AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda believes the new kerbs installed at the Lusail International Circuit could prove to be very damaging for F1 cars in this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix.
Kerbs were a major headache for drivers during their first visit to the circuit in 2021, but Tsunoda reckons that that the changes that have been made ahead of this year's event will only make matters worse for drivers.
In addition to massive infrastructure changes undertaken at Doha that will enhance the fans' experience, the track itself has undergone a complete resurfacing, while all the problematic kerbs from two years ago have been replaced.
They were the culprit of the costly punctures suffered by Valtteri Bottas, Nicholas Latifi and George Russell on race day, so their upgrade/replacement was initially deemed as something positive.
But Tsunoda and his AlphaTauri crews noted on photos supplied to the team earlier this week that the new profile of the kerbs appears even more aggressive then the previous one, especially given how close to the ground F1's latest-generations cars run.
"It seems like they changed to the aggressive kerbs," commented Tsunoda who called Lusil a "floor destroyer track".
"Here is always a story with track limits, but they made even worse the kerbs because when you go over the white line, you are going to have a proper penalty - which seems like it's going to be a high risk to damage the car."
Tsunoda explained that his primary concern was the run-off area that follows the end of the kerb, where the potential for a car to veer off track and face damage from beneath was heightened.
"It’s the step between the kerb and off track," he said. "Driving on the kerb won’t be an issue, but once you step out from the kerbs it's going to be like a complete sliding effect.
"It is not smooth at all, and especially driving here, with such high-speed corners where the car is really low, it will be hard. Even one time will be pretty costly I think."
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