I swear tracks of old just had more gravel traps etc..if someone goes off they are basically out of the race. I don't know why most tracks now have ridiculous run off areas.
Yes old tracks were different and in some ways better, but mainly due to safety things changed...
As much as we love to see grass run offs as it instantly gives less grip and a physical/instant penalty rather than virtualised track limits, the problem with grass run offs - especially in the wet - was that it did little to slow the cars down before impacting barriers. Gravel traps came in mainly to slow the cars down quickly before hitting the barrier and was a cheaper solution to completely redesigning or altering track layouts and moving crowd barriers back. These worked well for safety but introduced problems of there own.
Gravel traps ended F1 cars races even if they had a minor track excursion which a lot of fans didn't like, especially when they turned up to watch race and paid F1 ticket prices. In addition, it left cars beached and difficult to recover before we got so addicted to throwing VSCs and SCs which presented higher dangers for drivers and marshalls.
Gravel traps can also cause higher G forces and more harmful crashes when cars and bikes dig in and decelerate under higher forces. They can also cause injury to motorcycle riders. A lot of the tracks used for MotoGP have to be up to a certain standard for the safety of motorcycle crashes which are different to cars. One example would be shallow curbs. So you can see where this is going... every track today is a compromise. A compromise based on modern machinery, safety compliance (which is a moving goal post) and track layout.
Somewhere around late 2000s, into the 2010s it seemed to change where the priority was to favour tarmac run off areas if possible, with much larger run off areas of pure tarmac. You see this in the more modern, purpose built tracks where they've had space to build like in the middle east and have not been limited by the landscape or existing buildings etc. The benefit of large tarmac run offs is fairly obvious. Firstly it's flat. This means it's safer in that cars will not rock through uneven ground and have more chance of remaining in good contact with the floor. For motorcycle riders this is preferrable to minimize injury when sliding. Secondly it provides the best possible grip and friction to decelerate cars/bikes assuming the tyres are able to make contact with the ground. It's also probably cheaper to lay than gravel or grass and easier to maintain.
If one could chose, I guess it would be grass but with very large run offs for safety. This would probably mean the crowd and barriers would be quite far back which might detract from the atmosphere. There is an argument to say, have a look at the street circuits. They allow non existent run off so why can't we have what we want?
