COTA addressing bumps ahead of F1 return after MotoGP complaints

The track surface was heavily criticised by a number of MotoGP riders, including championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who described it as a “joke”.

Despite the organisers’ best efforts to smooth the service, the problem persisted leaving riders issuing an ultimatum: 'If COTA isn't resurfaced, MotoGP won't come back'.

F1 hasn’t raced at COTA since 2019 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In the 2019 race, Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire after sustaining suspension damage in the race, with Ferrari blaming the bumps.

F1 race director Michael Masi confirmed that he was in contact with FIM - MotoGP’s governing body.

“I was on the phone to my FIM colleagues all weekend whilst they were in Austin to get a true understanding of the entire situation,” Masi said.  “What we have actually done is, since the 2019 F1 event a large part of the circuit was resurfaced to counter some of the issues that we saw in 2019. The areas that were raised by the bikes is different areas to those were resurfaced.

“Tony Cotman, who is one of the FIA circuit inspectors who was previously Champ Car/IndyCar race director, who is in the US, has been out to Austin already during the week. He’s done a report and the circuit are doing some changes for us to address some of the concerns.

“They’ll grind some bumps and so forth, but we’ve got some time to do it so they’ll do what they can in the time frame.”