'Come Up With Something Different': Verstappen Urges FIA To Change Track Limit Rules

Friday, 27 October 2023 at 23:30

Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen urged FIA to come up with better solutions to track limits after the deletion of his pole position time on Friday during the 2023 United States Grand Prix weekend.

Verstappen could have achieved another clean sweep (winning all qualifying sessions and races) during the weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

The Flying Dutchman won the Sprint Shootout, Sprint race, and even the race on Sunday, where he started from sixth place due to lap time deletion in the final part of the qualifying on Friday.

The three-time World Champion tried to explain it is not easy to judge where the track limits are based on a thin white line at such high speeds as F1 drivers are doing.

"I do think that the kerbs are a bit more easy to judge in general, especially in the very fast corners. In the very low speed, I think the white line hasn't been a massive issue but in some corners judging on such a small white line is tough and yesterday, of course, it caught me out."

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Verstappen got caught out by going outside the white line on the last corner of the track in Austin. As he explained, drivers don't do this on purpose.

"I do feel that we need to come up with something different because it is tricky. You don't make these kinds of mistakes, of course, on purpose."

A temporary solution introduced in both Qatar and Austin was the double white line in some corners to make it easier for drivers to judge.

"I think today with that double, kind of, white line, that already helped a bit, but we'll keep talking to the FIA to see what we can do."

It is not the first time that track limits have been races as an issue this season. A similar problem happens often at Red Bull Ring and some other circuits as well.

Multiple F1 experts came with different suggestions. One of the examples would be putting a gravel trap right behind the curbs, which would slow drivers down and prevent them from risking going too wide.