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Motor racing-Verstappen says Austin circuit's bumpy ride gets his back up

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Max ⁠Verstappen fears the bumpy ride at Austin's Circuit of the Americas is out of control and could do long-term ⁠damage to his spine.

The Star MalaysiaAlan Baldwin2026-10-23 17:34查看原文 ↗

Formula One F1 - United States Grand Prix - Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. - October 22, 2026 Red Bull's Max Verstappen during a press conference ahead of the race weekend REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Max ⁠Verstappen fears thebumpy ride at Austin's Circuit of the Americas is out of control and could do long-term ⁠damage to his spine.

Red Bull's four-time world champion joked to reporters after he won the Singapore Grand ‌Prix, the race before Austin, that he would "probably need to order a new spine" for the race at the Circuit of the Americas and "become like Robocop".

The Dutch driver returned to the theme on arrival in Texas by emphasising it was a seriousconcern.

"I was joking about that, of course, in the last race. But it's not really a joke to be honest, because ⁠we mentioned this already for years that it's ⁠actually getting a bit out of control," he said.

The 29-year-old said that last year, in a race he won, he ⁠had ‌pulled 5-6 G-force in some corners and put more than 9G on his spine in vertical load.

"Especially the older you get, you think about that more and more," he said.

"That's not what you want. And with these cars, ⁠especially under braking, you bottom out way harder... and I know around here, in some places, it's very ‌bumpy under braking."

"From the checks that I've done from my spine, the bottom end doesn't look that great... ⁠I know that can be part of sport but it's also further damage from the cars that we had the last few years. And now if we continue with driving orfinding this acceptable to drive on then you are going to suffer with that much more."

Verstappen said he loved the ⁠layout, which he described as one of the best, and beingin the nearby city but the bumps were unacceptable and needed fixing but that would require costly excavating works.

Hiscomments drew some support from other drivers, including McLaren's reigning champion Lando Norris who said he had also suffered.

"It's pretty bad. There's a lot of places ⁠I need to take headache tablets before I go out, simply because it's so bumpy and you're hitting your head pretty hard against the headrests and things because of the bumps. So it's certainly not a nice thing. But there's not much we can do," said the Briton.

Mercedes' George Russell said rule changes had made the problem worse.

"We're not an IndyCar or an F2 car that run their ride heights reasonably high; our ride heights are ⁠10 mil (millimetres) at the end of the straight, acentimetrefrom the ground. So, any tiny bump, you really feel it and the side profile of the tyres now, since we've been with the 18-inch, is ‌substantially smaller.

"The circumference of the tyre is the same, the circumference of the rim is far greater. So, you've lost all of that effective suspension in the tyre, which was a damper that we kind of don't have anymore."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Thank you for your report!

一级方程式赛车（F1）——美国大奖赛——美国德克萨斯州奥斯汀美洲赛道——2026年10月22日，红牛车队的马克斯·维斯塔潘在赛前新闻发布会上。（路透社/凯莉·格林利摄）

德克萨斯州奥斯汀，10 月 23 日（路透社）——马克斯·维斯塔潘担心奥斯汀美洲赛道的颠簸路段已经失控，可能会对他的脊柱造成长期损害。

红牛车队的四届世界冠军在赢得新加坡大奖赛（奥斯汀站之前的比赛）后向记者开玩笑说，他“可能需要订购一个新的脊椎”才能参加美洲赛道的比赛，“变得像机械战警一样”。

这位荷兰司机抵达德克萨斯州后再次提及此事，并强调这是一个严重的问题。

“当然，我在上一场比赛中是开玩笑的。但说实话，这其实不算玩笑，因为我们多年来一直提到，这种情况实际上已经有点失控了，”他说。

这位 29 岁的车手表示，去年在他赢得的一场比赛中，他在某些弯道承受了 5-6 G 的重力加速度，并在垂直负荷下脊柱承受了超过 9 G 的重力加速度。

“尤其是年纪越大，就越会想到这个问题，”他说。

“这不是你想要的。而且这些车，尤其是在刹车的时候，触底的力度会更大……我知道这附近有些地方，刹车的时候路面非常颠簸。”

“从我做的脊椎检查来看，下半部分情况不太好……我知道这可能是运动的一部分，但也是过去几年我们驾驶的赛车造成的进一步损伤。如果我们继续这样驾驶，或者认为这种驾驶方式可以接受，那么你会遭受更大的痛苦。”

维斯塔潘表示他很喜欢这个赛道布局，称其为最好的赛道之一，而且它就在附近的城市里，但是赛道上的颠簸令人无法接受，需要修复，但这需要昂贵的挖掘工程。