{"id":928238,"date":"2026-10-10T21:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T21:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928238\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T21:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T21:44:20","slug":"cooling-vests-divide-formula-1-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928238\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooling vests divide Formula 1 drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Sainz regards a working cooling vest as one of Williams&#8217;s better developments this season. Isack Hadjar regards the whole idea as something Formula 1 could do without.<\/p>\n<p>Those contrasting views have sharpened the debate in Singapore, where the FIA declared a Heat Hazard for the weekend. The liquid-cooling systems offer relief from cockpit heat, but their effectiveness and the drivers&#8217; willingness to wear them vary considerably.<\/p>\n<p>If there&#8217;s one thing we&#8217;ve developed well as a team this year, it&#8217;s the cooling vest, said Sainz. It has undoubtedly made life more comfortable for Alex and me inside the car, and we&#8217;re delighted to have it.<\/p>\n<p>The Williams driver said his team had made the system a priority. George Russell, meanwhile, wants Mercedes to produce something he can trust over a race distance.<\/p>\n<p>There is an important correction to the financial argument. Russell acknowledged in comments reported by The Race on Thursday that he had been wrong to suggest the system&#8217;s costs sat inside the cost cap: they are already excluded. His remaining concern is the engineering and manufacturing staff required, who are then unavailable for other work.<\/p>\n<p>It is a question of resources and reliability, rather than a new request to exempt cooling costs.<\/p>\n<p>Sainz&#8217;s view is that teams have choices to make about their priorities. Fernando Alonso similarly believes improving the equipment is a job for the teams, not something the FIA should solve for them.<\/p>\n<p>Hadjar takes a more basic position.<\/p>\n<p>I think it should be banned, said the Red Bull driver. Asked why, he replied: It&#8217;s supposed to be tough.<\/p>\n<p>Teammate Max Verstappen also sees little benefit, and dislikes the restrictions imposed by the connections inside the cockpit.<\/p>\n<p>For me, it&#8217;s not needed, he said. You have all these stupid cables in your car, so you&#8217;re just limiting your movement as well.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Leclerc is more pragmatic. Even a system that does not last the full distance can provide worthwhile relief.<\/p>\n<p>It works pretty well for 15 or 20 laps, he said. But at least I get some benefit from it for 15 or 20 laps. I&#8217;m grateful for that.<\/p>\n<p>The disagreement is not just about how much discomfort a driver should accept. Until the systems are consistently effective, the same equipment can be a useful aid to one driver and an unwanted complication to another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz regards a working cooling vest as one of Williams&#8217;s better developments this season. Isack Hadjar regards&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-928238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}