At the insistence of the FIA, Albert Park will no longer feature its iconic green and yellow kerb markings.
Sadly, when the season gets underway next month, like so many other tracks, the kerbs will be painted white.
“We’re a bit of a unique there,” Tom Mottram, chief events officer for the Australian GP, tells Speedcafe, though the kerbs at Interlagos are also green and yellow at present.
Explaining why the green and yellow came about, he explains: “I had to go back to the archives a bit to understand why, and it’s to do with the fact we’re in a public park.
“It was this kind of funny ‘no standing’… there’s some yellow lines painted throughout the year which is no parking when it’s in the hands of Parks Victoria. There was an agreement struck years and years ago where we could just keep it yellow so we weren’t repainting every time. But now, with the changes to track limits, there’s new specs around it needs to be white with a blue outline.”
As previously reported, the infamous Turn 6, where both George Russell and Alex Albon crashed last year, has been modified, with the TecPro barriers realigned in order to prevent cars bouncing back on to the track should they hit the barriers.
