Track limits chaos made F1 drivers ‘look like amateurs’ - Verstappen

A total of 47 lap times were deleted throughout the hour-long qualifying session on Friday afternoon as almost all the drivers were penalised for running too wide at Turns nine and 10. 

Reigning world champion Verstappen had lap times deleted through the first two sessions, while a trio of infringements in Q2 has left Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez only 15th on the grid. 

Although Verstappen acknowledged the Red Bull Ring is “one of the worst tracks” on the calendar for track limits, he said it was not a good look for F1. 

“It’s super hard to judge around here,” he said. “You have all the compressions as well, so if you hit it slightly wrong the car drops away from you or understeers, and then it’s super easy to go over the white line.

“I think today looked very silly. It almost looked like we were amateurs out there with the amount of lap times that were getting deleted. 

“Some of them were so marginal, and when it’s marginal it’s impossible to judge whether it’s out or in and they were still getting deleted. 

“So I don’t think it was a good look today. Of course people can say ‘just stay within the white lines’. Well, if it was that easy you can take my car and try it, but you probably wouldn’t even get up to speed in time.”

But the Dutchman admitted there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, given F1 shares the venue with MotoGP.

“It is super tricky and I think today showed that it’s not easy to have a clear rule about it,” he added. 

“On some tracks it works really well but on some tracks, you might need something different because a lot of the tracks we share with MotoGP and bike championships. Of course they want something else to what we would like. 

“For us putting gravel [outside the kerbs] is fine but for a bike it’s bit different. So we need to think about different solutions.”

Asked whether he felt it was down to luck more than judgement, Verstappen said: “I mean if you saw the amount of lap times getting deleted clearly it’s not that easy and I don’t think we are all idiots out there. 

“Normally we are quite good at judging where the limit is. But with this layout and the way the tyres operate, it is just very difficult. 

“Most tracks I think it is fine but some tracks we might need to look into it, but I have no real answers for it.

“We’ve already tried on a few tracks to paint a bit of a wider white line, which I thought helped a bit because the white line is quite narrow with the high speeds we are achieving in that particular corner. 

“So this is maybe something we can look into.”

Charles Leclerc, who was one of just two drivers who were not pinged for track limits, said: “From where we are, so low in the car, we cannot see anything. 

“I think the helmet cam is very representative of what we are seeing and we are not seeing at all the white lines.

“Hopefully in the future in tracks like this, we can have a bit more margin and they understand that from the car it is impossible to judge.”

Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz added: “I think there is the issue of visibility where we don’t see where our tyres are, so it makes it very difficult to judge whether we are in or out. 

“We have the issue also that we don’t feel the white line. At least if we could feel the white line, if we are on top of it or not, that could also help us with judgement. 

“It is a very particular track for sure, but there are corners like Turn 1, Turn 4, and Turn 6 where I got flagged also where there is a natural limit with the kerb and the gravel.

“If you are two centimetres on the gravel or on the kerb you are losing lap time but still we get penalised for track limits, which doesn’t make much sense because we are not gaining an advantage.”