Martin Brundle called for a change in Formula 1 rules after the penalty handed to Kimi Antonelli for track limits during the British Grand Prix. The Italian received a five-second addition at Silverstone and dropped out of the points zone.
Antonelli was in second place when an issue with the front-left wheel guard on his Mercedes emerged. Even with handling difficulties on the W17, the championship leader tried to nurse the car to the finish, but he left the track several times while struggling to keep the car under control.
Under the current regulations, repeated track-limit violations trigger an automatic five-second penalty. Antonelli finished ninth on track, but the punishment pushed him to 16th, leaving him with no points in a race in which he had been in contention for what could have been his first Grand Prix victory.
Brundle criticized the rigidity of applying the rule automatically in situations where the driver is not seeking a competitive advantage. “Track limits are a performance penalty, not a survival penalty,” he said during Sky Sports F1 coverage. “This rule needs to be adjusted. Penalties for track limits are for when drivers gain a competitive advantage by cutting corners or extending their trajectory, thereby carrying more speed.”
Mercedes chose not to appeal the punishment, but the case reignited the debate about whether the current system can differentiate a performance gain from a loss of car control caused by a fault. Brundle also noted that, without the Safety Car triggered by Max Verstappen’s crash, Antonelli would likely have absorbed the penalty and still finished ahead of the two Alpine cars.
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