Breaking news

FIA to review placement of barrier that irked Bottas

FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi says he will review the placement of the Tecpro barrier at the final corner in Mexico City after Valtteri Bottas’s huge accident in qualifying.

The Finn ran wide and hit the concrete wall and slid along it before making a heavy impact with what he called the “nasty” blunt end of the Tecpro barrier, opening it up and causing considerable damage to his Mercedes.

Asked by Motorsport.com if he would bring up the subject with the FIA, Bottas made it clear that he would.

“Yes, definitely, we should try and avoid those kind of Tecpro things,” he said. “It’s a good thing, but how it starts – maybe it should start earlier or much later – it’s not ideal.

“It would have been all fine, and no pain at all if we had continued along the wall like it was. For sure we’ll bring it up.”

Former Grand Prix driver Mark Webber has also questioned the location of the barrier, noting on Twitter: “[Tecpro] not needed at all at the last corner.”

Masi said that the barrier starts where it does as research suggested that’s where it was needed.

“As part of the circuit’s licensing, and when it would have been done a number of years ago, the Tecpro is based on impact angles of various simulations,” he said. “And that showed quite a severe impact angle based on the simulations.

“Anything prior to that was effectively within our tolerance, anything where the Tecpro is was outside of the tolerance. Having seen that incident [Bottas had] we’re going to have a look and see how it could be improved.”

Read Also:

Bottas had knee pain after hitting "nasty" barrier

Masi said it wasn’t possible to make changes for Sunday’s race: “The circuit’s been homologated with that – that side of it has been homologated, tried and tested, I’m certainly not going to be pulling out a major safety feature, which is what it is.”

Masi doesn’t believe that there are similar examples at other venues.

“From memory I can’t recall anything at this point that is similar of that nature, so it’s something where first let’s look at the whole picture, rather than a knee-jerk reaction, and actually get a true understanding of what it is and if we can improve it and then how can we improve it.

“We had a Tecpro team here this weekend as there is a lot of events, and they’re going to have a look at all of it as well. I think it’s a lesson to all of us, I don’t think we ever stop learning.”