Two and a half hours before the start of the final free practice session at Formula 1's Australian Grand Prix, teams were informed about what would effectively be a modification of the circuit. The FIA deemed it necessary for safety reasons to remove straight mode 4 – the zone between Turns 8 and 9.
The initial intervention came after the drivers’ briefing on Friday evening, during which some drivers had indicated that it would be dangerous to take that zone – including multiple kinks – flat-out with the front and rear wings open. According to Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director, seven of the 11 teams would have a downforce problem to varying degrees, but judging by the political unrest that followed the matter turned out to be more nuanced than that.
