Brazilian Grand Prix organisers have used a concrete floor saw to cut a makeshift drainage channel in the Turn 3 kerbs at Interlagos, after trapped water caught there triggered a spate of crashes in the sprint.
As The Race’s exclusive photographs show, the channel – which has been sliced in the outer region of the kerb – runs the entire length of the stepped section before being diverted off onto the grass.
The response is designed to improve the flow of water away from the circuit and ensure that, if there is any further rain over the remainder of the race weekend, it will not collect into pools like it did on Saturday.
Following heavy rain overnight on Friday, the Saturday sprint at Interlagos got underway in damp conditions without too many dramas early on.
However, race leader Lando Norris set in sequence a chain of events on lap six when he ran wide across the kerb – throwing up water that had been trapped in the steps of the kerb.
Norris’s McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was first to fall foul of the wetter kerb as he ran wide shortly after – losing control of his car and spinning off into the barriers.
Moments later both Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto followed Piastri into the wall as they too lost control on the slippery surface.
The race had to be red flagged to retrieve the McLaren and Alpine cars as well as repair the barriers.
While damp kerbs following rain are a common danger in F1, the Turn 3 design appeared to show water collecting a lot more into pools than is ideal – especially with new grooves that have been cut into the track at Turn 2 helping channel rain directly there.
On Saturday night, workmen were sent to the Turn 3 kerbs to work on a crude solution that should help avoid repeat troubles on Sunday.
A special industrial floor saw, commonly used for cutting trenches in the kind of concrete the kerbs are made of, has been used to make the channel – which should then divert water down the hill and direct it onto the grass area behind the kerb.
Piastri: I shouldn't have been there
While Piastri was unlucky to have been caught out by the water on the kerb that had been thrown up by Norris running wide ahead of him, he admitted on Saturday that it was his fault for having drifted wide in the first place.
Asked by The Race about if the lap six incident was the first time he had used the kerb, he said: “I used a little bit the lap before and had no problems with it.
“I think, looking back at the lap, I think a couple of the guys ahead used it and potentially put a bit more water where I went.
“I probably shouldn’t have been on the kerb anyway, but I think the track was in a different state than the lap before and I wasn’t the only one that got caught out like that.
“So it was a combination of a few things but ultimately it’s just one of those.”
Colapinto said that there had been a chain reaction – with Piastri having his dramas on the kerbs then also making things even worse for the cars behind,
“I think Lando touched the water first, Piastri got the water off Lando and then it was a bit of a snowball effect,” he said.
“He went a lot on the kerb and he took a lot of water out of it. Then, when I came behind, there was a lot of water on the track. I didn’t realise and as soon as I touched the paint a little bit, I lost the car very, very quickly and very aggressively.”
The official forecast for the Brazilian Grand Prix race day is to be dry, but it is clear that the organisers do not want to take any risks with the Turn 3 kerbs in case the rain does return.
