Fuzzy limits

[Nitrodaze]

Here's something to talk about :
You are not allowed to force another driver off track if they are wheel-to-wheel with you going into the corner.
You must leave a car width .

But , you are not off track until your inside tire completely crosses the line , which is considerably less than a car's width .

Fuzzy .

There is a difference between the concept of being "Off Track" from that of exceeding "Track Limits". When a car is said to "Exceed Track Limits", the stewards are considering whether the driver is attempting to gain an unfair advantage while being on track. In this case, the wheels closer to the boundary of the track are used to make that judgment. This may be either the inside or outside wheels, depending on the nature of the chicane involved.

With regards to whether a car is considered to be "Off Track" or not, the stewards consider that at least part of the wheels of the car is touching the inner boundary of the track. This is important because overtaking while most of the car is outside the boundary of the track but having at least one tire touching the inner tarmac would not be ruled as gaining a position while being off track or unfairly gaining an advantage while being off track if you like.

Of course, completing an overtaking maneuver with all four wheels cleanly outside the boundary of the track is illegal and the driver would be asked to give the place back or suffer a time penalty. Hence, the "Off Track" rule greatly assists drivers needing to force an overtake if they can get their car alongside the car in front. Which is important. They have to be at least 2/3rd {75%} alongside the car ahead for this rule to be applied, l think.

They are also used in quite different situations of course. Whether a driver is "Off Track" is only relevant during the race in wheel-to-wheel battle situations. Track limits are only significant during qualifying when the driver is chasing the provisional pole time current at the time in question. Or when the fastest lap is being set during the race.

When it comes to the question of "Leaving A Cars Width", this is the inverse of the "Off Track". In this situation, the stewards are looking at the aggressiveness of the defending driver. If the attacking driver is severely disadvantaged enough for the attacking car to come into contact with the defending car causing clear damage, then the "Leaving a car's width" is critically looked at. In this case, it would not matter if the attacking car was forced completely off the track or not. Where the defending driver squeezes the attacking driver in a manner that does not cause a damaging collision, it is usually considered fair racing. If the attacking driver is forced off track, they may look at how reasonable the defending was. Such as how punishing the effect of the attacking driver being off track was to the attacking driver. Did they lose positions or have consequential damage as a result of going off track etc?

Where the squeezed driver voluntarily goes off track, either to avoid the sausage kerbs or damaging raised kerbs, is at the discretion of the stewards and usually results in very grey area decisions.