Why track-limits rules are enraging F3 drivers
When 96 laptimes are deleted for track-limits offences on a European Formula 3 qualifying day, something clearly isn't right. But are drivers, the rules or the policing at fault?
For the second time in four race meetings this season, last weekend a teenaged British driver gave an unprovoked speech on something he was unhappy about during a post-race Formula 3 European Championship press conference.
While it was George Russell giving an eloquent and scathing attack on team orders at Paul Ricard, this time it was his mate Callum Ilott making an impassioned criticism of track-limits penalties at the Red Bull Ring.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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