F1 organisers confirm change to track after Max Verstappen complained as title race set to come down to the wire

ORGANISERS of the US Grand Prix have confirmed a major change has been made for this year’s Formula One race.

After a three-week break, F1 returns with the title battle well and truly on between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

The rivals are separated by just 52 points with six grand prix weekends to go.

However, as the Drivers’ Championship heads into crunch time, track chiefs at this weekend’s race of Circuit of the Americas in Texas, have confirmed the course has been fully resurfaced with new asphalt.

It follows a complaint Verstappen made last year.

The Austin track has always been a bumpy ride for drivers, however, last year’s edition proved particularly problematic.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified following the race when they were found to have excessive wear on the planks underneath their cars.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire mid-event after smashing up his car floor.

Verstappen, 27, won both the sprint and feature race at COTA last year on route to his third F1 title, but was very vocal about the problems he and his fellow drivers endured during the race.

The flying Dutchman said at the time: “It needs to be redone because at the moment it feels like it’s better suited to a rally car. I’m jumping and bouncing around.

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“In an F1 car probably you don’t even see it as much because, of course, we are glued to the ground because of the downforce, but the bumps and jumps that we have in some places, this is way too much.

“I don’t think it’s F1 level. I love this track.

“Honestly, the layout is amazing but we definitely need new tarmac and it needs to be a lot smoother for the coming years, because we already asking for this for I think quite a few years, and it’s not really been done.”

Fast forward to this weekend, and race promoter Bobby Epstein has revealed the Red Bull driver’s complaint was a factor in finally getting the much-needed work done.

He said: “It was mainly to get rid of the bumps. Some of that track was 12 years old, so it was time.

“I know Max gave it a pretty poor review last year, so I hope we hear something positive. I’m certain we’re going to hear, ‘This is like a totally new track. It’s fantastic’.”

As well as a resurfaced track, some of the verges have been narrowed and replaced with turf in an effort to reduce track limit violations.

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Like last year, Verstappen is in the drivers seat to win the title.

However, this time he is at a disadvantage due to the fact that Norris, 24, has a quicker car and has hit a strong run of form that has seen the Brit win two of the last four races.

That being said, Norris needs to outscore Verstappen by almost nine points (8.67) every weekend to complete the greatest comeback in the sport’s history.

COTA will kick off a second series of three sprint and feature race double headers to finish the season.

A standard one-race weekend in Mexico will follow a week later before Brazil sees the penultimate sprint and feature race weekend.

This will give way to another two-week break before F1 returns in Las Vegas.

Vegas will then be followed by the final sprint weekend of the season in Qatar, before the season finale plays out in Abu Dhabi on December 8.