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The F1 drivers are going to be wearing "cooling" suits approved be the FIA that circulates water on the upper torso of the drivers to keep them cool due to the heat and high humidity at this night race.
Is that a regulated wearing? I.e., drivers can only use them when the FIA(?)says they can. The suits were 'introduced' at the start of the season, yah?
OMG, F1 is more than 50 years late !! Porsche started to equip its endurance drivers with cooling suits in the 70s !! Thet started with Tetsu Ikuzawa, the first Japanese Porsche factory driver.
Cooling suits? Do what Fangio and Moss and the real men did, race in a tee shirt. Is this going to be another weekend of girls vollyball? If F1 wants to save the planet and conserve energy, turn out all the lights and race in the day time. Looks as garish as Vegas. It's supposed to be a race track, not a pinball machine.
Then race in the early morning, when it is the coolest time of the day. This should be about the sport of autoracing...that comes first. The particpants and the fans must serve the sport and come to it on its terms. Back in the early Vegas days (the eighties), it was once so hot my wife didn't leave our room. Tough for her, I was down at the track, sweating with everyone else, and having a great time.
Might as well just slap an air con unit on the car...this is not racing folks.Freaking PC drivers who cant say boo to a ghost ..what a farce!
I'd love to see how long some posters would last in 80%+ humidity and up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit in an F1 cockpit for an hour and a half without dropping dead and binning it, never mind being competitive.
140 degrees Fahrenheit...well that's nothing...let's make it 160 degrees and full body cool suits...or make it 200 degrees and put the drivers in space suits...of better yet, dump racing there and race somewhere else where the conditions aren't so absurd.
Exactly what I meant when I posted. I had a 3 hr endurance race (spec Miata) at autobahn and learned a lesson after the driver change. I was battling a ex pro in 95degree weather and extremely high humidity and just after the hour mark the confusion was setting in and I was forgetting to down shift before the corners. Keep in mind guaranteed 140 degrees minimum in the car This Miata has a roof it wasn’t an open top, helmet , HANS device full 2 layer suit. Heat stroke was setting in. ! I managed a third place for the team. At the checkered flag I contemplated stopping the car on the track to get out as quickly as possible I couldn’t think straight anymore. I shortened this story but it was the most difficult race that I ever ran. I had to be pulled out of the car in the pits by the Eurosport crew (my race support) Immediate cold towels on the neck. Heart rate was a little crazy for a while. Following race we had a full cool suit set up. It’s amazing how keeping your core at normal temp does for your senses and reflexes and coordination. In later races I did learn that turning it on too early would make me too docile. It’s good to get a little amped up at the start and about halfway through the stint, then flick on the power to the suit to keep focused and finish strong.
There has been issues with extreme heat and severe dehydration in the past, notably at Le Mans. The increasingly enclosed cockpit, full-face helmets and the imposition of several layers of flameproof clothing have made things worse over the years. One year, the winner on MAZDA, Johnny Herbert almost collapsed during the last lap at Le Mans; he had to be extracted from the car and immediatly put on perfusion just after the finish line. He was unable to receive his trophy and participate in the podium celebrations. Now that they have outlawed open top cars in Endurance (WEC), keeping the driver cool is more difficult and I believe some sort of clim is compulsory to maintain a bearable temperature inside the cars. In F1, I remember watching on TV Nigel Mansell suffering from "heat exhaustion" and having to be hauled out of his car after a race to receive medical attention. Even Ayrton Senna had a similar experience. Nelson Piquet collapsed on the podium once.