SERIOUSLY?
This is worthy of a track limits penalty for going off the circuit and gaining an advantage...
...yet this one, isn't
Unfortunately the main problem has been with the track limits. I think they haven't been specified properly and most importantly, reliably. There are sections and corners where you are forgiven for going off track, just like in the 2nd clip above, and there are run off areas which are so sensitive that touching them triggers the penalty immediately (1st clip).
In my point of view, the best would be if there would be only one track limit, and that would be the white line which gives the main contour line for the trakcs. In corners the cerbstones would be the track limits, of course. And no matter what the circumstance is, those who cross that line, they get their penalty. But, that way it would be very unfair, right?
A good friend of mine came up with an idea which I think could improve the penalty system. He thought of a voting system during racing. So how would that work? We all know, it's hard to make justice if someone drives recklessly or makes a mistake. We never know, whether the accident was on purpose or because of an unfortunate mishap, caused by clumsiness or other drivers forced us into. The problem is that the AI just can't make decisions. How could it as it just processes a combination of data such as speed, angle, position, etc. But the drivers themselves know if they caused the accident by being hit by other racers or if they were too agressive. Obviously, that would require from the drivers to "rate" their driving honestly. That's why the voting system only would be active of an SR and DR level required to be at least Rank A and above. So only the serious drivers - those who already proved their sportmanship and professional driving skills - would need to take the role of judging certain situations. How would that work in practice?
Let me illustrate you an example which mostly ends up with a penalty. "A" and "B" drive side by side as they approach the corner. "B" defends the inside line as they hit the brake and "B" keeps the line during the turn, leaving room for "A". After they leave the apex a slight contact happens. The system instead of penalizing any of them, gives them a question: Does the driver (input driver name) deserves a penalty? If they both say no or they both say yes, then the race may continue and non of them get penalized. But what happens if they disagree? In that case, the system would do the judgement and give penalty to the one which it "thinks" was the responsible for activating the penalty. Why would that be a good thing or at least better than any of the penalty systems before?
There's nothing worse than an exciting racing moment ruined by a penalty, especially then if the contact is light and didn't lead to any accidents. Of course, there are situations which still would require some refinements. The biggest accidents happen mostly in the first corners or when multiple cars get too close to each other. Those situations are really hard to process. At times, even in real life no proper decisions can be made. But the system could learn from every situation and by using the results of votes, it would not ask, nor it would disturb the drivers to make decisions of penalizing the other one or not. I don't say it's a revolutionary idea but it definitely would improve the racing quality.
Of course, ideas and suggestions are welcome but I wouldn't mind seeing a similar, improved penalty system implemented in the game.