{"id":760376,"date":"2026-06-25T23:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760376\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:48:17","slug":"f1-news-2026-oscar-piastri-reveals-methods-to-prepare-for-heat-at-austrian-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760376\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026: Oscar Piastri reveals methods to prepare for heat at Austrian Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/a> admits preparation for the intense heat at the Austrian Grand Prix<\/a> this weekend is \u201cnot for pleasure\u201d but necessary to survive the extreme conditions.<\/p>\n

Drivers will carry extra cooling gear after \u201cheat hazard\u201d rules were activated as\u00a0hot weather causes disruption\u00a0across Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri of Australia attends a news conference ahead of the Austrian F1 Grand Prix.\u00a0AP Photo\/Darko Bandic<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time\u00a0F1<\/a>\u2019s heat rules, introduced last year, have been used for a race in Europe.<\/p>\n

A heat hazard applies when temperatures above 31 degrees celsius are forecast for race day. It can get much hotter inside the cramped cockpits where drivers sit wearing layers of flameproof clothing. A forecast on the F1 website dated Thursday said the maximum temperature expected for Sunday\u2019s race was 32 celsius.<\/p>\n

The FIA declaring the heat hazard means drivers either need to use cooling equipment or carry extra weight to ensure there\u2019s no competitive advantage from not using the equipment.<\/p>\n

Drivers wear vests which pump cooling liquid through a network of tubes, linked to pumping equipment inside the car. Some drivers dislike wearing the equipment because they say it\u2019s uncomfortable or distracting.<\/p>\n

Piastri shrugged when asked about the cooling vest: \u201cI think probably, yes, I will wear it. I used it a couple of times last year. There\u2019s obviously the risk if it goes wrong and if it fails, then it\u2019s worse than not wearing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you get the system working well, then it can help a bit. It\u2019s not a complete game-changer but when I used it last year, it was okay. There are definitely some things not perfect with it, but it\u2019s personal preference.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how he had been preparing for the race day heat, Piastri revelead some of his tricks of the trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got no air coming in, that\u2019s when it\u2019s the worst. I haven\u2019t spent any time in a sauna, but I\u2019ve got a few portable heaters and a small bathroom and an exercise bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can cause yourself a lot of discomfort, a lot of pain by doing that. So I do that for the benefit of my performance — not for pleasure, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

The McLaren star, 25, said the team is confident going into the race after prior success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a good track for us in the past, but there\u2019s no illusion for us that we\u2019re suddenly going to be amazing here and the team to beat,\u201d added Piastri. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely not going to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s coming with upgrades quickly. Ferrari took a good step forward in Barcelona, Mercedes is still the benchmark, and I\u2019m hearing along the grapevine that Red Bull have got some big things as well. So, it\u2019s not going to be easy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri is sixth in the championship standings, while teammate Lando Norris<\/a> is five points ahead in fifth position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a bit of a deficit everywhere. We don\u2019t really have any clear strengths where we\u2019re really strong, but we\u2019re not terribly bad anywhere either. So in some ways that\u2019s good, in some ways that\u2019s bad,\u201d said Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odds are definitely stacked against us, but last year was a pretty good showcase of how quickly things can change. We\u2019ve still got a long way to go in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should count ourselves out. Yes, we\u2019ve got to do a lot of hard work, yes, we\u2019ll need a few things to go our way. But we\u2019ve seen reliability issues for everybody across the board and things can change very quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can improve things dramatically like we have done in the last few seasons, then I think anything is still possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri admits preparation for the intense heat at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend is \u201cnot for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-760376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760376","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=760376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}