"Acres of tarmac there just inviting you to run offline"- Red Bull's Christian Horner feels track limits will be a much 'bigger issue' at 2022 F1 French GP

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes track limits will be a much bigger issue at the Paul Ricard circuit during the 2022 F1 French GP compared to the Red Bull Ring.

Horner believes that the “acres of run-off” that Circuit Paul Ricard offers will tempt drivers to run wide to gain an advantage. Speaking to RN365 following the 2022 F1 Austrian GP, Horner said:

“I think my concern isn’t so much here [in Austria]. I think [Paul] Ricard will be a bigger issue, in that there is a genuine time gain to be had.”

“Obviously, you’ve got acres of tarmac there, so it’s just inviting you to run offline.”

Track limits became a prominent issue at the Austrian GP last weekend when almost every driver on the grid received warnings for exceeding track limits. Nearly half-a-dozen drivers were slapped with time penalties after multiple warnings, while a few others lost their fast laps during Friday’s qualifying.

While many welcomed race control’s decision to finally police track limits, the decision to penalize drivers for exceeding track limits even when no advantage was gained attracted some criticism.

Meanwhile, Christian Horner believes that the huge number of track limits violations at the Spielberg race was due to the nature of the circuit, which features many blind corners with tricky apexes. He added, saying:

“I think the problem is the nature of this circuit. It invites the drivers to use the track limits. And of course, there were many, many drivers that were infringing that over the weekend.”

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New Ferrari rear wing reportedly “wiped out” Red Bull’s advantage in DRS zones

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has revealed that a newer spec rear wing that the Scuderia introduced at the 2022 F1 Canadian GP “wiped out” Red Bull’s straight-line advantage in DRS zones.

The new low-downforce/low-drag rear wing was originally trialed by Charles Leclerc in Montreal before Ferrari installed the wing on both cars at the 2022 F1 British GP. Speaking to Autosport following their second successive win of the season in Austria, Binotto said:

“We had a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull, no doubt, in terms of straight-line speed - especially in DRS zones. In terms of power of their DRS, compared to ours, we worked a lot on it.”

He added, saying:

“And with the new rear wing, I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed. I think they still have got a slight advantage, but it’s very little or negligible.”

Earlier in the season, the RB18's lower drag profile allowed Red Bull to choose more optimal setups tailored for race pace and tire wear compared to the Scuderia. This meant that despite their superior single-lap pace, Ferrari failed to convert pole positions into race victories.