COTA bumps ‘totally unacceptable’ - Perez

Sergio Perez described the bumps at Circuit of The Americas as “totally unacceptable” after Friday practice at the United States Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz suffered a high-speed spin in the first sector during FP1, which was followed by a similar incident for Romain Grosjean that resulted in the Haas driver hitting the wall and causing a red flag on Friday afternoon. A number of drivers referenced the bumps during the two sessions, and Perez says the track conditions are not up to standard.

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“You’ve seen some drivers going off in very high speed and it’s due to the bumps, so I think that’s totally unacceptable,” Perez said. “It is quite a big concern, and I think we’re going to see some people struggling with it where if you get it wrong you’re basically going to go straight into the wall at very high speed. If you try do an overtake you can hit very hard with the car, so I think it’s going to be a topic this weekend.

“I think today we are over the limit. We have seen some incidents due to the bumps, and I think that’s just not acceptable. In the race I don’t know, but I expect to see some people crashing out when the [tire] deg starts to kick in and all of a sudden you get a bump at the wrong angle and you just go straight into the wall. So yeah, it’s quite bad.

“I’m not an expert but I would think there’s not a lot to do for tomorrow or Sunday. I don’t know. It’s really bad... Every year it tends to get worse and worse but today it’s over the limit, I think.”

Perez was speaking at the end of what he admitted was a difficult Friday after struggling to match the performance of teammate Lance Stroll on both short and long runs, and finishing FP2 in 15th place.

“Quite poor for me," he said. "I’m struggling quite a bit with balance, so I’ve got a lot of work to do. Hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow and be in contention to be in Q3. But it’s most important to improve my race pace, because today was very poor.

“I’m just not there. Lance is a lot stronger, not just over one lap but it’s also in the long run, so I’ve got some work to do tonight to try and figure out what’s going on.”