Drivers warned again over turn eight

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

F1 drivers have been given a further warning not to use the run-off at turn eight to gain an advantage during the Austrian Grand Prix.

Half of the drivers had at least one lap time deleted during qualifying after going off at the corner.

Ahead of today’s race they have been told if they do go off at the corner they must not gain a “lasting advantage”, as specified by the revised rules for this year.

“During the race, any driver leaving the track on the exit of turn 8 who appears to have gained a clear and lasting advantage by doing so, will be reported to the stewards,” said race director Charlie Whiting in a statement.

“We would not, for example, expect a driver who left the track on the exit of turn 8 to attempt to pass a driver in front of him into turn one.”

Repeat offenders will also be at risk of earning a penalty, Whiting confirmed:

“Furthermore, any drivers who repeatedly leave the track on the exit of turn eight will also be reported to the stewards.

“Drivers are reminded that if they leave the track they may re-join but only if they do so safely and without gaining any lasting advantage.”

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Austrian Grand Prix articles

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on “Drivers warned again over turn eight”

  1. “We would not, for example, expect a driver who left the track on the exit of turn 8 to attempt to pass a driver in front of him into turn one.”

    Very interesting.

    1. Makes total sense and well done Charlie for being clear about it. Good job from the officials this weekend.

      1. Indeed, sets out a clear rule essentially, and should hopefully stop people doing it.

  2. Can’t they just put a gravel trap there. ALL F1 TRACKS SHOULD HAVE GRAVEL TRAPS EVERYWHERE, apart from the black stuff anyway.

    1. So basically they should make all tracks work only for F1?

      There are a lot of other categories where gravel really isn’t good, Bike racers for instance prefer tarmac & gravel causes problems for GT/Touring/LMP cars that get stuck very easily & therefore requires longer yellow flags & in some cases more safety cars.
      Also gravel ofetn causes more punctures (Go watch Le amsn where gravel used to cause a lot of punctures)

      Not to mention that when we had gravel at turn 8 before it caused cars bounce around & in some cases take off, Hence why it was removed to begin with.

      The only reason people want gravel is because they obviously just want to see cars flipping over & over.

      1. People want leaving the track to be penalized. While I agree that tracks need to be safe for all sporting styles that race the course, the areas surrounding the track should have some sort of deterrent for any wheels leaving the track boundary. SNAPs (rumble strips) at minimum (as we know well how much that vibration can affect the cars). Don’t launch vehicles into the air, but keep them between the whites.

        Longer yellows? Safety cars? Part of racing. If the vehicle breaks in a way to send it off track, there is little to no chance of rejoining the race anyway. If the marshalls do their jobs, there won’t be gravel on track to cause punctures. If drivers don’t choose to use more than the dimensions of the track and get “beached” then either the track needs to be widened or drivers need to be smarter and plan moves better.

  3. Expect a few 5 second penalties this race.

  4. I thought the rules were pretty clear to begin with. You can’t go of the track to pass another driver. Wasn’t there an incident in valencia where a driver over took someone but had to give the place back because he had 4 wheels off the track? It was down a straight and the overtake was done well before the corner.

    From watching the practice, people who had all 4 wheels off at turn 8 ended up being completely screwed for turn 9. Some even went off and hit the nasty bump. It wouldn’t make sense to even attempt to overtake someone there, unless they are going slow due to breakdown (Due to pit rules, they can’t dive in again if they miss it) or there is an accident.

  5. Didn’t Rossberg have all 4 wheels beyond the line in q3? The from 2 where certainly beyond limits.

Comments are closed.