Formula One's own drivers are calling Austin's Circuit of the Americas "unacceptable" and warning of spinal damage — but the foreign-owned racing series is locked into a contract there until 2034, and the money keeps flowing.

The track, built on marshland, has deteriorated so badly that competitors say the bumps are causing real physical harm. The only real fix — ripping up and rebuilding the surface — would cost a fortune. So the sport grinds down drivers instead. This is the globalist sports model in a nutshell: extract public subsidies, deliver a crumbling product, and leave the locals holding the bag.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen didn't hold back. "The bumps are unacceptable," he told the press ahead of this weekend's US Grand Prix. "Over time they've been grinding a little bit here and there but it's just putting a plaster on the big problem. You need to really fully open up the track. That costs a lot of money and time but that's the only way to get rid of it because these bumps are not natural and they are out of control."

Verstappen added that medical checks on his spine show "the bottom end doesn't look that great" and warned that if the sport keeps "finding this acceptable to drive on, then you are going to suffer with that much more." McLaren's Lando Norris backed him up, saying the bumps are so bad he needs "headache tablets before I go out simply because it's so bumpy and you're hitting your head pretty hard against the headrest."

The Guardian framed the story around Kimi Antonelli's championship chase; the BBC did the same. Both buried the lead. The real story is that a track subsidized by Texas taxpayers is physically harming the people who use it, and the foreign organization profiting from it has zero incentive to fix the underlying problem because it's got a contract for another eight years.

While Austin's circuit decays, F1 is busy chasing money from even more questionable partners. Last week the series confirmed a 10-year deal to race in Rwanda — a country Amnesty International describes as practicing "arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech." Felix Jakens, Amnesty UK's head of campaigns, called the agreement "a sportswashing prize for the Rwandan authorities."

Lewis Hamilton, now at Ferrari, said he wants to race into his mid-40s to compete in Rwanda, deflecting human rights concerns by noting "there's problems all over the world today."

F1 is also pressing ahead with plans to hold races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi despite the ongoing war between the US and Iran and the Saudi conflict with Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen. The BBC reports the sport is preparing Imola as a backup venue — but for now, the plan is to race in an active conflict zone.

So add it up. F1 takes American public money for a venue its own drivers say is dangerous. It signs decade-long sportswashing deals with repressive governments. It plans to hold races in war zones. And the American fans who pack the stands in Austin? They get a deteriorating track while their dollars flow overseas to a London-based operation that answers to nobody in Texas.

The contract runs until 2034. That's eight more years of checks for the privilege of being taken for a ride.