Things got pretty heated at the end of the Mexican Grand Prix yesterday (Sunday). Sebastian Vettel boiled over when Max Verstappen gained a significant advantage by going off the track when defending third place. The youngster then appeared to back Vettel into the clutches of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and the Ferrari driver was forced to employ some dubious tactics to protect his position.

Verstappen crossed the line in third, was then penalised for his off-track excursion, which promoted an angry Vettel, who was then also awarded a penalty. Eventually it was Ricciardo who picked up the points for best of the rest behind the Mercedes drivers. It was all very messy.

The cause of all this was Verstappen, under pressure from Vettel, going straight on at Turn One, missing out Turn Two and rejoining the track at Three much further ahead of the Ferrari than when he out-braked himself. At the start of the race Lewis Hamilton made exactly the same mistake, gaining a considerable advantage but, unlike Verstappen, no five-second penalty. This just makes Formula One look ridiculous.

It’s been said that the safety car being deployed shortly after Hamilton’s error negated any advantage he gained, but this misses the point. Hamilton went a long way off the track and then ploughed serenely on as though nothing had happened. Not that long ago it would have been a race-ending mistake.

We do not want cars hitting barriers or buildings, hedges or people, but the skill is keeping the car on the road and F1 has appeared to have lost sight of that. It should be quite clear, if you leave the road, you pay the penalty. In the case of both Hamilton and Verstappen they should have had to negotiate some sort of control gate or bollard on the vast run-off they chose to use instead of the track. It seems to work at the first two chicanes at Monza and also at the final corner in Montreal, so shouldn’t be so hard to impose elsewhere. It would have dropped Hamilton to dead last, but it was that sort of mistake.

Track limits need to be policed consistently by the FIA or the white lines become pointless. It makes no sense that a time set in qualifying is allowed to stand when a car has gone completely off the road. Formula One is often accused of being boring and quite rightly, so wouldn’t having a Force India on pole position, because it was the fastest car that stayed on the track, add a little spice? Wouldn’t watching Lewis Hamilton battle through from last while staying within the white lines make for a better spectacle?

The stewards would still have decisions to make when it came to cars being forced off the road, but proper penalties, such as drive-throughs or control gates, would mix up the order and stop the bickering, both of which F1 needs right now.