FIA adjusts rules on track limits a day too late for Verstappen

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21 October 2023 at 21:48
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  • Toby McLuskie

The FIA announced on Saturday during the sprint shootout that the track limits of the Circuit of the Americas have been changed in three places compared to the first free practice and qualifying sessions. For Max Verstappen, the governing body's decision comes a day too late.

FIA intervenes

For a brief moment, Max Verstappen thought he had pole position in his hands when the clock hit 0 in Friday's qualifying session for the US Grand Prix. However, the Red Bull Racing driver was deceived as he saw his time scrapped for exceeding the track limits. Interestingly, a day later, the FIA adjusted the track limits, including where Verstappen briefly left the track and was thus penalised.

An FIA spokesman revealed, "following a discussion with the teams and drivers yesterday, we have widened the white line on the outside at Turns 9, 12 and 19 - this is to give the drivers a bit of extra margin at these corners." Drivers could not see how much space they had left, due to a lack of visibility from the cockpit.

At Sky Sports, Christian Horner said of the change: "It was discussed between the drivers and the team managers in their meeting last night and the white line has now become more of a stripe than a line," the Red Bull team boss told the British television channel.