The FIA issued its first official heat warning in F1 this weekend<\/a>, a measure that can be triggered if the forecast exceeds 31C up to 24 hours before a race.<\/p>\nWhen a warning is issued, teams are required to install the cooling system for drivers who choose to wear it, although the vest itself is not yet compulsory. Drivers who opt out currently carry an extra 0.5kg of ballast to maintain parity.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s main objection, however, is the prospect of being forced to wear the vest in future seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t used the vest. I\u2019m also not intending to use it because I feel like this needs to be a driver choice,\u201d he said after qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, from the FIA side, they will always throw it on safety, but then we can talk about a lot of stuff that can be improved on safety, including pit entries in certain places.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that has a bit more priority than a vest in the car because I don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that the vest\u2019s design made it unsuitable for modern F1 cockpits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like the tubes that are on you, on your body, with the belts that go next to you. Then they can say it\u2019s a bad design.<\/p>\n
\u201cI disagree. It just needs to be an option for the drivers to choose. Some like it, some don\u2019t, and that\u2019s fine. It should be a personal preference,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n
He also questioned the practicality of fitting the system into current cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn GT cars or prototypes you have a bit more space to put stuff or at least put the cables. In our cockpits it\u2019s so narrow that there is no space, or at least not enough space.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is also a little bit of a problem I find. Plus, where are you going to put the dry ice? The cars are not designed really to have this extra kind of space, and within 15, 20 laps, it\u2019s anyway gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you have hot water\u2026 or tea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FIA clarified that a mandatory introduction of the vest in 2026 is under consideration but not yet finalised, and discussions with drivers will continue.<\/p>\n
George Russell and Oscar Piastri offered their own perspectives on the vest following qualifying.<\/p>\n
Russell said he would \u201crun it\u201d and noted he had trialled it in previous races, adding that while improvements had been made to car cooling systems, testing remains limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t the perfect solution yet\u2026 To be fair, the team have made a big improvement with the car cooling itself,\u201d he said, noting that dry ice melts faster in Singapore\u2019s heat.<\/p>\n
Piastri was less definitive about his plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to use it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used it yesterday\u2026 I think the initiative is good, but like Max said, having the choice to use it or not is important because there are benefits and downsides.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cooling vest was introduced following concerns over extreme conditions in previous races, notably the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, when several drivers suffered heat-related issues.<\/p>\n
Russell storms to Singapore GP pole<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has spoken out about the FIA’s plans to make cooling vests mandatory in 2026. Image: XPB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,825,37177,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-190260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-singapore-gp","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\u2018A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/XPB_1376338_HiRes.jpg\")