F1 News: FIA President Claims Circuits Will Lose Races If Track Limits Are Not Sorted

Mohammed Ben Sulayem won't mind deleting two circuits from the F1 calendar to avoid track limits.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said that a permanent solution needs to be brought to F1 venues like Losail and the Red Bull Ring to eliminate track limit problems. Otherwise, the sport must do away with the circuits. 

Apart from the hot climate struggle that caused major problems for several drivers, the Qatar GP weekend saw several other challenges. The major one was an imposition of track limits that rained penalties on drivers and caused a chaotic grid shuffling.

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Ben Sulayem is of the opinion that the drivers are not at fault. Instead, the root cause of the problem is the track itself, and the only solution that remains is modifying the tracks and the kerbs in a way that stops the drivers from going wide. If that is not an option, then the only thing left to do would be to delete the circuit from the F1 calendar. 

When asked what he was going to do about the track limits problem after the scene in Qatar, he told Motorsport.com:

"You're absolutely right about it, we had the same issue in Austria, it was 1200 [offences there]. 

"And I have to say, congratulations to the stewards because they spotted it. But is that the solution? No.

"The solution is to improve the track itself. I know some are resistant to it, but to tell you the truth, if they don't, there is no race. It is as simple as this. We can't afford this."

The Kerb Emergency

Not only that but, the design of the kerbs aggravated the problem further after a sidewall separation was spotted on the Pirelli tire, which forced cars to pit thrice during Sunday's race in Qatar. The FIA president suggested that tracks must come up with better kerb designs. Offering a few solutions, he said:

"We have to work on a solution.

"One of the solutions is to make it slippery when they go off. Nobody can stop the drivers except the drivers themselves.

"We can think of the height [of the kerbs]. Does it damage the cars? Or maybe there is a possibility of putting some gravel, but with gravel, we have to be very careful.

"How deep is the gravel? Because you don't want anyone to get stuck. And how big is the gravel? because you don't want the car to be damaged. It is a balance.

"But I believe now it's not a matter of: oh, do we do it? We have to do it. And we have to listen to the drivers mainly, to the feedback from them.

"I will have to make it urgently because it has to be implemented for next year. We cannot afford [for it to continue], especially where we see it all the time." 

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Is Expensive Technology The Answer?

Technology could be used to control track limits as well but currently, the FIA lacks the resources to access it and hence, needs the teams to assist in the process as per Ben Sulayem. He added:

"The use of technology should be there.

"It is being used in a lot of areas, but the FIA needs more resources to invest back into the sport.

"I'm not hiding here: we need more resources. I mean, it's a $20 billion operation here and we cannot run it on a shoestring.

"Our agreement has to be better [with the teams]. 

"You have to remember one thing: we own the championship. I represent the landlord, and we lease it. Our mission is different to Liberty but we are in the same boat.

"We should not be running this big responsibility with a shoestring. We are transparent.

"[We tell people] this is what it costs. People are bragging about how much each F1 team is worth, but the FIA should be free and have the resources to run it in the best way.

"Every time we are better, we make the teams better and we make the sport better."