Lando Norris demands immediate Jeddah track changes after Mick Schumacher crash

Norris in zijn McLaren — Photo: © LAT Images

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Norris demands immediate Jeddah track changes after Schumacher crash

Schumacher was involved in a 150mph smash in qualifying

Ian Parkes & Sam Hall

Sunday 27 March 2022 14:00

Lando Norris has called on the FIA to make urgent changes to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit following Mick Schumacher's horror shunt in Saturday's F1 qualifying session.

A number of changes were made to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix venue prior to this year's event but Schumacher's frightening crash at over 150mph highlighted further improvements are required.

The German lost control of his Haas after skidding across the aggressive kerb at turn 10, leading to Norris demanding alterations be made ahead of Sunday's night race.

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“Just with this type of car, you can’t have such an aggressive kerb at such a speed that we are running at, and what makes it worse is how it’s angled to come back and then curves round," explained Norris.

“You just get it a little bit wrong and it can be a big incident as we saw.

“It needs to be edited for the race and changed a bit because, especially in a race situation, if you are following or just get a bit of understeer because of the dirty air or so on, through no fault of your own you can just get caught out.

“And with the car and how it is with the kerb, it can easily end up in a bad place. They need to change it for the race.”

TECPRO barrier not the answer

Racing alongside F1 this weekend, F2 has seen a number of equally heavy crashes, with Cem Bolukbasi transferred to hospital following a crash similar to that involving Schumacher.

Asked if positioning a TECPRO barrier at the corner to add padding to the concrete could solve the issue, Norris conceded: "I don’t think you can put a TECPRO on the inside of the wall there because then the wall comes back out.

“Just the shape of everything there is very odd, so if you had a TECPRO there, if you hit it then it could easily just come on to the track which is the issue. Therefore I don’t think it is possible.

“Apart from the kerb itself, everything is as good as it can get unless it’s much wider but then it just defeats the object of the circuit."