Michael Masi was clear in his own words this weekend: There will be no enforcement of track limits in Turn 4 during the race, only if there is a lasting benefit from it. After the race he claimed that this was specifically about overtaking, but during the race he also found it necessary to warn Mercedes about Lewis Hamilton's 'off-track driving'. Didn't he have a 'lasting benefit' from that? Our count does point in that direction.

What exactly were the rules for this weekend?

In article 27.3 of the sporting regulations, overtaking is not specifically mentioned as a determining factor for maintaining track limits and the modified guidelines for Turn 4 that Masi announced this weekend do not mention this either. The term 'permanent advantage' is decisive and that is rather open to interpretation.

But there are many things that are unclear at the FIA. On the question of where exactly the track limits are for example. The official regulations use the white line along the track as the limit, which you must touch with at least one wheel. So if you drive with four wheels over the kerbstones, you are driving off the track.

In the modified guidelines for turn 4, however, the rear of the kerbstones was used as the criterion to invalidate lap times. A lap was only invalid when a driver drove with dropped wheels completely on the outside of the kerbstones. The same guidelines (below) state that this will only be enforced during the race if there is a 'lasting benefit', whatever that means.

Red Bull Racing has a point

F1TV's onboard footage of Lewis Hamilton's car shows Red Bull Racing sounding the alarm. Not to mention the official regulations. Hamilton, Verstappen and most of the other drivers were frequently crossing the white line on all fours. Considering the adjusted guidelines this was apparently tolerated this weekend.

If we look purely at the situations where dropped wheels are driven behind the kerbstones, then the difference between Hamilton and Verstappen is already clear after a few laps. While Verstappen stays on the kerbs with his wheels, Hamilton goes over them with a good margin almost every lap.

It wasn't until lap 32 that Hamilton was told to watch out for track limits in Turn 4. Up until that point he has gone off track there at least 26 times. He initially ignores this call when he is warned for the second time four laps later, the counter is at 30. Lap 37 is then the first time in the entire race that Hamilton has adhered to the official track limits and thus stayed within the white line with a wheel as well.

Although Hamilton's onboard image changes camera angles in the closing stages, meaning a number of laps are not clearly visible, we can see that he is adhering to the 'tolerance policy' from this point on. Outside the white line, but on the kerbstones.

Verdict

We can conclude from this that it was absolutely not a fabrication of Red Bull that Hamilton drove outside the track. We can also conclude that the race direction thought that Hamilton did something which was not meant to be done. Why else would you warn Mercedes?

On the other hand, Mercedes and Hamilton are not doing anything wrong in principle either. They simply took advantage of the freedom Michael Masi gave them with his vague wording. That Verstappen then received a penalty for his overtaking action is officially correct, but this way it is also difficult to explain when something is considered a 'lasting advantage'.