F1 told changes must be made over potentially dangerous issue
F1 told changes must be made over potentially dangerous issue
Alexander Wurz, former Formula 1 driver and head of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, has warned that something must be done to fix the extreme conditions the drivers faced in Qatar last weekend.
Logan Sargeant was forced to retire from the race because of the extreme heat, while a number of other drivers needed medical attention – including Esteban Ocon, who admitted he threw up during the race on Sunday.
Wurz suggested that measures such as cooling seats should be made available, as well as better insulation and cooling around hot parts of the car to avoid seats heating up too much – something Fernando Alonso complained about during the race, and something that forced Mark Webber's retirement from a race back in 2004.
The FIA have committed themselves to an investigation into conditions in the race, and what can be done to avoid similar issues in the future.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Verstappen setup quirk which allows Red Bull to make car even faster
Wurz: There needs to be better insulation
Speaking to BBC Sport this week, Wurz said: "My initial thoughts revolve around lessons from other categories which have shown heat as a limiting factor for drivers.
"Cooling seats, for example, work very well and are not too difficult to produce and install. That is something every team should already be looking at.
"There needs to be better insulation and/or air cooling for very hot electrical boxes, which are often sited near the drivers' seat, or in the future reroute hot hydraulic lines, so the driver's seat environment is not overheating.
"The entire rules set has tests and limits for many parts of the car. Given the driver is one of the performance parts of the equation, perhaps it is time to look at defining limits to the heat they are subjected to."
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Nyck De Vries
- Liam Lawson
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2023
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Australia 2023
- Grand Prix of China 2023
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2023
- Miami Grand Prix 2023
- Qatar Airways Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'emilia Romagna 2023
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2023
- AWS Gran Premio de España 2023
- Grand Prix du Canada 2023
- Grand Prix of Austria 2023
- Aramco Grand Prix of Great Britain 2023
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2023
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2023
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Italy 2023
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2023
- Grand Prix of Japan 2023
- Qatar Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of the United States 2023
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2023
- Rolex Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2023
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2023
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