Several drivers including Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen have voiced their concerns regarding the severe bumps at COTA. Defending world champion, Lewis Hamilton went as far as saying that the bumps caused him "massive headache."
There was a spree of spins during the two Free Practice sessions on Friday as drivers struggled to cope with the major bumps in the track surface of COTA.
Many of those spins as well as Romain Grosjean's crash were attributed to the uneven track surface, that has made the overall Grand Prix worrisome for the teams and drivers alike.
Racing Point's Sergio Perez explained how the bumps would prove dangerous once the tires begin degrading during the race. The Mexican driver termed them "unacceptable" and said, "It can be very painful,"
"Someone can get hurt over these bumps and you have seen some drivers going off at very high speed, and it is due to the bumps.
"I think it is totally unacceptable."
"I think today we are over the limit. We have seen some incidents due to the bumps and I think that is just not acceptable." commented Perez.
"In the race, and I hope not, but I expect to see some people crashing out when the deg starts to kick in.
"All of a sudden you get a bump in the wrong angle and go straight into the wall, so it is quite bad."
The bumpy nature of the circuit has prompted Lewis Hamilton to voice his concerns too. The Mercedes ace claimed that he "felt horrible" and was left with "massive headache" after the practice sessions.
"After the first session I was not feeling good. It was the bumpiest track by far that I've been on. I had such a headache," commented Hamilton.
"And for people to understand when we talk about bumpy tracks - bumps are not such a bad thing in some places,"
"Because it adds that character to a circuit - so I'm not a fan of completely smooth circuits.
"But this one is like massive, massive bumps."
"And the problem for me, for us, is that we don't have much suspension. It's usually your butt on the floor and your spine takes all the compression.
"So I was feeling horrible, I had a massive headache after P1, and had to lay down, was not feeling great."
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was more mindful of the racing lines across the track when attempting to overtake a rival. "You have to be careful,"
"If you go a bit off-line and you want to outbrake someone, I'm always a little bit afraid to damage your back or whatever.
"It's something we have to look into of course. I don't mind bumps on a street circuit, it's part of it. But these bumps are quite severe.
"It's almost like a hump or a ramp in some places where the wheels are coming off the ground. That's of course not what you want. We'll have a look at it." added the Dutch.
Lance Stroll on the other hand expressed his belief that the bumps are just as bad for the cars as they are for the drivers. The Canadian remarked, "I think there are two or three big bumps that are really upsetting the car and it's not good for the engine either with big spikes in revs,"
"They've got to sort it out for next year, I don't think there's a solution for this year but going forward, there's two or three bumps they've got to remove.
"They're like speed bumps out there so it's too much. I think when you hit the rev limiter and get a bit of air it's a little bit much. It's more for the rallycross boys than for us."
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