Wolff calls for end to track limits

Toto Wolff has added his voice to those drivers and team managers calling for a relaxation of penalties for exceeding track limits, saying that the inconsistent handling of the issue in recent months has become confusing for all concerned, and boring for fans.

"We are having a million miles of run-off areas. It becomes less and less spectacular and we wonder why audiences are having less interest in what we do," the Mercedes boss told Motorsport.com this week. "The tarmac run-off is so boring anyway."

Wolff said that he was of the opinion that the drivers should be able to go wherever they wanted in order to find the quickest racing line, restricted only by the natural limits and hazards of the circuit itself.

"If you go off the track, you should be either in the wall or the gravel bed," he said. "If it is tarmac, let them take the quickest line. What is the difference?

"This is a six-kilometre track and two centimetres should not be changing that," Wolff pointed out. "Let's leave the drivers alone and let them drive."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has recently voiced similar feelings on the question of track limits. But Wolff's view is not universally shared, with racing director Charlie Whiting very much of the view that track limits need to be set and enforced at each Grand Prix on safety grounds.

"If it is somewhere really unsafe because we are coming too close to the barriers or when you rejoin you are putting others in danger, then okay, look at the specifics of that one corner," Wolff conceded. "If there’s a problem with run-off areas, then make a big kerb, because nobody is gonna go on the kerb.

"Charlie’s philosophy is a clear one: we need to be enforcing track limits," he added. "But this is racing, we should be balls-out out there, flat-out. If the fastest line takes you over a kerb so that sparks fly and cars are unstable, this is what we want."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.