The final corner at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit has been changed after Michael Schumacher crashed there last year.
Ahead of the 2007 season opener in less than a fortnight, race organisers have at the request of the FIA’s Charlie Whiting lengthened and flattened the outside kerb to stop cars from bouncing over the verge.
The track verge, formerly grass and criticised last year for being uneven, has been concreted and covered with a layer of artificial grass.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s chief executive Tim Bamford, however, defended the existing layout by insisting: “The main cause of those crashes was the car going off the track.
“Kerbs are intended to be bumpy and for drivers not to drive on them,” he told the Melbourne newspaper Herald Sun, albeit admitting that the minimal change is an “improvement”.
Bamford added: “We’re not talking about major work here. It’s a strip about a metre wide and 20 metres long.”
