Run Off-Areas

[Ninad13]

Frankly speaking, I do not like to see so many run off areas and drivers cutting chicane too often. Now a days, drivers take maximum risk without any fear. Because they know if they make any mistake there will be no serious punishment, i.e. they know, they have nothing to lose.

In olden days, there were no run off areas, this meant only drivers who had courage and skill to overtake would attempt an overtaking move. We must all know that drivers like Fangio, Senna, Prost and Schumcher raced on real tracks and not on artificial tracks like we have now. There were no run offs then, and any mistake would mean they ended up in gravel or grass or wall.

I think FIA should make changes to all modern tracks and run off to be replaced with gravel/grass. That is the only way to know who is the better driver.

If we do not get proper racing tracks how will we ever compare drivers like Vettel/Hamilton to great drivers like Senna/Schumacher.
(Simple example- This year when it started to rain at Spa 2 laps before finish as Kimi and Lewis approached Pouhon both of them ran wide and took run off area for their aid, in olden days there was gravel there. Any such mistake then would have meant they were out of race, at that very moment.)

Today I was listening to a podcast, and they made a point saying that. Now a days drivers purposely brake late knowing the fact that they have noting to lose if they do not make the curve.

I completely hate the idea of run off areas on track. Anyone else agree with me.

 

[Brogan]

I would agree with those points to a certain extent.

Knowing there is a low risk of coming to an ignominious end will result in drivers going past the limit safe in the knowledge that they can use the escape routes.
If more gravel traps were introduced then I suspect we'd see 2 things.

More drivers retiring from GP's due to getting beached in the gravel.
More overtaking at corners as the more cautious drivers brake earlier thereby allowing those willing to take more risk to outbrake them.

 

[Croydon Bob]

I completely hate the idea of run off areas on track. Anyone else agree with me.

Not really...

I suspect that it wouldn't create more overtaking as Brogan suggests, but would discourage drivers from trying to overtake knowing that a small mistake will lead to them being in a wall or stranded in deep gravel. We'd also see the idiot-dive-up-the-inside lunge, that Coulthard and others love to do, wiping out the innocent party as they are pushed wide, but not always the guilty party. Also more safety car periods as broken cars sit on chicanes. I could be wrong though...

I'd also point out that as Schumacher mainly raced in the post-Senna chicane era I don't think it was really much different to now. I accept that run-offs are on the increase but Hockenheim, Monza, etc, had chicane run-offs in the 1980s. So I think MS's experience was somewhere further from the Senna/Prost era and closer to a driver starting out in F1 this year specifically in terms of run-offs.

 

[Ninad13]

I completely hate the idea of run off areas on track. Anyone else agree with me.

Not really...

I suspect that it wouldn't create more overtaking as Brogan suggests, but would discourage drivers from trying to overtake knowing that a small mistake will lead to them being in a wall or stranded in deep gravel.

If drivers want to progress up the grid then they will have take such risks, or else they might as well stay in same place entire race.
Many past drivers had to take lot of risks to make an move...........

 

[GeoffP]

I think run-off areas should be reviewed, as per DC's interview, the 1st chicane at spa, you have to weave through a bunch of barriers if you miss the corner costing you more time than taking the corner more slowly.

This is a great scenario where a novel solution has provided the safety everyone wants whilst allowing the driver to test their limits with relative impunity, but as DC says, not all corners lead them to such a neat solution.

I believe there is only a solution in evolution, as new tracks, or modifications are approved, there should be a safe but limiting opportunity to escape from the corner in the event of misjudgement or unforeseen events, and therefore the plan for the corner should incorporate this solution.

My understanding as to why there has been the reduction in gravel traps etc. is to minimise the occurrence of cars getting bogged down in dangerous positions neccessitating safety cars or constant waved yellows through the race.

Certainly these run-off areas are open to abuse, but whatever alternatives that are employed should not cause an impact to the race of those not involved, and yet should be safe enough to encourage the racers to find their limits, hence the evolutionary approach.