A long sausage kerb added to the exit of Yas Marina’s penultimate corner was criticized by several drivers after Friday’s free practice sessions, but changes to the zone before Sunday’s race are unlikely.
The 50mm-high kerbing necessitated repair work on Friday evening after it was relentlessly hit by drivers during free practice, their cars skating along the top.
Force India’s Esteban Ocon called into question the element’s quality and height.
“It should be better for tomorrow,” he said. “[But it] doesn’t need to be as high as it is.
“You probably can lose time being on it and lose some load etc., but the problem is now if we go on it and break everything – so it could be dangerous.”
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Haas’ Romain Grosjean insisted the controversial kerb was not built to F1 standards, while Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly believes F1 should offer an alternative to sausage kerbs, in light also of Sophia Floersch’s horrendous crash in Macau last weekend, where the young F3 driver’s car went airborne after hitting a sausage kerb.
“In that case the sausage kerb didn’t help because it just airborned the car,” said the Frenchman.
“We should look at different options than sausage kerbs. It’s the same at other tracks, you start sliding and hit one of these kerbs and start flying more than anything else.
“It stops you from going off track but in certain situations can make things quite unsafe.”
The odd man out among his colleagues – despite running wide and riding the kerb earlier in the day – was Max Verstappen who had no real complaints to formulate.
“I understand why it is there,” he told reporters afterwards. “Honestly, I think it is not so bad because otherwise you start playing with the limits. I went a little bit over it.
“Last year you could also lean on it a little bit,” he continued. “Now it is a bit higher. I don’t expect it to be a big problem in the race because you don’t want to go that wide.”
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