Championship rivals Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have given their opinion on how to best deal with the current track limits issue, with 43 warnings having been awarded at the recent Austrian Grand Prix.
At the Red Bull Ring, four drivers were incredibly awarded five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits too many times during the race; they were also all given a point on their superlicence.
With the rules having been somewhat loose in 2021, new F1 race directors Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas have clamped down on a number of the areas which weren’t run by the book last year.
The main rule they’ve come down hard on is track limits, something which is seriously frustrating 2021 World Champion Verstappen, who wants to “advise” the directors on how to solve track limits, not “fight” them, which is currently happening.
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“As drivers, we always want to help and give our advice but nothing was heard,” said Verstappen.
“For me, that’s extremely frustrating. I don’t want to fight with them, I want to just advise them, but it seems like they don’t really care.
“They actually, for my feeling, look at us a bit like we are amateurs. I don’t think that’s correct.”
Leclerc wants to see the white lines which direct where the track limits are to be replaced by kerbs, with drivers being unable to see the lines at all times due to how low they sit in the cockpit.
Kerbs are also a controversial area at the moment, with the infamous sausage kerbs having caused a number of horrifying crashes.
Leclerc thinks kerbs are “the best” way to currently solve the problem, as drivers can “actually feel it”.
“I think the best probably, or me personally what I prefer, was the kerb, because the kerb you could actually feel it,” said Leclerc, as reported by GPFans.com.
“Sometimes last year we used the kerb as a reference for track limits and you can actually feel it on the steering wheel, and also when you are on the limit of the kerb you can also feel it.
“So it’s much easier to be very, very precise.
“With the white line we are so low…five centimetres out and you don’t really realise it as a driver. So it makes it tricky.”
Track limits aren’t the only area the race directors have decided to be strict on, with jewellery wearing being another one.
Rules on jewellery wearing by drivers have always existed; however, for as long as most can remember they haven’t been implemented.
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Drivers are now only allowed to wear wedding bands, something which was a problem for Sir Lewis Hamilton who has a number of piercings.
The seven-time World Champion was given a deadline to have removed all his pieces by, with the Brit seemingly having followed what he was instructed by the FIA.
The Mercedes F1 Team driver informed the media that some of his piercings would need to be “surgically removed” due to the location of them, which can be left to your imagination!