Former Supercars champion Will Brown has opened up on the horror cool suit failure that put him in the medical centre after the final race of the weekend on Sunday.
After the first two races of the weekend took place under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday and Saturday evenings, the third took place in scorching conditions on Sunday afternoon.
As ambient temperatures in the mid-30s pushed cabin temperatures well north of 50C, Brown was one of three drivers – along with race-winning teammate Broc Feeney and David Reynolds – to suffer cool suit failures.
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“I still feel like a half-cooked lobster … that was the hottest I’ve ever been,” Brown said on the Lucky Dogs Podcast he co-hosts with former Erebus teammate and 2023 series champion Brodie Kostecki.
“Hopping out of the car was tough, then I just laid next to the car and they poured water and ice all over me. That made me feel a lot better.”
Will Brown and rival David Reynolds were both treated at the trackside medical centre after suffering cool suit failures. Lucky Dogs Podcast
The cool suit is in essence a shirt covered in plastic tubing, through which ice-cold water is pumped to keep the driver cool. While the system is brilliant when it works, it has the opposite effect when it fails. In a cabin in which temperatures regularly exceed 50C, the cool suit becomes not only an unnecessary extra layer of clothing, the water trapped in the tubing only gets warmer, further heating the driver.
A cool suit failure usually involves the water freezing somewhere in the lines causing a blockage. But for the Red Bull duo, their suits remained functional in that water was being pumped, but it only got hotter as the race went on. Both collapsed after climbing from their cars after the race.
When asked by Wide World of Sports for clarification on the dual failures, the Red Bull team said they would need to be investigated further, which could possibly involve the manufacturer.
Brown said he laid next to the car for several minutes before moving to a shower where he was assessed by medics, who eventually took him via ambulance to the medical centre – a trip of literally 20 metres from the team’s garage.
Will Brown ahead of the final race of the weekend in Sydney. Supercars
“(Team boss Jamie Whincup) was laughing because they put me in the ambulance … and it had to go up and do a U-turn so it probably took longer than If I’d just jumped in a golf buggy – or I probably could have just walked.”
Brown said Reynolds was already in the medical centre by the time he arrived, and that the Team18 driver was in a worse state than he was.
“I’m like ‘Reynolds, you good?’, and the (medic) was like ‘he’s not so good’ and he didn’t reply,” Brown said.
“I pulled the blue sheets back and looked over, and honestly I thought he might actually … he was like a mummy, he was lying there stiff-as, eyes closed with a drip in him. He couldn’t talk. I thought he was done.
“Then like 20 minutes later he ends up hopping up and he’s like: ‘Will!’ I was like ‘thank god he’s alive’, but I could not stop laughing.
“I’ve been in some states with Reynolds on the beers, but not like that. It was so bad.”
On a more serious note, Brown revealed he was so dehydrated his veins kept collapsing when medics tried to put him on a drip. To make the situation worse, he also revealed he hates needles, and had to hold team manager Mark Dutton’s hand.
Supercars rules stipulate when the temperature is forecast to exceed 33C, cool suits must be worn and functioning.
When the failure first happened, Brown had turned the suit off, before the team made him turn it back on after a warning from stewards. There is no stipulation in the rules allowing him to turn the suit off in the event of a failure.
Appearing to choose his words carefully, Brown said he didn’t blame Supercars, the rule, or the team for how the situation panned out.
“At the end of the day, I’m the driver. I can make the decision if I want to (pull out) or not,” he said.
Broc Feeney had cold water poured over his head after suffering a cool suit failure on his way to victory in the final race of the weekend in Sydney. FOX Sports
“No one’s forcing me to be out there – we can decide whether we want to keep going.
“It would have been great if the cool suit failed and I was just wearing a normal shirt with no water … I would have made (the finish) easier than what I actually had.
“I had 42C water pumping around my body. It’s 50-55C in the cabin – it was just cooking me.
“I had to have it on and operational, but it was just running hot water around the suit the whole time for the last 20-30 laps.”
Brown crossed the line 18th, after picking up a 15-second penalty for a collision with Kostecki and Anton De Pasquale following a safety car restart.
Supercars return to the track Thursday week on the undercard of the Australian F1 Grand Prix at Albert Park.