"Just lay a two-metre strip of pebbles there"

One of the things that comes back time and again this season is the enforcement of track limits. The race management is extra strict this season and for the GP of Portugal they had tightened the guidelines a bit more. During Friday a lot of lap times were taken away and so they decided to turn back those guidelines.

"I really think those track limits are such nonsense. I really think it's idiotic," says former F1-driver Christijan Albers about it in the Formula 1 podcast of De Telegraaf. "Just make it very simple. Put a two-metre strip of pebbles there and you don't have to give any more punishments. You then brake the cars in such a way that they don't go over them. You now give them that opportunity too."

'Runoffs destroy races'

"They started that asphalting because they noticed that the car didn't slow down in a gravel pit. If you went off, you were actually shot over that gravel. That's why they came to the conclusion that it's safer if there's all the asphalt."

According to Albers, it is now far too easy to go off the track if a driver makes a mistake. He, therefore, advocates the return of a natural track limit. "Then those stupid stewards wouldn't have to go out and destroy a race."