Qatar GP 'floor destroyer' warning fired before practice

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda has raised concerns over the "floor destroyer" kerbs at the Lusail International Circuit ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

Aggressive kerbing has been laid as part of extensive infrastructural upgrades for the weekend, including a resurfacing of the track F1 visited on its only occasion thus far two years ago.

While Formula 1 cars are robust in terms of safety, various carbon fibre winglets can become loose due to the amount of vibrations put through fixtures at speed when the drivers run over kerbs.

This was an issue at the Red Bull Ring before 2021 as cars got damaged easily by running over yellow serrated kerbs before the circuit removed them amid concerns over spare parts.

Airing his concerns to media, including RacingNews365: "I think it's a floor destroyer track here.

"On Tuesday I saw the pictures and they look really aggressive. All the engineers were concerned about it."

Tsunoda raises concerns

While there is no concerns over running over the kerbs normally, as drivers often do when entering or exiting a corner, Tsunoda believes there is a specific problem that could throw up unexpected results for drivers.

"Definitely there's a step between the kerb and off track. So from the white line there's a kerb and driving on the kerb won't be an issue," said Tsunoda.

"But once you step out from the kerb, it's going to be a kind of sliding effect [with the car].

"The step does not seem smooth at all, especially driving here with such high-speed corners where the car is really low. Even one time it will be pretty costly."