Track Limits
VerifiedThe boundary of the circuit a driver must stay within, usually the outer white line, with lap times deleted for exceeding it.
Track limits define the edge of the circuit a car must stay within; at most F1 tracks this is the outer edge of the white line bordering the track, with the line itself still counting as 'on track'. Running with all four wheels beyond that line is exceeding track limits.
In practice and qualifying, a lap where a driver exceeds track limits at a corner that's being monitored has its lap time deleted, which can knock a driver out of a qualifying segment even if the deleted lap was their fastest. In the race, repeated track-limits violations at the same corner escalate to a time penalty.
Some corners are watched more closely than others depending on the layout, and the FIA can adjust or add gravel or kerbs between sessions or seasons if a track-limits problem at a particular corner becomes persistent.