Max Verstappen\u00a0has said Formula 1 drivers risk long-term damage from venues with \u201cout of control\u201d bumps like Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas (COTA), citing a concerning recent X-ray he\u2019s seen of his own back.<\/p>\n
After winning the last race in Singapore, Verstappen quipped that he will \u201cprobably need a new spine\u201d ahead of the next race, Sunday\u2019s U.S. Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The four-time world champion went back to that topic on Thursday during a media session previewing the race, stressing that it was no laughing matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was extremely badly bumpy,\u201d Verstappen said on watching a World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at the circuit earlier this year. \u201cSo I\u2019m not really looking forward to that, to be honest, for your spine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I was joking about that, of course, in the last race. But it\u2019s not really a joke to be honest. Because we mentioned this already for years that it\u2019s actually getting a bit out of control. And I\u2019m sure that tomorrow is going to be quite tough to find the right compromises around this track [with set-up].\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen elaborated just how extreme the bumps can be at high speed.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSo last year, for example, you pull around 5, 6G [-force] in a corner, but I had some impacts, like vertical load, which was like over 9G on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun. And especially the older you get, you think about that more and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what you want. And with these cars, especially under braking, you bottom out way harder because when the wings close and the right hand comes down, under braking, it\u2019s actually a very stressful moment. And I know around here, in some places, it\u2019s very bumpy under braking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd especially when it\u2019s like these kind of awkward bumps, not just bumps from the track getting colder, but just going, I don\u2019t know, the surface underneath the soil just moving up and down. Sometimes very hard to expect, or if you\u2019re like a tiny bit offline, you don\u2019t know what is there because no one really drives there sometimes. So, yeah, it\u2019s really not nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think sometimes people don\u2019t really understand that. Because, yeah, I can tell you from the checks that I\u2019ve done from my spine, the bottom end doesn\u2019t look that great, the spine. So I 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. And now if we continue with driving, or finding this acceptable to drive on, then, yeah, you are going to suffer with that much more. And people can say, yeah, but there are worse sports out there for damage to parts of your body, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other drivers echoed Verstappen\u2019s opinions on the bumpy track.<\/p>\n
When Verstappen\u2019s comments were put to reigning world champion Lando Norris, he said circuits should be held to higher standards when it comes to track smoothness.<\/p>\n
Norris revealed it is so extreme at some places he\u2019s been forced to take headache tablets to counteract the pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say yes,\u201d he said on whether he agreed with Verstappen. \u201cIf you build a new track now, the rules, the regulation of building a new track, the tolerances you have to be within are pretty small. [COTA] certainly doesn\u2019t fit anywhere close to what those regulations are now, I\u2019m going to say, but it\u2019s an old track, not a new track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s pretty bad, like, there\u2019s a lot of places I need to take headache tablets before I go out, simply because it\u2019s so bumpy and, and you\u2019re hitting your head pretty hard against the headrests and things because of the bumps. So it\u2019s certainly not a nice thing. But there\u2019s not much we can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we complain about it, it\u2019s stuff we brought up many, many times, but there\u2019s only so much we can complain about things.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s certainly right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u00a0has said Formula 1 drivers risk long-term damage from venues with \u201cout of control\u201d bumps like Austin\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,88754,82],"class_list":["post-943097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen-sports-auto-racing-player-player-statscom-843471","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}