It is a little over 1200 violations that had been recorded on the Spielberg circuit in Austria for the 2023 Grand Prix. A huge number that forced the race stewards to review the recordings for several hours after the end of the Grand Prix. In total, eight drivers had received new sanctions for exceeding track limits. A chaos that did not go unnoticed by the circuit officials.
For the 2024 season, the organizers of the Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring wanted to address the issue by installing gravel traps at the exit of turns 9 and 10 of the circuit. The information was reported by “Parc Fermé” and has since been circulating on social media.
🚨 New gravel traps added to the last few corners in Austria, in hopes to avoid the whole track limits fiasco from last year.
📸: @ParcFer_me pic.twitter.com/XVLCwibKrj
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) June 25, 2024
« 🚨 New gravel traps have been added to the final turns in Austria, in the hope of avoiding last year’s track limits issue, reports RBR Daily.
The interest of such a procedure
Beyond a practical aspect for race commissioners, the addition of gravel traps deters drivers from making too drastic deviations. The few seconds gained by pushing the track limits will now be seconds lost due to the cars slowing down caused by these traps. Also used to slow down drivers during accidents, this solution seems to be the most effective for now.
Gravel can also cause damage to vehicles and tires: a real danger to maintaining performance during the Grand Prix or Sprint race. Enough to discourage drivers who would still like to try to gain time with track limits this year.
