F1 French GP: Haas’ Mick Schumacher joins Max Verstappen and calls for Formula 1 talks on track limits to be held in front of the French Grand Prix, subsequent to framing various ‘senseless’ incidents. It was pretty evident that the track issue caused problems at the Austrian Grand Prix, forcing the issue to be raised by Schumacher. Follow Formula 1 and French GP LIVE updates with InsideSport.IN
After the Austrian Grand Prix, Schumacher believes this week’s race at Circuit Paul Ricard could pose even more difficulties. “It’s something to be discussed. Something to see if we can improve it for the next event because I think in Paul Ricard especially it will be a big concern,” Schumacher said.
There were 43 separate track limit infringements in Austria, as Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel and Zhou Guanyu were undeniably hit with five-second penalties. Sergio Perez additionally felt the power of the disciplines, after his best Q2 time was deleted, alongside all of his Q3 laps.
This saw the Red Bull star drop from fourth to thirteenth on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint Race. Following the discussions in Austria, Schumacher has raised the discussion on the issue. “It does look a bit silly if, for going a centimetre of the track, you get a penalty of five seconds, and most of the time when you go off you don’t gain any lap time, which is worse,” Schumacher added.
#AustrianGP 🇦🇹: Sergio Perez left the track without justifiable reason at Turn 8. For breach of these track limits the FIA has deleted his lap time on lap 17, and all of his lap times in Q3 ‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/LswqG7ONfF
— deni (@fiagirly) July 8, 2022
Schumacher has joined an extensive list of drivers unhappy with the cutoff points, with the reigning champion Max Verstappen having comparative considerations following the race in Austria. Verstappen portrayed the cutoff points conversation as a ‘joke’, and accepts the punishments are excessively cruel.
“I think the track limits debate this weekend has been a bit of a joke, not only in F1 but in F2, and F3. It’s easy to say from the outside that you have to just stay within the white lines. It sounds very easy, but it’s not. When you go that quickly through a corner and some of them are a bit blind, if you have a bit more understeer, tyres are wearing, it’s easy to just go over the white line, but do we actually gain time? ” Verstappen said.
“Maybe yes, maybe not. I don’t think we should have this value on one [millimetre] over [being] a penalty, or whatever. Then just add a wall or put some gravel back, like Turn 6 on the exit. I think that’s great because if there is gravel, you punish yourself if you go wide,” Verstappen added.
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