Lewis and George Talk Track Limits on Mexico GP Media Day

“At the end of the day you do need to have regulation or some sort of guideline, particularly when we are having different stewards every week,” said George, who is the Director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA), the counsel that acts as the trade union for drivers in F1.

“Looking back at last week, both penalties were probably fair, but perhaps Max should also have got a penalty for running off the track.

“For me, the root cause of the problem is having a circuit that allows you to run wide.

“At the end of the day the stewards are doing the best job they can. They are trying their hardest and they do have a set of guidelines they can follow,” he added.

As Formula One consistently looks to provide the best possible sporting spectacle on and off the track, perhaps there are lessons that can be learned from other sports.

Lewis said: “It [track limits] has always been a grey area, and something needs to be done before, and we do have inconsistencies through rulings.

“We do need to level up, if you look at other sports which have full-time refs, I am sure that would not be a bad thing for F1.

“You should not be able to launch the car up the inside and then go off and still hold your position.”

F1 regulations are delicate, and it is not just a case of increasing the word count in the official documents, as George explained.

“The more complicated you make the regulations, the harder it is going to be for us to race and apply a little common sense,” he said.

“And you cannot just let things run wild. If they run wild on track, they risk running wild on a technical side as well.

“You cannot write a set of regulations to cover every possible scenario. It is a very fine line.

“We have the best drivers, the best engineers, the best designers in this sport. We are at a point now where we need the best stewarding, not only from a driving standpoint – but a technical side too.

Back on track, and the team came away from Austin ultimately frustrated to have not got the best out of the latest W15 upgrade package.

Lewis said: “It was a challenge. Up until the last race we have had a lot of confidence in the car, but you could see that was not the case last weekend.

“I spun at Turn Three in FP1, George spun in Qualifying and me in the race. That was unexpected for both of us.

“George did a great job on Sunday with the old package. I am hoping the new one can be better this weekend. We are just trying to do the best job with what we have.

“I am trying to do the best I can for the team. We will get another good read of the update this weekend.”

George, who will use the older package in Mexico while Lewis continues with the Austin upgrade, said: “We have had time to review Austin and have learned we were sailing a bit too close to the wind with how we set the car up.

“We were really aggressive, but we showed real signs of performance when we could get round the lap.

“This weekend will be a good opportunity to see across the two cars. This sport is difficult to understand at the moment, so it will be intriguing.”

Friday morning will see junior driver Kimi Antonelli return to the car for his second FP1 session of the season, after making his debut at Monza.

The 18-year-old’s time on track on home soil in September ended earlier than he had hoped, but the team is confident that won’t be the case this time around.

Lewis, who will sit out FP1 while Kimi gets behind the wheel of W15 this weekend, said: “I am here to support him in anyway I can. We did our briefing together earlier, and I told him that he can just build into it and enjoy it.

“Whatever happens, we will handle it. I do not think we will have any problems.”