Max Verstappen believes that the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which hosts the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, is more dangerous than the Spa-Francorchamps.
Last weekend, a fatal accident occurred at Spa in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.
18-year-old Dilano van ’t Hoff passed away after his car was struck at high-speed after he spun out in wet conditions.
It marks the second fatality at Spa in the last five years, as in August 2019, Anthoine Hubert lost his life during the Formula 2 Feature Race.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll called for immediate changes to be implemented at the Eau-Rouge/Raidillion complex.
While Verstappen concurred that the corner is dangerous, he believes the opening sector in Jeddah poses an even bigger risk due to the series of high-speed blind corners that form the section of track.
“It is, for sure, quite a dangerous corner but we’re also going to Jeddah in sector one,” Verstappen said.
“That, for me, is probably more dangerous. l, I’m happy that nothing has happened yet in that sector because going through (Turns) 6, 7, 8, if you have a shunt there that can be the same.
“It’s all blind, you don’t know what’s coming. Even with people like impeding and stuff.
“I remember at the beginning of the year there, I got upset with my engineer because I impeded Lando [Norris], I think, and I know how that feels.
“It’s super dangerous when these things happen.”
Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso asserted that the biggest problem in single-seater racing is a lack of visibility in wet conditions.
Verstappen has suggested that Spa should look into pushing the barriers back even further so drivers don’t avoid bouncing back onto the circuit,
“For sure, in Eau Rouge, going up, it is blind, but of course this accident now happened later.
“I think the only thing that maybe can be improved there is to make more space in terms of trying to move the barriers more out, because at the moment, it looks like as soon as you crash, you hit the barrier, you bounce back onto the track quite easily.
“And of course with that scenario, where there is almost no visibility, a lot of water, and that is of course a big issue. I think in the dry, normally, it’s a bit better.
“You see, of course, more of what is going on in front of you. I think already the changes they made in Spa, they definitely opened it up a lot more but it will always be a dangerous corner.”
However, the 25-year-old says questions must be asked as to why the championship opted to restart the race in precarious conditions following a lengthy Safety Car period.
“We are going to a lot of tracks where there are dangerous corners, where up until probably there is an accident, you won’t say anything,” he said.
“And now of course it gets brought up, but I feel it’s a bit unfair to just blame it on the track, because I think in the first place you have to look into why did they restart.
“It’s a big championship, a lot of cars. They are up and coming talents, they probably risk a bit more, because they want to show every race that they are the best driver out there.
“And with that visibility, it was just impossible to see anything and I know, of course, from your mind when you’re going there, you don’t see anything.
“You’re like, ‘well, I guess the guy in front of me is flat so I’m flat. I just stay flat out’. And that’s exactly probably what happened there.
“The drivers are just staying flat because they didn’t know there was a car in the wall and then another car in the wall later on. So yeah, there are a lot of things that have to come together, what we have to improve.”
