FIA and Circuit of the Americas consider installing adjustable gravel traps from 2025 to defuse track limit controversy of Formula 1 in Austin
Motorsport.com has learned that the FIA and the race organizer in Austin are in talks to install adjustable gravel beds for the US Grand Prix from 2025. This should controversy surrounding the track boundary, in which Red Bull world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren driver Lando Norris were involved and which overshadowed last Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Austin circuit had already made considerable efforts to avoid further Formula One track limit sagas when the asphalt was recently renewed. After the 2023 race, Haas had requested a right to review the track limits, which, in the team’s opinion, should have been sanctioned after.
Corners 6, 13, 14 and 15 in Austin were narrowed, and cameras were installed to monitor the track limits at various points, while the run-off from Turn 11 was covered with a resin-bound “fake” gravel strip.
Mobile gravel strip: Austin was advised to rebuild before Grand Prix
However, the small gravel trap solution that the FIA has been working on for 2024 was not installed on the track. It was first installed at the Austrian Red Bull Ring and described by Formula One Race Director Niels Wittich as the “perfect set-up”
The approach narrows the kerbs and adds white lines to ensure the cars cannot travel all the way across them without running off the track. Small gravel traps are also installed behind the kerbs to deter drivers who are really pushing the limits of the track.
Motorsport.com has learned that all Formula One circuits have been asked to consider installing mobile gravel traps at certain controversial corners. The idea has therefore also been put to the race organizer in Austin ahead of the 2024 race, but this ended in yet another controversy over the track limits.
Immediately after last weekend’s race, there was a lot of discussion in the media about the idea of installing the adjustable gravel beds used at the Red Bull Ring as a solution for the critical turns 1 and 12 in Austin. The FIA is said to have raised the idea with the organizer again after the controversial outcome of the race in Austin.
Why the FIA can’t just crack down
However, the FIA only has the authority to force circuits to make such changes for safety reasons, which is not the case given that the current saga is focused on sporting clashes.
Austin must also weigh how the gravel traps could affect the safety of the MotoGP race, which has been held there since 2013. Furthermore, the solution with the adjustable gravel traps involves significant additional costs for each track that wants to install them.
Bobby Epstein, CEO of the Circuit of the Americas, had said ahead of this year’s USA Grand Prix that the adjustable gravel bed solution was not suitable for the Texas venue at this point in time: “You can’t have both,” he said. “You can’t cut open the track and put in gravel, then turn it over and hope it stays waterproof when you have clay underneath. So there are challenges on both sides.”
Russell makes it clear: the track is the cause of all discussions
This topic was also discussed a lot in the run-up to the race in Mexico, where the Formula 1 drivers had to answer many questions about the incidents between Verstappen and Norris on media day. Mercedes driver George Russell said: “For me, the cause of the problem lies with the track, because it allows you to leave the track limits.”
“And if we take Austria last year as an example, we had, I don’t know, 300 problems with the track limits. They put gravel in, and there were no problems. If you put gravel in that corner [12 in Austin], Lando can’t overtake and Max can’t brake that late. So I think we need to get to the root of the problem.”
