At the Gran Premio Lenovo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, a press conference with MotoGP race director Mike Webb took place on Saturday to clarify the regulations regarding the route limits.
In addition to answering a number of media questions about Zoom, Webb summarized the rules of the FIM MotoGP World Championship and clarified a number of key points.
A summary of these rules and how they are enforced is provided below.
What are route limit violations?
Route boundary violations exist when a driver crosses the route limits and possibly gains an advantage. Curbs (except double curbs) are part of the route. Double curbs and any areas painted green that connect to and outside of curbs are both considered outside the boundaries of the route.
Exceeding the course limit is recorded if both tires are out of the course at the same time. Similar to tennis, every contact with the line is considered “in”. Only if both tires are completely outside the track limit will this be considered a violation.
Who will determine if a driver has committed an infringement?
Decisions about route limits and all other penalties are the sole responsibility of the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel. Decisions about route limits are final and there is no possibility of protest or appeal. Violations of the distance limit are confirmed by video and the stewards must have a clear picture in order to be able to issue a penalty.
The road boundaries are monitored by dedicated cameras with image recognition software and several operators. These are not always the same images that are used for the international program feed or television broadcast.
What are the consequences of exceeding the route limits?
During training or qualifying:
If a driver exceeds the track limits during practice or qualifying that is not a race, the relevant sector time will be canceled. This automatically leads to the termination of this round.
During a race:
If a driver crosses the track limits and loses time or position, the incident will not be recorded and no penalty will be issued.
If it cannot be determined whether a loss or a profit has occurred, the incident is simply logged. Some mistakes are foreseen, but making too many is seen as an advantage as the driver concerned will not use the same route as his competitors.
After three such violations, a dashboard message “Track Limits Warning” is sent to the driver. If a driver scores five track barrier violations, a long lap penalty will be awarded. This is communicated both via a dashboard message to the driver and via a signal board at the edge of the track.
If the FIM MotoGP stewards believe that a rider has gained a clear advantage, a single infraction will be penalized. These incidents are not included in the indefinite violation or error count.
For those individual infractions where a clear advantage has been obtained, penalties awarded may include a change of position, a time penalty, or a long lap penalty.
If the driver voluntarily returns the benefit immediately after the incident, a penalty can be avoided.
What if one driver is forced far by another?
It is accepted that another driver will go off the track.
This is another reason why indefinite violations are not recorded on the first lap of a race when many drivers are close together on the track. In turn 1 in the first lap, no distance boundaries are recorded either. This is due to the fact that drivers in turn 1 are often pushed a long way after the start and is intended to avoid unnecessary falls by allowing drivers to use run-off zones if necessary.
However, as always, a clear disadvantage must be shown in order to avoid the drivers taking advantage of the situation. Any clear advantage is always penalized – even in the first round.
What about the last lap?
For riders who have been closely contested for a position, any violation of the track boundary that occurred during the last lap and which, in the opinion of the FIM MotoGP stewards, influenced a race result, must have clearly disadvantaged the rider who committed the violation. This applies regardless of whether there is a change in position or not.
Exceeding the route limit during the last lap in a way that affects the target positions without the driver having a clear disadvantage if the route limit is exceeded will result in a change of position or a time penalty.
The principle is that a driver who exceeds the track limit on the last lap has to be worse off than the driver or drivers he or she is competing against directly and closely.
The last lap is a special case as it can influence the race result.