Why track-limits rules are enraging F3 drivers

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.

Press-conference host Rene de Boer usually requests the top three drivers to "tell us about your race, please". Ilott, who had just finished second to Lance Stroll, replied: "It wasn't a race. It was more of a qualifying session, just trying to stay between the lines, and that was that.

"It's good that they're controlling it, but you're at 85 per cent - that makes it boring.

"I got a warning for track limits for being that much over [he held up thumb and forefinger very close]. It's good that they're accurate but... come on!"

Track-limits penalties have plagued motorsport over the past few years, ever since Formula 1 circuits began laying swathes of asphalt for miles around each corner.

Different officials in different series deal with it in different ways, and that's before you factor the nature of the cars and the competitors into the equation.

F3's Red Bull Ring round came just a month after the Hungaroring, another circuit where track limits are an issue. In Hungary, the stewards' panel - including Emanuele Pirro - wisely opted for a literal interpretation of the rules in qualifying, resulting in the deletion of a raft of times. Everyone knew where they stood.

In the races they adopted a common-sense approach, whereby drivers would only be penalised for track-limits if they gained an advantage.

In fact, arguably even this didn't happen: Maxi Gunther went off track to his advantage in his fights with Joel Eriksson and Alessio Lorandi in race one (respectively at 32:18 and 39:22 in this video of this race), yet avoided any penalty; similarly, in the opening round at Paul Ricard, Lorandi had gone off the road numerous times during one of the races, again without penalty.

At the Red Bull Ring, the officials - again including Pirro - adopted a Hungary-style stance in qualifying, with 96 laps deleted.

But then they got tough in the races too, with what amounted to a three-strikes-and-you're-out approach - these were punished with post-race time additions or drive-through penalties.

That sounds fair enough, until you consider that this seemed to be applied however severe the transgression, ie someone a few millimetres off course was treated the same as someone who ran several metres wide.

Also, the Red Bull Ring has been resurfaced recently, this being the first big meeting on the new asphalt. As part of the work, sausage kerbs have been installed to the extent that it's usually slower to run wide - as these kerbs unbalance the car - than to stay within track limits.

"The problem here is it's meant for F1, and the cars are probably a bit wider," continued Ilott. "It's a bit annoying and that means that F3 [and other formulas] should be approached a little bit differently."

You can see what Ilott means from the two pictures here, the head-on shot showing Turn 1 from 2014, with clear asphalt on the outside, the rear-view shot one of Ilott exiting the same turn last weekend.

The other aspect that annoyed the penalised drivers was that, with the deluge of paperwork for officials, they couldn't tell them at which corner or on which lap they had transgressed.

As a parent of one driver exclaimed: "How can you have a judge of fact when there are no facts?"

I spoke to Ilott's team boss Frits van Amersfoort after his man had been hit with a five-second track-limits time penalty in race two, demoting him from second to fourth in the results.

"We clearly have a problem racing with track limits," said the Dutchman, "but you can't take away the psychological effect [of the asphalt runoffs] on the driver in the car.

"If you have a one-metre-wide pavement over a valley, that would give you the same psychological effect as these circuits do.

"Everybody in race control, including the stewards, must rethink their approach in this matter, but also the track builders must take a different approach.

"This is a technological sport and there must be technological solutions, although they might be expensive - after all, now in England you have the technology to prove that your third goal against West Germany in 1966 was a goal!"

Even so, it was notable that some frontrunning drivers did an excellent job of staying within track limits.

Lance Stroll seems to be the master of being totally unflustered at this point of the season, while Russell - who lost a Formula Renault ALPS pole at the Austrian circuit in 2014 when he was pinged for track limits - said that the memory of this "cost me a little bit in first qualifying".

Russell, who followed Ilott through most of the race in which Ilott was penalised, remarked: "The FIA is doing the right thing with being strict - it got a bit ridiculous at times last year.

"But it is a fine line and he [Ilott] didn't seem that much over, but if you're over you're over and if they're going to clamp down it's the right decision.

"But I don't understand why these tracks have to change to make it so tough for the drivers, and I'm not even sure that with the sausage kerbs it makes the tracks safer.

"If you have a gravel trap instead, the rules are pretty simple..."

Ilott, too, when asked in the press conference what his solution would be, suggested gravel or a kerbs-grass-asphalt combination.

In the meantime, coming up in just over a month's time are the GP2 and GP3 races at the Red Bull Ring. In other words, we're talking about a bunch of drivers and machinery not far removed from F3, so will these races be marred by post-race penalties or in-race drive-throughs?

Possibly, but bear in mind that the newness of the asphalt possibly played some part in laptimes descending significantly - making for unpredictable corner-entry speeds - over the weekend; you expect races to be slower than qualifying, yet the fastest race lap in F3 was 1.1 seconds quicker than the first-race pole. Partially due to this, Ilott added that it was difficult to predict where the car would end up when the driver committed on entry.

Secondly, F3 has to run to the governing body's rules as an FIA championship, leaving little room for manoeuvre. Certainly it was notable that track limits went out of the window in the bill-sharing DTM and Carrera Cup, which run to the German federation's rules and featured some apexing halfway to Klagenfurt.

As Harry Tincknell, acting as driver coach to Harrison Newey, observed: "A lot of these guys want to get into the DTM - and there don't seem to be any track limits there."

Newey himself, after a track-limits drive-through cost him points in the finale, frustratedly sighed: "This is ruining the championship," but on the other hand you've got squeaky-clean Stroll saying: "The stewards are very hot on track limits, which they should be - it's a very good rule."

What we probably need, as with so many situations, is a common-sense approach overriding black-and-white rules.

For instance, Ilott said he got a warning after making a mistake and running wide at the final corner, allowing Russell to get a run and briefly pass him into Turn 1. No advantage gained.

He also claimed to have received a warning after taking a precautionary run wide at Turn 1 in the final-race restart, because he'd seen Niko Kari locking his brakes on the inside behind him as the Finn defended third place. A safety manoeuvre, and again no advantage gained.

Ironically, in doing this he was transgressing rules introduced for safety, but there has to be a balance between keeping discipline and allowing a race to flow - and that goes for any race, whether it be F1, F3, the World Touring Car Championship or World Endurance Championship (to name the main FIA series).

"Safety is number one in this sport, although sacrificing racing for safety has its limits," added van Amersfoort.

"Drivers are committed, and on circuits like this you're committed even more, and if you're not committed you're slower.

"It's a problem for racing, this area, and there hasn't been a solution for it - yet."