The issue of track restrictions was a point of contention at the start of the 2021 F1 season, largely due to a number of known violations by Red Bulls Max Verstappen.
Verstappen had to give the lead back to Hamilton at the season opener in Bahrain after overtaking the Mercedes driver beyond the white lines at Turn 4, before the Dutchman also lost pole position and the fastest lap bonus point in Portugal due to abuse of the route limits.
The Dutchman demanded a “hard” rule for the route restrictions ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend. The matter was discussed by the teams during a meeting in Barcelona.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner, frustrated by the “brutal” decisions made against his team this season, confirmed that a working group is being formed to address the problem.
“Obviously it wasn’t a problem on this track because of the layout,” said Horner after the race on Sunday. “And I think that tells you something, doesn’t it?
“Why wasn’t it a problem here and it’s in other places? It won’t be a problem in the next race and probably not after.
On the subject of matching items
“There has been some healthy discussion, a working group is being formed,” he added.
“We just have to come up with something that is simple, clear and understandable for drivers, fans, team, you know, etc. It shouldn’t be that difficult.”
In the meantime, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto called for a “simpler” solution to the problem.
On the subject of matching items
“I think what we have to do is a little easier for the fans in terms of track restrictions,” he said. “At the end of the race or during the race, it’s never good for the show.
“I don’t think you are taking full liberty of whatever you take advantage of, whatever the case.
“So keep it simple, I think about what’s effective or not. I see mine from my side, I see other simple solutions that would be the best. “
However, McLaren’s Andreas Seidl warned that there would be “millions of violations” if F1 tried to monitor the limits at every corner using the white lines, adding that “no short term fix is available”.
F1 Race Director Michael Masi said: “Ideally we would like to have a hard limit everywhere.” He cautioned, however, that a “one size fits all” solution is difficult to achieve given the variety of tracks the championship visits during the season.
“The facts agree with the circuitry that it is an evolutionary process,” he said.
“There are some places where there are problems with the route limit one year, not the next and vice versa. So it’s a constant evolution that we work with each of the circuits. Obviously, from that perspective, it requires significant investment from them.
“In a way, it would be nice to have walls everywhere, as we’ll see in Monaco or Baku in a couple of weeks. But of course we drive on different routes all the time. If we look at everything for security reasons, we have to find the best balance between everything in every situation. And every corner is different, every racetrack is different. “
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