{"id":939001,"date":"2026-10-24T07:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939001\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:28:10","slug":"circuit-of-the-americas-below-f1-standards-as-drivers-raise-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939001\/","title":{"rendered":"Circuit of the Americas ‘below F1 standards’ as drivers raise safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The extreme bumpiness of the Circuit of the Americas isn\u2019t up to F1 standards, believes Audi<\/a>\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a>, echoing Max Verstappen\u2019s sentiments.<\/p>\n

The Austin circuit has become renowned for extreme bumpiness, having been built on an unstable clay base.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto criticises Circuit of the Americas track surface<\/p>\n

With the Circuit of the Americas built on a clay surface that expands in rain and retracts in dry conditions, the tarmac surface tends to ripple and move around despite the best efforts of the circuit promoter.<\/p>\n

When being initially built, the surface was scraped back to a depth of three metres before a layered foundation was built, upon which the tarmac was laid but, over the years, this surface has become bumpier and bumpier.<\/p>\n

Ahead of this year\u2019s race, organisers resurfaced from the entry of Turn 9 through to the entry of Turn 11, while grinding has been done on the surface on the approach to Turn 12 and approaching Turn 19.<\/p>\n

Despite this, on Thursday, Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen said the extent of the bumps isn\u2019t great news for those who struggle with their backs, revealing he\u2019s had spinal scans that show some wear and tear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some impacts like vertical load, which was over 9G on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun,\u201d he said of the CoTA surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd especially the older you get, you think about that more and more. That\u2019s not what you want.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with these cars, especially under braking, you bottom out way harder because when the wings close and then the ride height comes down, under braking it\u2019s actually a very stressful moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know around here in some places, it\u2019s very bumpy under braking, and especially when it\u2019s these kinds of awkward bumps, not just bumps from the track getting older, but, I don\u2019t know, the surface underneath the soil just moving up and down; sometimes it\u2019s very hard to expect, or if you\u2019re a tiny bit offline, you don\u2019t know what is there because no one really drives here sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really not nice, and I think sometimes people don\u2019t really understand that because I can tell you, from the checks that I\u2019ve done from my spine, the bottom end doesn\u2019t look that great, the spine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that\u2019s part of racing. I know that can be part of sport, but it\u2019s of course also further damage from the cars that we had the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, if we continue finding this acceptable to drive on, then you are going to suffer with that much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can say, \u2018Yeah, but there are worse sports out there for damage to parts of your body.\u2019 For sure. But that\u2019s why I\u2019m not doing them. So yeah, it\u2019s not nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audi\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto agreed with Verstappen\u2019s assessment, saying that he felt the surface is now so detrimental to the drivers that it is no longer up to the standard of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very harsh. Honestly, for an F1 standard, it shouldn\u2019t be like this. But yeah, I mean,\u00a0it\u2019s a shame,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess they need to resurface a little bit more parts that are bumpy because they resurface the part of the track that you basically straight line, so it doesn\u2019t really matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully in\u00a0the future they can fix it because it\u2019s an amazing track, amazing layout, and I love to race here. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut with these\u00a0bumps, it can sometimes be\u00a0dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc lamented the surface as \u201cvery poor. The first sector is particularly poor and very bumpy.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the United States Grand Prix<\/p>\n

FIA explains George Russell decision after Leclerc United States GP incident<\/a>
FIA hit three drivers with grid penalties for United States Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

Franco Colapinto, another driver in his 20s, joked about how the older drivers likely suffer badly on the circuit surface, but said it\u2019s no picnic even for someone of his youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very bumpy, but\u00a0it\u2019s a great track to drive at for the drivers; to drive an F1 around these high-speed corners, it\u2019s one of the best tracks in\u00a0the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pity that it\u2019s so bumpy because it becomes harsh on the body as well. Our backs suffer. Me, I\u2019m young;\u00a0I already struggle a bit. I can imagine the older ones!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest. Hopefully, they can improve it for the future. Some new tarmac would feel amazing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they did new tarmac\u00a0from the exit of Turn 9 to braking at Turn\u00a011, and that feels so much smoother than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the drivers are feeling the discomfort, Alpine boss Steve Nielsen believes it\u2019s just part of the characteristics of the circuit which, despite its relative newness, bears all the hallmarks of an old-school facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, Austin\u00a0is bumpy. I think this piece of land, it\u2019s\u00a0no secret that it subsides;\u00a0it moves around a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the promoter puts the effort in, redoes the asphalt, and then the ground moves, and it\u2019s bumpy again. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think they\u2019re constantly battling against it. It\u2019s been bumpy in the past. It\u2019s bumpy now. I don\u2019t suppose it\u2019ll be much different in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Next:\u00a0Liam Lawson responds to Christian Horner book release after \u2018promoted too early\u2019 claim<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The extreme bumpiness of the Circuit of the Americas isn\u2019t up to F1 standards, believes Audi\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,40856,63,817,813,816,1802,7695,818,825,44,85,66002],"class_list":["post-939001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-audi","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-home-page","tag-max-verstappen","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-united-states-grand-prix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}