Track limits
The track is defined by the white lines painted along each edge. The kerbs and the run-off beyond them are not part of the track. A driver is judged to have left the track if no part of the car is still touching the white line or the tarmac inside it. In practice that means all four wheels have gone fully over the line.
Track limits exist because cutting a corner, or running wide onto smooth tarmac run-off, can be faster than driving the proper circuit. Without a rule, the fastest line at some corners would be well outside the track.
How it's monitored
Race control watches the corners where cars most often run wide, using cameras and, at some tracks, sensors in the ground. Any lap where a car breaks track limits is flagged automatically and checked by the officials. At busy circuits this can mean hundreds of reports in a race, and the checks can take a while, which is why a lap time sometimes disappears from the timing screen a few minutes after it was set.
In practice and qualifying
The rule is simple: break track limits and the lap time is deleted. There's no warning and no penalty beyond that. The driver keeps their tyres and can go again if there's time.
This can be brutal in qualifying. A driver can set what would have been pole position and lose it because a wheel was a few centimetres over the line at one corner. Some teams have to tell their driver mid-lap that the lap is already gone, so they can back off and save the tyres.
In the race: the three strikes system
Each time a driver leaves the track in the race, that lap's time is deleted and they get a strike:
- First and second strikes: the lap time is deleted, nothing more.
- Third strike: the driver is shown the black and white flag, a formal warning that the next one will be penalised.
- Fourth strike: a 5-second time penalty.
- Every strike after that: another 5 seconds.
The same system applies in a sprint.
The warning matters. Race control is expected to show the black and white flag before a penalty follows, so a driver always gets one clear chance to tidy up. When the flag is missed, for example in the chaos of a safety car period, it can become an argument about whether a later penalty is fair.
When it doesn't count as a strike
Not every trip off the track is a strike. The stewards can decide not to count it if:
- the driver lost control and clearly wasn't trying to gain anything,
- they went off to avoid a collision,
- they were forced off by another car,
- they ran wide during an overtaking move, whether it worked or not, and gained no advantage. This exception was added for 2026.
Leaving the track and gaining an advantage
Track limits strikes cover the routine case: running wide on a fast corner. A separate and more serious rule covers drivers who gain a lasting advantage by leaving the track, such as cutting a chicane to keep a place they would have lost, or completing an overtake with all four wheels off the circuit.
The usual way to fix this is to give the place back straight away. If they don't, the penalty guidelines suggest 10 seconds as a starting point, or 5 if there are mitigating circumstances. That's why teams often tell a driver on the radio to let someone past: it's much cheaper than a penalty. The collisions page covers how the stewards judge overtakes.
Why it causes so much argument
Fans tend to dislike track limits rows because they're decided by centimetres and don't look dramatic on TV. The 2023 Austrian Grand Prix was the low point: officials received more than 1,200 reports during the race, and several drivers had penalties added after the finish, changing the results hours later.
Circuits have responded by adding gravel traps, wider kerbs and grass at problem corners. Those make running wide slower, so drivers police themselves and the rule rarely needs enforcing. Where the run-off is still smooth tarmac, it remains a regular talking point.