Track limits, what a nuisance
In qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix – the first really important session of the very intense weekend at the Red Bull Ring – there were yet another pole position by Max Verstappen, the second and third positions of a rediscovered Ferrari and the surprising flash of McLaren by Lando Norris. And yet, inevitably, he takes all the ‘titles’ very thorny issue of track limits. Dozens of times were canceled between Q1, Q2 and Q3, forcing all the drivers to take to the track over and over again to make sure they didn’t let their grid position slip out of their hands.
Illustrious victims of this infinite sequence of interventions by the race stewards have been George Russell and Sergio Perezboth eliminated in Q2 after being removed – for a matter of millimeters – your best times. But the risk of not exceeding the cut wasn’t the only problem created by such strict track limits. In fact, on more than one occasion the stewards have first canceled certain times and then they ‘returned’ them, obviously judging the maneuver of the pilot in question to be regular. However, this delay in communications has led many to ‘waste’ additional sets of tires anyway.
Sainz, strategy ruined
This for example is what happened to Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver, third at the end of Q3, had risked being eliminated in the previous stage due to a time initially cancelled. After a few minutes, his time trial was judged regular, but Sainz was for safety already back on track with a set of new tyres. A not negligible detail in a weekend also conditioned by the presence of qualifying and the Sprint race on Saturday.
“In my opinion you shouldn’t be penalized if you don’t gain anything by going beyond the limits of the track – said the Spaniard at the press conference – but the problem for me in this session was the timing of the decisions. First they canceled a lap, then they gave it back to me, but by now I had already used a set of new tires”. In Q3 of tomorrow’s Shootout, therefore, Sainz will be found run out of soft tires: “If the weather conditions are mixed, then we have a chance – explained Sainz to journalists present on the Spielberg circuit – but if the session is dry, I will start Q3 with the tires already used, due to what happened with the track limits issue. This will put us at a disadvantage to those who have been saving up for a new set“.
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