In the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, there was a barrage of notifications for exceeding track limits, leading to a few 5-second penalties, but they all but disappeared in the second half.
Did the pilots manage to measure the white lines that delimit the area they can use? Or perhaps the stewards stopped paying attention to the large number of warnings? In response, F1’s special commission appears to be already working on the idea of returning gravel to the outside of some corners.
With the regulations in hand, drivers can receive up to three warnings , the last of which is done by displaying the black and white flag, before a 5-second penalty is applied automatically, to be served in the race or will be added to the final time, depending on when the team and competitor are notified.
In Austria, the rules were the same as always. The sensors used by Race Management, buried in the asphalt and that control the passage of the four wheels of the single-seaters, have been used for a long time, but the particular configuration of the Red Bull Ring revealed a problem that has not been fully solved .
The regulation that pertains to the curbs, especially those in the outer areas of the track, has been the subject of study by the FIA for many years, and the organization has even created a specific working group that deals with this issue. .
Over the years, several lines of thought have appeared: there are those who want to use very aggressive curbs, considered dangerous by some, but also those who bet on gravel as an intermediate point or those who directly ask for paved run-offs.
Mick Schumacher examines a piano in Austria with Haas Chief Engineer Ayao Komatsu
In this scenario, there is also the problem of having to find a compromise that allows the circuits to host single-seater races but also other motorsport categories, such as motorcycling, without having to adapt the curbs for each style of vehicle, since it is a costly and time-consuming operation.
With the generalization of paved run-offs, many high curbs have been eliminated and replaced by less aggressive ones. This has caused drivers to use them more frequently, as the risk of damaging their cars by running over them has been drastically reduced.
A behavior that has also been amplified by the increasingly detailed information provided by telemetry and GPS data. These figures allow pilots to evaluate the trajectories practically to the millimeter, as well as to identify the line that will waste less time. The steps above the planes are considered in these measurements.
Precisely from these analyzes it can be deduced that the vibrations that can be caused by riding the single-seater over one of the curbs are compensated thanks to the greater speed at which the step is made. But you don’t have to analyze data to know this. Just look at the drivers: if they keep getting on curbs, it’s because they’re buying time.
Over time, the adaptation of circuits to emerging safety regulations has reduced the number of corners taken at high speeds. However, as was seen in Austria, there are still areas where the drivers try to go as many kilometers per hour as possible, taking advantage of the fastest line, making millimetric use of the curbs and touching the limit of what is allowed.
One of the reasons for the dozens of warnings sent to the drivers in Austria is that the visibility of the track boundary lines is not ideal from the position they are in the car. Also, the texture of both the lines and the edge of the curbs is not remarkable, so the driver does not realize that he is out of the circuit.
The use of higher curbs, which are noticeable in the hands of the drivers, and leave no doubt as to where the line separating the track from the outside area is, has led to them sometimes becoming trampolines for those who had made a mistake, endangering the driver and the rest of the grid.
Curb height or curb texture is debatable and debatable, but not over-the-limit warnings.
“It’s true that in certain circumstances it’s not easy to accept a penalty for stepping a few inches out of bounds,” commented a former F1 driver, “but that’s what happens in a lot of sports. Even in football sometimes the offside is a matter of centimeters, just like whether or not a goal is validated depending on the position of the ball in relation to the goal line,” he explained.
“There comes a point where you have to separate what can be done from what is prohibited, and that line should not be the subject of controversy by the drivers, the rules are clear. If during the verifications a car is 100 grams or 5 kilos underweight, it doesn’t matter, they are disqualified and nobody dares to say anything.”
There is no absolute solution , but one is being studied and could also be tested soon. Considering that high curbs are not adapted to the needs of motorcycles, there are those who have proposed placing a curb somewhat less wide than a single-seater, with gravel placed immediately after.
In this scenario, a driver could use much of the surface, knowing that going to the limit (which today triggers the track limit sensor) would put his outside wheels in the gravel.
There are also those who go all or nothing , asking that the white line be respected and that it can never be touched, not even with the outer tires. “This is what happens in the city,” explained the former Formula 1 driver, “there is a wall and you don’t touch it, and if you touch it you pay a price. Obviously the drivers would complain right away, but I think after two or three race weekends everything would be digested. As, after all, it has always been in Formula 1”.
