F1 drivers speak on many escaping penalties in Turn 1 by using the run-off as seen in Mexico, with so discussion on bringing about any change.
Several drivers were left upset especially after Mexico when their F1 rivals were not penalised for leaving the track at Turn 1-2-3 section and gaining an advantage. The corner cutting resulted in damage too, but none were handed any sort of penalty, which irked a set of drivers.
They recalled moments of similar nature where the track always drivers to use run-off, while comparing with ones where the wall or barrier or even grass/gravel punishes anyone trying to use the run-off. The larger part of disappointment is lack of discussions for certain type of circuits.
Fernando Alonso was cheeky in his answer, noting that the FIA will finally take action when he will decide to cut a corner. Additionally, Lewis Hamilton recalled championship-deciding moves, which didn’t work in the favour of the driver innocent but helping the ones who potentially break the rule.
Here’s what some F1 drivers said –
Liam Lawson: “Honestly, I don’t think it’s a Turn 1 specific thing. I think it was an incident [in Mexico] where Carlos decided that he would cut the chicane without looking to his left. And he’s just turned sharply left, put 90 degrees of steer onto the left and I’m sitting right next to him. He’s hit me so hard he’s broken my wing, my floor and my side pod, put a hole in it. And I think at that point, I mean Turn 1 is slippery and you’re always trying to avoid cars. But at that point after looking into it afterwards he wasn’t really avoiding anything. I think he just decided to cut the chicane to avoid the chaos that was probably about to happen. But I think at that point you have to be more aware. Because I’m obviously leaving space for the corner and I’ve just got smashed into it. It’s the nature of these types of tracks that can be when you have sections like that. There’s loads of runoff in tracks nowadays in Formula 1. You have this kind of thing, you have loads of runoff and it gives us the option to take it.
“If you look at tracks like Japan and Imola and places like this, you don’t see that kind of thing, because if you go off the track you get punished. It’s the same with racing incidents, with overtakes, with track limits, overtaking and gaining an advantage, all this kind of stuff. It’s not going to happen when you have tracks that don’t have advantages off the track. And if they’re not there, we’re not going to take that risk as well, to take a big lunge or to try and stick it out on the outside of somebody. We’re not going to take that risk if we know we’re going to get punished. And it’s the type of thing that is just happening more and more now, because these tracks are just so open and have all this runoff and extra tarmac and stuff like this. We’re trying to extend white lines and put bollards and do all this kind of stuff. There just needs to be grass or gravel, like old school tracks, and then there’s no issues.”
Lewis Hamilton: “Not particularly. There isn’t any clarity and I think that’s probably part of the big issue, transparency and accountability. And also the secrecy that’s in the decision. I think it’s something that definitely needs to be tackled. There’s something that needs to be done probably in the background…yeah, I don’t they are aware of the weight of their decisions, they ultimately steer careers. It can decide also championships as you’ve seen in the past. So, yeah, some work needs to be done there.”
George Russell: “Yeah, I mean, I was very, very surprised to see, you know, those drivers get away without penalty. I think when you look at Monza, if you miss the chicane, you’ve got to go through the polystyrene blocks and you lose a lot of time. I think the only solution, unless you were to just gravel that whole section, would be, I personally don’t like that corner at all. I don’t think it’s good for racing. Turn 2 and Turn 3, there’s only one single racing line, so you can’t battle into Turn 1 and then continue the battle down to Turn 4. As you can at a circuit like Bahrain, as an example, when you can cut back on somebody and you fight down to turn four. There’s no track limits issues. With a race start, as it’s a hairpin, you will never cut the corner. So we actually briefly spoke about it before the race weekend. I personally think that the corner in Mexico just needs to change entirely. I think we have no idea [how or what].”
Fernando Alonso: “Do it myself. When I do myself. I try many times in Sochi to do the same thing, and raise the point that why we don’t do the corner in Sochi and why we do it in Baku or in Monaco, in St. Devote, in the first corner in Monaco, there is never any problem. We all go through that corner where there is a wall, and then everyone was cutting, and then one year I just don’t brake for Turn 1, I was P3 at the exit of the corner, and for the following year it was not allowed. So yeah, it will be for 2027, I guess, because if I do it in 2026, they will only change Mexico for 2027.”
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