FIA announce 207 deleted laps at US Grand Prix in savage crackdown on F1 drivers

The FIA have taken a hardline approach to track limits already at the United States Grand Prix, with a staggering 207 lap times deleted on Friday as drivers fell foul of the rules at Circuit Of The Americas.

The extraordinary number of deleted laps has once again put enforcement front and centre ahead of Saturday's Qualifying session and Sunday's Grand Prix race.

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The action in Texas got under way with Free Practice 1 on Friday lunchtime, and the FIA reported 79 track limits violations and deleted laps after the session.

Things would get even worse on Friday afternoon with 128 deleted laps recorded in Free Practice 2. You can check out details of all the deleted laps on Documents 20 and 24 of the FIA's official race weekend logs.

Why are track limits an issue at COTA in 2026?

World champion elect Kimi Antonelli, who himself racked up four track limits violations during the recent Singapore Grand Prix, believes the COTA layout is giving drivers major headaches.

He told media: "It is not easy - it is a difficult track with a lot of elevation changes and also the wind in some corners is quite odd.

"The track limits mainly come from mistakes. You just lock up a little and then you go long, but the FIA is trying their best to widen the white lines.

"But it is difficult; it is not easy, and when you try to discover the limit, it is normal that you get [violations], but it is also the fact that you have so much tarmac.

"In some corners, we have so much tarmac, and the green bit on some of the exits is very grippy, so that also pushes you to use even more track.

"I know it is going to be everyone got a lot of track limits, and it is not easy.

"But that is why in FP3, it is going to be important to find the limit and understand how much you can push in a corner without doing track limits - so it is going to be a thing, but I will try to do my best."

What is the track limit in F1?

The track limit is the white line which defines the edge of the circuit, but as well as acting as a boundary for the field of play, it is also a key safety feature.

If track limits were not in place, drivers could theoretically make use of all of the asphalt run-off areas that are common to modern F1 tracks in order to find a faster route around the facility.

In theory, they should be relatively easy to police, but, as is often the case in F1, it is never quite as simple as that.

A driver is usually deemed to have ‘exceeded track limits’ if they put all four wheels over the agreed boundary. Although this is usually the white line, the outside edge of the kerbing has previously also been used to mark this point.

If an offence is committed at a place on the track where the stewards believe an advantage could have been gained through this action, warnings and then penalties can be applied.

What are the penalties for exceeding track limits?

Penalties for track limits vary from session to session and can change depending on location.

Any track limits infringements in practice or qualifying results in the lap time being deleted. If the infringement occurs in the final corner, the next lap time can also be deleted if stewards deem the driver to have gained an advantage from carrying more speed through the corner.

There is more grace during a race, with drivers receiving two warnings before they are shown a black and white flag for a third.

If the regulations are flouted for a fourth time, a five-second time penalty is awarded.

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Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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