Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas is \u201cin really good shape\u201d everywhere except one spot at Turn 1, according to the venue owner, following a suggestion from Max Verstappen that the circuit\u2019s bumpy surface might cause him spine damage.<\/p>\n
Verstappen said ahead of this weekend\u2019s U.S. Grand Prix that COTA\u2019s bumpiness has grown \u201cout of control\u201d in recent years, citing a recent World Endurance Championship (WEC) race he watched as well as his own experience from previous seasons.<\/p>\n
The Red Bull driver said a check-up of his lower spine showed some damage from the wear and tear of racing.<\/p>\n
Reigning world champion Lando Norris backed up Verstappen\u2019s concerns, saying he\u2019s previously needed headache tablets for the bumpiness he\u2019s experienced inside the cockpit at COTA.<\/p>\n
Circuit boss Bobby Epstein is confident the situation will not be as extreme as the two drivers predicted, with work done this year to flatten out the tarmac in key areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t feel good that there\u2019s a bump at the bottom of Turn 1,\u201d Epstein told ESPN. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know about it until this week. We would have fixed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the other things Max spoke about, all the bumps around the track, we\u2019ve fixed them. The track is in really good shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to some WEC drivers who said there\u2019s no problem. There\u2019s one bump at the beginning of [Turn] 1 that is not acceptable in my mind … It\u2019s a dip, not a bump. If it were a bump, we\u2019d sharpen it out, we\u2019d take care of it tomorrow night, or overnight tonight, and that kind of stuff\u2019s happened before [at other circuits]. But when it\u2019s a dip it\u2019s a lot different, there\u2019s no easy fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking between Friday\u2019s two practice sessions, Epstein joked that he had no doubt Verstappen would agree with him after driving on the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cMax doesn\u2019t say I\u2019m wrong a lot, but he\u2019s also right a lot, and he\u2019s usually very frank, and I appreciate that about him,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cI had no problem with him saying what he said. I think he might be surprised in some areas that bumps he thought were here aren\u2019t any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen did not give his opinion after practice — teams are only required to send one of their two drivers to talk to the media on Fridays, and Isack Hadjar went.<\/p>\n
Cadillac\u2019s Valtteri Bottas appeared to agree that the circuit has improved from last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve managed to grind some of the bigger bumps, but it is a fun track,\u201d Bottas said, although other drivers suggested the extreme bumpiness has remained.<\/p>\n
Alpine\u2019s Franco Colapinto was one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great track to drive at,\u201d the Argentine said. \u201cFor the drivers to drive F1 around these high-speed corners, it\u2019s one of the best tracks in the world. It\u2019s a pity that it\u2019s so bumpy, because it becomes harsh on the body as well, our backs suffer. It\u2019s not the easiest. Hopefully they can improve it for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas is \u201cin really good shape\u201d everywhere except one spot at Turn 1, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2571,49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-944372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-auto-racing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944372","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=944372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}