Martin Brundle makes football comparison in ‘very odd’ F1 track limits changes

Widening the white lines at the Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, thereby widening the track, Martin Brundle says that’s an “odd” move like footballers calling for wider goalposts.

Putting in the laps in Saturday’s Sprint Shootout it was noted that the white line on the outside of Turn 19, the line that defines the track limits, had been doubled in width.

It later emerged that the same had been done to Turns 9 and 12 as those were problematic for the drivers during Friday qualifying.

Martin Brundle weighs in on ‘odd’ track limit changes

It’s the second time in as many races that the FIA had taken steps after Friday’s action to make changes to the track, also changing the track limits in Qatar.

That weekend the track limits were brought in a bid to keep the drivers off the kerbs that were cutting into the tyres.

“The problem in Qatar was that those kerbs are ripping the tyres,” Brundle explained. “What they’ve been allowing the drivers to do here is to go further up the kerbs and still be legal.

“What they had to do in Qatar was actually narrow the track so the drivers didn’t go as far up the kerb but yeah, it does seem a little bit too much work in progress to me.”

But while Brundle believes the COTA decision is a “good solution” to the ongoing track limit issue, he found it strange that it was done in the middle of a weekend.

“I think it’s a good solution but not halfway through weekends,” he added during the Sky Sports broadcast.

“It’s a bit like footballers, ‘Ah ref I hit the post, I hit the bar’ and they go ‘Oh right, I tell you what we’ll make the goalposts a little bit bigger tomorrow and then you’ll be alright’.

“It’s very odd. It’s very odd that we weren’t notified in the media about it and this random paint turns up.

“I think is a good solution. For example, Austria, and those two corners are very difficult to see. I wouldn’t mind embracing it but it’s a bit of a curveball mid weekend.”

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However, his fellow pundit Jenson Button says he’s not in favour of extending the track as he feels it is big enough already.

“I think they should make it tighter!” he said.

“Why make it wider? Why are we giving them more track to play with, it’s already big enough as it is. How wide is this track round here?”

As for the drivers, Max Verstappen, who lost a pole position time on Friday for exceeding track limits, reiterated the call for the kerbs to mark track limits as in general they are easier to see.

“I do think that the kerbs are a bit… sorry, more easy to judge in general, especially in the very fast corners,” he said.

“In the very low speed, I think the white line hasn’t been a massive issue but in some corners, judging on such a small white line is tough, and yesterday, of course, it caught me out.

“But yeah, I do feel that we need to come up with something different because it is tricky. You don’t make these kinds of mistakes, of course on purpose.

“I think today with that double kind of white line, that already helped a bit. But yeah, we’ll keep talking to the FIA to see what we can do.”

Read next:FIA make key US Grand Prix track change following Friday issues at COTA