a \u2018heat hazard\u2019 can be declared<\/a> if pre-weekend weather forecasts predict temperatures of 31 Celcius or above at some point during a Sprint or Grand Prix.<\/p>\nTeams are notified of the declaration by the FIA, as they have been in Italy, and subsequently need to fit a \u2018Driver Cooling System\u2019.<\/p>\n
Just how hot will it be in Italy?<\/p>\n
As touched on above, F1\u2019s Italian Grand Prix takes place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, near the city of Milan \u2013 one of many regions in Europe gripped by heatwaves in recent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn accordance with Article B1.5.10 of the FIA F1 Regulations, having received a forecast from the Official Weather Service predicting that the Heat Index will be greater than 31.0\u00b0C at some time during the Race at this Competition, a Heat Hazard is declared,\u201d read a note from FIA F1 Race Director Rui Marques to teams on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Indeed, all three days of action at Monza are set to feature air temperatures above 30 Celsius, and as high as the mid-30s, meaning a sweaty weekend ahead for the drivers.<\/p>\n
What is the \u2018Driver Cooling System\u2019?<\/p>\n
In short, this is defined as a system with the \u201csole purpose\u201d of providing additional cooling for drivers under a \u2018heat hazard\u2019 scenario.<\/p>\n
Several components are involved, including a pump, plumbing and thermal store, with cold fluid generated by the system delivered to the drivers through a special fireproof vest featuring various tubes.<\/p>\n
All of the core system components must be fitted to cars, though drivers are currently permitted to choose whether or not they wear the vest itself as work continues on fine-tuning the design.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny driver may elect not to wear any items of personal equipment that form part of the Driver Cooling System,\u201d reads Article B1.5.10 of the Sporting Regulations. \u201cIn such circumstance, all other components, including any cooling medium of the Driver Cooling System, must be fitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, the difference in mass between the driver\u2019s personal equipment normally used and any items of a driver\u2019s personal equipment that form part of the system must be compensated by the fitting of 0.5kg of ballast in the cockpit.\u201d<\/p>\n
What have the drivers said about it?<\/p>\n
When a \u2018heat hazard\u2019 was last declared at the Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri confirmed his intention to use the cooling vest, while outlining some of the benefits and areas for improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used it a couple of times last year,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously the risk of if it goes wrong, and if it fails, then it\u2019s worse than not wearing it. I think if you get the system working well, it can help a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a complete gamechanger, but when I used it last year it was okay. There are definitely some things that are not perfect with it, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s personal preference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to add the weight in the car anyway, so if you can get it to work and it cools you down a little bit, then sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attention now turns to Friday\u2019s first practice session<\/a> in Italy, where all 22 drivers will have another chance to use the cooling system and vest \u2013 should they wish to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another \u2018heat hazard\u2019 has been declared by Formula 1\u2019s governing body, the FIA, ahead of the Italian Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-878514","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\/878514","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=878514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}