Max Verstappen challenges COTA owner to drive his F1 car over Austin bumps

Max Verstappen has hit back at Bobby Epstein’s claims that the COTA bumps are just “dips”, saying the track owner “wouldn’t be able to walk” if he did five laps in an F1 car.

Racing at the Circuit of The Americas this past weekend, several drivers criticised the bumps on the track.

Max Verstappen hits back at COTA owner over track bumps

While Gabriel Bortoleto called it “below F1 standards”, Charles Leclerc said the track surface was “poor”, while Carlos Sainz added that the bumps at Turn 1 and Turn 19 were “unacceptable”.

Verstappen went even further, saying the bumps such as those experienced at the Austin track were having a long-term impact on his body.

“I had some impacts like vertical load, which was over 9G on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun,” he said of the COTA surface.

“And especially the older you get, you think about that more and more. That’s not what you want.”

He added: “It’s really not nice, and I think sometimes people don’t really understand that because I can tell you, from the checks that I’ve done from my spine, the bottom end doesn’t look that great.”

The Dutchman said he had noted that the track was “incredibly bumpy” while watching a recent World Endurance Championship race.

COTA owner Epstein downplayed Verstappen’s concerns.

Speaking to ESPN, Epstein, who owns the Texas circuit, called the bumps nothing more than dips.

He doubled down on that, adamant the World Endurance Championship drivers had no issues with the track surface.

Although he conceded that he did “not feel good” that there was a bump at Turn 1, he insisted: “But the other things Max spoke about, all the bumps around the track, we’ve fixed them. The track is in really good shape.

“I talked to some WEC drivers who said there’s no problem.

“There’s one bump at the beginning of [Turn] 1 that is not acceptable in my mind… It’s a dip, not a bump.

“If it were a bump, we’d sharpen it out, we’d take care of it, or overnight tonight, and that kind of stuff’s happened before [at other tracks]. But when it’s a dip it’s a lot different, there’s no easy fix.”

He added: “I had no problem with him saying what he said. I think he might be surprised in some areas that bumps he thought were here aren’t any more.”

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Epstein’s “dip” comments were put to Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver gave that short shrift, saying the American “wouldn’t” be able to walk if he drove a Formula 1 car, even for a few laps, on his COTA track.

“I invite him to drive my car,” the four-time world champion told Dutch media in Austin.

“I think he’d have to get out after five laps and wouldn’t be able to walk anymore.

“There are also big bumps in a high-speed section between Turns 4 and 5,” he continued.

“The ground underneath the track cannot be used as an excuse. A car should not have to take such a heavy impact at that kind of speed.”

Verstappen, who finished the Grand Prix in third place on the podium behind Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc, revealed he was having to take pain medication to survive the weekend.

“I’m taking painkillers here, which is something I don’t normally need. And I shouldn’t need to, either,” he admitted.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Lando Norris said ahead of the weekend: “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. It’s certainly not a nice thing.

“There’s not much we can do. We complain about it. It’s something we’ve brought up many, many times, but there’s only so much we can complain about things.”

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