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Round 8 of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship is now in the books and the fast and flowing nature of the Assen circuit provided more than it’s fair share of on-track technical infringements. The FIM stewards in charge of policing infractions and handing out penalties find themselves once again having uncomfortable conversations with high profile riders. Namely Marc Marquez who was handed a post race 16 second penalty for low tire pressure and Maverick Viñales who was the latest victim of a track limits penalty for touching the green out of the chicane on the final lap of Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The stewards are also facing their share of criticism for the harshness of such penalties, and fans are taking to the internet to question why these two particular rules exist in the first place. As riveting as I find the ins and outs of minimum tire pressure regulations, I want to focus on perhaps the three most vulgar words in all of motorsport: Exceeding Track Limits. A quick reminder for newcomers to the sport, or those who have decided to block all mention of this subject from recent memory. That little green painted area alongside the track that signifies the track limits riders must avoid, got quite a bit of publicity in 2023. Most notably during last year’s Dutch TT when Brad Binder exceeded track limits on the last lap not just in the Saturday Sprint, but also in Sunday’s main race, costing him a place on the podium in both. For factory KTM, having two podiums scrubbed off for Brad being just millimeters off line was a pretty harsh punishment.

But that’s the rule. You touch the green on the last lap of a race, you lose a place. But critics of the rule argue that he didn’t gain a competitive advantage so he shouldn’t be penalized, whether he technically touched the green paint or not. In spirit, I understand the argument but that doesn’t sway my opinion that it’s complete nonsense. Before I can explain why I think this argument holds less water than a lunch lady’s hairnet, we have to look at the history of track limits and how that can of green paint came to be the most famous character in motorcycle racing.

In the early days when race organizers designed circuits, they were doing so on public roads, using the natural features of their surroundings to dictate the course racers would compete on. Track limits were pretty well defined by where the pavement ends and the rest of the world begins. Arguing whether a rider exceeded those limits was a moot point considering doing so meant a rider was flying into a hedge, off a cliff or into the wall of a thousand year old church.

Building dedicated circuits and taking racing off public roads made things a lot safer for the riders, but a significant problem still remained. Cars and motorcycles often race on the same circuits, and the steel barriers and catch fences that work for cars, were deadly to motorcycle riders. Many tracks started saying goodbye to the physical barriers and installing grass and gravel runoff areas along the track’s edge which was a vast improvement, but this still meant a rider running wide into the gravel would be in for a nasty crash. The solution came in the form of paving those runoff areas so bikes, and cars, that run wide have the time to correct their trajectory and get themselves back on the track to continue the race. Less crashes mean less danger, less injuries and less death.

But as we all learned as children, when you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to start using it to his advantage to win races. And that’s what riders did. At tracks with paved runoffs, they found riders changing their corner entry and trying to keep more speed, knowing that they had extra room to make it stick. Which basically means the riders are dictating the design of the track, rather than racing the intended layout. So enter the little green monster and the introduction of our controversial “exceeding track limits” rule.

Which brings me back to why critics of the rule, and the argument of “competitive advantage” are completely ludicrous. 

Every sport, whether it’s Basketball, American Football, Rugby, Soccer or baseball, has a boundary. An area outside the intended field of play. MotoGP is no different. The track must have a boundary. Inside the boundary is where games are played. Going out of bounds always carries a repercussion. In Soccer the price of kicking the ball out of play, is forfeiting possession to the other team. In baseball, a foul ball is considered a strike against the batter. In American Football the play is blown dead where the player steps out. In Motorcycle racing that repercussion used to be a crash, which to me is much harsher than the time or position penalty that is levied on racers of today. 

Try to think of sport where you can play the game outside the boundary and it’s considered “no harm, no foul.” Which is exactly what the critics of track limits are suggesting. But they are also asking for something much worse. The first thing critics of the rule propose is to replace the green areas with grass or gravel as they did in the old days. I do agree that would result in less penalties, unfortunately I think we’d also see more riders missing time with injuries both mild and severe. Are these penalties ruining the sport to the point that removing safety features and placing riders in harm’s way is the better alternative?

Another suggestion is asking the stewards to make a subjective judgment call on whether a track limits violation gave a rider a competitive advantage. As much as adding subjective rules to the regulations would give journalists a lot to write about on Monday, the officials making “judgement calls” feels like a worse option that enforcing the rules to the letter of the law, even if is seems exceedingly harsh.

If you’re not convinced that track limits are simply a necessary evil riders must manage, I’d like you to do a little thought exercise with me. Imagine a basketball game. It’s a fast break situation. A player streaking down the sideline, all on their own. Wide open basket in front of them. But as they’re running they step on the sideline. They gain no competitive advantage because with or without that misstep they’re going to have an easy layup. Should the refs let it go? Should they look at the situation and consider in that moment whether stepping on the line gave the player a competitive advantage? Or should they enforce the rules as they are written? Take that scenario and apply it to any sport. Soccer. Rugby. American Football. It works with them all. Why do we think there needs to be an exception to the boundary in MotoGP? Even Brad Binder and Maverick Viñales know that staying on the track is part of the game. Maybe it’s time the critics realize that too.