Which is better, grass or gravel traps?
After the Mexican Grand Prix, as usual, there was a lot of arguments over the stewards' decisions. On two different occasions, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen cut the first corner of the circuit after missing the braking point. The triple World Champion wasn't penalised, but Red Bull's Max Verstappen was handed a 5 second time penality.
Teammate of Max, Daniel Ricciardo, thinks that it wasn't a fair decision of the stewards.
'' If they haven't seen any gained advantage in Lewis' situation, then I don't know what's gaining an illegal advantage is. Both of them should have been penalised. ''
Wanting to force drivers to stay on the track, Bernie Ecclestone suggests building a 40 centimetres of height near the corners. It may be a bit too harsh way, but even the drivers says that if a driver has an opportunity to cut the corner, he will do it.
'' If there will be no penalities for it, everyone will do it. '' - said D. Ricciardo.
'' It's not the best solution for this problem, because if you cut the first corner sensibly, you won't lose much time. It's simple, just put gravel traps on the places like these and you won't have any more problems of that kind in the future. '' - said an ex-F1 driver, Juan Pablo Montoya.
Daniel Ricciardo seems to agree with J.P. Montoya.
'' I'm for the gravel traps too. Even if you do not get stuck in the gravel, it will punish you. Small rocks will stay on the tyres and will get stuck inside a radiator. If you will try to cut the corner, you will lose a lot of time. ''
But not all drivers seems to agree with this. Nico Hulkenberg suggests to put barriers near the corners.
'' We can put barries near the corners like in the first corner of Autodrome Nazzionale Monza (Italian GP) and leave a little bit of space between them. You will be able to rejoin the track, but you will lose a lot of time.''
But FIA isn't planning to go back to gravel traps, because it doesn't fit today's safety standards, as F1 cars might flip there.
'' Pirelli '' is also against this idea, because there is a lot of pebbles on the track already, which damages the tires and with gravel traps, this problem will only become bigger.
