1 circus finished in Austria, we move on to the 2023 British Grand Prix which will be held at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, England over the weekend of July 7-9.
