Liam Lawson issues major demand over growing F1 problem

Liam Lawson wants to see F1 return to the "old school" nature of track limits following falling victim to a growing trend of drivers cutting Turn 1. 

In Mexico City, Lawson's race was undone at Turn 1 when Carlos Sainz elected to sharply jink left in the opening sequence of corners to avoid potential contact later on, with the Racing Bulls machine suffering severe damage as a result. 

There is a growing trend in F1 of drivers taking to the run-off and bailing out at Turn 1 on the opening lap of grands prix, with Fernando Alonso critical of the situation, as Lawson explained his case with Sainz, and what steps he believes F1 should take to rectify the issue. 

"Honestly, I don't think it is a Turn 1 specific thing, it was an incident where Carlos decided he would cut the chicane without looking to his left, and he's just turned sharply, put 90 degrees of steering lock to the left when I'm sitting right next to him," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365. 

"He hit me so hard, he broke my wing, my floor and put a hole in my sidepod, and Turns 1 and 2, you're always trying to avoid cars, but he wasn't avoiding anything, he just decided to cut the chicane to avoid the chaos which was probably about to happen. 

"But you have to be more aware, because I was leaving space and just got smashed into. 

"It is the nature of these types of tracks with loads of runoff, and it gives us the option to take it.

"If you look at tracks like Japan and Imola and places like that, you don't see that kind of thing, because if you go off the track, you get punished. It's the same with racing incidents, with overtakes, with track limits, overtaking and gaining an advantage, all this kind of stuff.

"It's not going to happen when you have tracks that don't have advantages off the track, and if they're not there, we're not going to take that risk as well, to take a big lunge or to try and stick it out on the outside of somebody. 

"We're not going to take that risk if we know we're going to get punished, and this type of thing is just happening more and more now, because these tracks are just so open and have all this run-off.

"We're trying to extend white lines and put bollards and all this kind of stuff, but there just needs to be grass or gravel like at old school tracks, and then there's no issues."