Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, Red Bull Ring, 2023

Aston Martin protest Austrian Grand Prix result over track limits violations

2023 Austrian Grand Prix

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Aston Martin have submitted a protest over the results of the Austrian Grand Prix, claiming several cars were not penalised for exceeding track limits.

The stewards confirmed over 100 track limits violations occured during the race. Many of these were registered at the time and penalties for multiple infringements were handed down to seven different drivers.

However Aston Martin believe other drivers committed infringements which went unpunished.

A hearing will be held at 6:30pm local time. An Aston Martin representative has been summoned to attend.

The stewards added they have “become aware of the existence of a number of deleted laps (due to exceeding track limits) that were drawn to our attention after the receipt of the protest” from Aston Martin. They have asked race control to check that the correct penalties were applied for the deleted lap times that were registered.

Neither of Aston Martin’s drivers were penalised during the race and both finished inside the points positions. Fernando Alonso took sixth, four seconds behind Lando Norris. Lance Stroll took the final point in 10th place, less than a second and a half behind Pierre Gasly.

The Aston Martin pair would therefore stand to benefit from a time penalty for those drivers if the team believe they have identified an infringement they have committed which was overlooked during the race.

Teams have a half-hour window within which they can protest the provisional classification of a grand prix. The results were issued at 4:55pm local time.

Update: Hamilton, Sainz and six more penalised as Aston Martin succeed in protest

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2023 Austrian Grand Prix

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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...

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33 comments on “Aston Martin protest Austrian Grand Prix result over track limits violations”

  1. Sigh, as if there weren’t enough “infringements” already today! Well, I guess the tension is on for a few more hours while we wait to find out what Aston was protesting and whether they actually had made a good point.

  2. I love these rules. Get them on every track. These guys would not survive in COTA, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Funny how everyone can drive 78 laps of Monaco without touching the walls, but they can’t even drive on this track.

    1. @krichelle The current general rule already applies to all tracks & for a second season, but only more evident at Red Bull Ring than at most other tracks.

      1. It should be all corners and all tracks like in Codemasters F1 games. This would spice up the action in a better way.

        1. Rob (@standbyexp)
          2nd July 2023, 19:02

          It’s already all corners at all tracks.

    2. @krichelle The Monaco & ‘if there was a wall there’ argument in general isn’t a fair comparison in that drivers have good sight of the walls so it’s much easier to judge getting close to wall than it is a white line you don’t always have good visibility of.

      I remember years ago talking to a driver about track limits and he made the point that the problem when it’s just a white line is that it’s difficult to see with no feedback to let you know when you’ve gone too far.

      If there’s grass you feel when you’re going onto it and if there’s gravel you feel when your up against the edge of it so you know when you’ve gone too far and when you need to back off or turn more to stay on track.

      When it’s just a white line you don’t have that so it becomes much harder to judge as all you have to go by is vision and when your sitting so low in the cars with so little visibility it’s much harder to judge than it looks on TV.

      1. Sure but when they had big kerbs that damaged the cars, they still ran over them and then complained that their cars were damaged.

        The fact is, they’re not willing to go at 98% pace and make sure they stay on the track (like they do at Monaco). They go at 100% and hope to stay on the track. They leave no room for error so if the car steps out slightly, they’re off.

        Hamilton admitted he “couldn’t keep the car on the track” but that’s not because he didn’t know where the line was – it’s because he took out too much front wing and wasn’t willing to sacrifice pace to remain on the track.

      2. @gt-racer

        Looks like I am not the only one. I played F1 codemasters in cockpit cam for 4 years, and find it harder to keep within the track limits. Sometimes, I would be surprise that I got a warning when it looked like my wheels were on the limitl but when I watch the replay, my wheels go past the white lines significantly. Apparently, it is harder to maintain inside the track instead of avoiding the walls.

    3. yeah or more gravel JUST next to the kerbs. go wide and learn

  3. I quickly guessed what they were about, but I’m skeptical about how successful they could realistically be with this protest.

      1. The article with the result came at 19.18, they say hindsight is 20\20.

  4. F1 has become a joke with those silly track violation rules.

    1. OK, Bye then.

    2. The rules have not changed for decades. They are just enforcing them now. (finally)

      1. Bingo … enforcement, we hate that, correct? Let ’em run wide … makes the track longer … /s/, /s/, etc.

        1. I hope you enjoy your post-race position re-allocating. What a joke.

      2. They’re enforcing them– erratically. Norris was BLATANTLY over the line, as was Perez– neither got a black/white flag.

        1. Perez definitely got a black and white flag, I saw it appear on the screen.

  5. ? Only Three drivers did not have track violations at the end of the Gp: Max Verstappen, George Russel, and Zhou. What are Aston Martin trying to claim?

    1. Drivers can get multiple penalties for it, so maybe some ahead of them were close to getting another penalty.

  6. I’m pretty sure Perez should have been penalized but they’re weren’t messing with Red Bulll today.

    1. I know Hamilton does complain a lot when things are bad, but he sounded really serious about Perez on the radio. It sounded like as if he was talking behind doors with his team and not on the radio. I have rarely seen Hamilton with that insisting tone.

  7. I was wondering whether Verstappen made a mistake pitting for FL and not keeping his 20+ seconds advantage. Although, he finished more than 5 s ahead of Leclerc so most probably he cannot lose his win.

    1. I don’t think they could overturn the result. It’s easy (and I’d say accurate) for RB to say that they wouldn’t have pitted if they knew they had (or were close to getting) a penalty.

      1. True, and also verstappen didn’t go over the limit once.

  8. I’m guessing this is for Norris as Fernando finished less than 5s behind him.

    To be honest the only thing worse than applying these penalties during the race is applying then retrospectively. The result becomes totally meaningless to the casual fan.

    If track limits were a serious concern for the stewards, give one free strike and a drive through for any additional infringements. Giving multiple small penalties is a farce and makes the drivers look unrefined.

    1. Time penalties should be abolished. The worst penalty type to ever come to F1. They are handing them out like a croupier. The only acceptable time for a 5-10 second time penalty is if something happens in the last few laps and there is no time for another solution.

      1. What is your solution then?

        1. Since this is not about people overtaking by going off the track, but potentially gaining time, without penalties they can either let them run wide as much as they want (which used to happen) or put gravel and other deterrents.

  9. The gravel on the outside of the track should be extended to come right up to the edge of the kerb. That way, if drivers exceed track limits, it is not an advantage for them anyway and these unsatisfying penalties would not be required. I’m sure they would not go off track if this happens, and even if they did and a bit of gravel was brought onto it, I’m sure the drivers would be able to very easily negotiate the gravel without requiring a red flag.

  10. Great! Now more teams need to protest. Make a big legal mess of this. The bigger the better. It is the most effective way to make them change this.

  11. “Track Limits”? Go watch NASCAR in Chicago!

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