Brundle: Stewards were busier than drivers in Austria

The stewards were actually pretty busy policing the track limits at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, as not the slightest infringement was ignored, their actions proving divisive within the sport.

Martin Brundle claimed in his Sky Sports F1 column that "the Stewards were busier than the drivers at the weekend in Austria" before going on to dissect the decisions they made throughout the weekend on Spielberg.

"That's the thing with refereeing, there's usually an element of opinion and interpretation," Brundle said. "While the Stewards in Silverstone were generally forgiving and liberally applying the 'let them race' mantra regarding track limits and defensive tactics, a week later the letter of the regulations was being applied.

"To a large extent I fully support that and let me explain why," he went on. "There was much ridicule that 43 separate incidents of track limit violations were reported by the FIA in the race, with several five-second penalties applied.

"Corners 1, 9 and 10 were being observed (turn 8 where Perez was penalised in qualifying didn't get a mention) and so a 20-car field in a 71-lap race can pass through those three corners up to 4260 times, meaning 43 infringements is not exactly extreme.

"The well-used lines of 'if it wasn't faster they wouldn't be out there', and 'if there were barriers instead of lines they wouldn't be hitting them' still apply," the Briton pointed out.

"I totally sympathise with the drivers because peering out of the high cockpit sides of these very large cars, through the Halo and past those weird front wheel fairings at up to 150mph, it's not at all easy to determine if you are wholly out of view tyre contact patches are on or marginally over the white lines.

"But we must have a defined field of play and fairness, skill and accuracy should be rewarded providing we have consistency. If you can't keep your car fully on the track then leave a margin," Brundle maintained.

The stewards also dished out time penalties for George Russell after his first lap contact with Sergio Perez, and Pierre Gasly for tagging Sebastian Vettel later on, and while both incidents looked similar, Brundle agreed with the second one more.

"I thought Russell's penalty for contact with Sergio Perez on the opening lap in turn 4 was on the harsh side," he declared. "I did 10 laps in my 1992 Benetton F1 car over the weekend in Austria and it reminded me of just how unsighted, tight, cambered, and demanding the likes of turns 3, 4, 6, and 9 are at this track.

"At the start of the race laden with fuel and with front tyres not fully up to temperature you'll always understeer wide in turn 4 , and going around the outside there is a very high-risk strategy especially given the ever tightening exit.

"I thought George did his best to climb the inside kerb and give space, and there was further space to the outside for Sergio. Conversely it's a reasonable argument to say that the driver on the inside can always throttle off or even brake. But they won't," the former F1 driver explained.

"Forty-five minutes later in normalised race conditions Seb Vettel was tagged by Pierre Gasly in similar circumstances and I thought the penalty was fair enough. Seb couldn't have given more space to Pierre on the inside," the respected pundit reasoned.

Another incident that was looked into by the stewards at the end of the race, and that might have threatened the final result - thankfully it didn't - was when it seemed to be that some of the top three finishers' staff stepped into the parc ferme area instead of remaining behind the barriers, which was punished by monetary penalties.

"It's the same in parc ferme when the top three were reported to the Stewards post-race," Brundle reflected. "It means 'closed park' until such time as the cars are checked and the drivers are weighed to ensure legality.

"Nobody should be in there from a team," he insisted.

"It's readily accepted by absolutely everyone that if your car is a fraction wider, a fraction lighter, or the engine a fraction bigger than the regulations state then you will be summarily excluded," he said.

"If the FIA are having a phase of tightening up on all the other regulations then I support that, and saying we should simply ignore track limits because it's annoying makes no sense at all.

"So long as it's consistently applied, and F1 can surely afford the resource to have the tools to clearly define this critical aspect for fans and all," the nine-time F1 podium sitter concluded.