McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said that track limits need to be “policed consistently” following the Turn 4 incident involving Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen during the 2021 Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The policing of track limits at Turn 4 was the subject of much confusion across the race weekend, with the corner apparently monitored during qualifying but not the race.
However, it appeared the FIA and race stewards changed their mind midway through proceedings following a radio message from Red Bull to Verstappen informing the Dutchman to follow the example of Hamilton and run wide at the corner.
Shortly afterwards, both Hamilton and Verstappen were told to stop going wide at Turn 4, with the Red Bull driver then having to give a place back in the final laps for overtaking while off the track.
It has been estimated that Hamilton went wide 29 times before the track limits started to be enforced, and speaking after the race Seidl said that consistency was the key.
“It was pretty clear last year as to what the rules were,” said Seidl. “It was clarified for each track a bit differently.
“But purely from the sporting aspect between us and the competition side, as long as the ruling is clear for each track and each corner and it gets monitored consistently and policed consistently in the same way, I am fine with it.”
While Michael Masi has insisted that the rules were not changed during the race, Seidl said that the enforcement of track limits across the weekend was confusing.
“I need to double-check because my understanding was in qualifying they deleted the laps,” he added.
“In the race, because you are not gaining a time advantage, I thought it was a bit more relaxed the whole thing.
“Of course, if you gain an advantage in terms of position because you benefit from it in a fight, you have to give it back.
“But my understanding was that it is different to some other tracks where there is a count of three and then you get a flag or you get a penalty because each time it is a time advantage.”