Formula 1 drivers urged the operators of the Interlagos circuit to improve the new surface they laid ahead of this year’s event.
The 4.3-kilometre circuit was fully re-laid ahead of last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix. However the new surface was so bumpy in places that parts of the track became undriveable, said race winner Max Verstappen.
“It was still very bad,” said the Red Bull driver. “In some places you could not even drive because you would bottom out quite heavily, even in the wet.
“So definitely something needs to be done for next year to make it better.”
During Sunday’s rain-hit race Verstappen told his team he did not want to risk driving off-line to cool his tyres because of the bumps.
“I know a lot of people put a lot of effort in it, it’s not to talk bad about the people, I know they always try to do the best they can to put the surface down, but for the cars that we are running currently, it’s definitely too bumpy,” he added. “Something needs to be done about it.”
Esteban Ocon, who finished second, said the new surface was better in one respect. “I think the grip is actually very good,” said the Alpine driver.
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“It’s just some bumps that we run with these cars – probably if we were back in 2021 or 2020, it would have been fine – but these cars run super-low and all the hit is basically straight into the chassis, so there’s no suspension in there. It’s much better than it was in terms of grip, but just the bumps needs to be improved.”
Sprint race winner Lando Norris agreed the nature of current F1 cars makes them more sensitive to bumps and believes tracks must change to suit them.
“I don’t know how the tracks are made exactly but in how the cars are forced to be made nowadays every driver on the grid has complained,” he said. “The cars we had a few years ago, you could get away with more of these things and you noticed it a lot less.
“The cars are made to be low. That is the regulation. The teams have to make them like that and therefore, other things have to change around it. One of those things is the tracks, because how it was [in practice] especially, made things pretty difficult for everyone.”
“The FIA know and they’re not happy with it either,” he added. “I know that they want to improve things for the future, and they work with us to try and do that.”
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
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