'Just put gravel down' - Albon questions F1’s track limit ruling at Imola

Alexander Albon believes gravel traps should be used to determine track limits at F1 circuits after it was a frequent issue for the Red Bull driver for qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Albon saw eight of his laps during practice and qualifying deleted for violating track limits.

The Thai driver was the only driver to have a lap chalked off in Q3, but his final effort was good enough to see him qualify sixth.

Albon questioned the need for track limits and said the FIA should use gravel to define them instead.

“Honestly, I don’t know why we’re changing different corners and different track limits,” Albon said. “Just put gravel and we’ll be fine.

“I’m sure people will comment that drivers need to respect [track limits] but we’re pushing out there and these cars are so well built that, for us, there is basically no risk or punishment for going too wide. It’s just pure lap time. The more you can get close to that white line you’ll just go faster and faster.

“It all comes more down to the circuits. If you think about, say, Nurburgring, that’s a great example of a good track with good exit kerbs and then gravel straight away.”

Despite enduring another difficult qualifying, Albon was content with his qualifying performance after ending the day 0.4s behind Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.

“It was an okay session and actually through qualifying I was just getting better and better,” Albon added. “Obviously I had that lap deleted in Q3. It’s that thing where you’re in your head and you’ve got to put it behind you and just focus on the next run. 

“But at the same time, you know that you want to do a lap as well. So it was kind of that feeling. But otherwise, it was okay.”