Tom wrote: Oh yeah I want to see more drivers hitting concrete walls for sure. *rubs thighs* You've clearly got my point absolutely bang on.
If it's necessary to expand further, the drivers are generally world class, and make mistakes infrequently as you'd expect.
When they do make a mistake, I cannot be alone in thinking that they should be hindered more significantly, and possibly having to deal with gravel / other crap on their tyres if they run off the track, risking significant loss of position and providing a shake-up of results, rather than just having the 5 second gap back to the next car narrowed to 3 seconds.
But what grates my nerves the most, is that to stop drivers taking the piss with track limits, they're having to intentionally deliver harsh warnings about it even before practice starts. It's like a foregone acceptance that the track is too forgiving, or less challenging than it should be to world class drivers.
To me, personally, if it's that easy to run off the track and not lose time, then the track has immediately lost some of its appeal.
And anyway, it takes one sudden monsoon, one river-across-the-track-ala-Brazil-2003, or one driver with a brake failure, or one driver with a sudden rear wing failure, and acres of tarmac run-off has already proven to be less effective at slowing a car down before hitting the wall, as the car just toboggans across a billiard-smooth flat surface.
With properly laid gravel, the increased friction at least helps scrub off some speed before impact.
There are still perhaps more tracks on the calendar which haven't succumbed to acres of tarmac than there are ones like Abu Dhabi, and this is a good thing. The classic circuits still have that challenging element...drop a wheel off here and you'll spin as it goes onto grass, run wide there and you're bouncing across gravel and possibly incurring a pit-stop.
But at a track like Abu Dhabi, where the commentators can say "Oh look and he runs wide there but rejoins immediately and only loses a second or so to fourth place behind him"....meh.
Do not like.
For the record, I did not say (and do not believe) that you share his opinions exactly. Only that you sounded like him. I was being faecetious.
My belief is that there is already enough provision in the rulebook to punish those who do not respect track limits without needing to further alter the circuits, especially in a way that could reduce safety.
Judging by the fact that the FIA had a word with all the drivers before this weekend's events began and told them that going over the white lines will not be tolerated, I hope that they are ready to use the power they have to ensure that drivers do not benefit or avoid losing time by cutting the track.
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