{"id":174635,"date":"2025-10-02T07:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/174635\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T07:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:15:07","slug":"what-f1s-first-ever-heat-hazard-race-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/174635\/","title":{"rendered":"What F1’s first-ever ‘heat hazard’ race means"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1 has declared its first ever Heat Hazard for the Singapore Grand Prix, meaning drivers now face a critical call on whether they want to wear cooling vests in the race or carry extra ballast.<\/p>\n

As a response to the problems that drivers faced at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, when extreme temperatures and humidity left some needing medical attention, the FIA implemented a cooling vest system.<\/p>\n

The idea was for the vests, which feature a cooled liquid that is pumped around a series of tubes, to be made mandatory for this season if conditions are predicted to exceed 31\u00b0C at some point during the race.<\/p>\n

However, following complaints from some drivers<\/a> about complications fitting the tube elements within the tight confines of the cockpit, a change of plan was made.<\/p>\n

Instead of making the cooling vests mandatory, the FIA agreed for 2025 only that if a Heat Hazard is declared then the use of the cooling vests will be voluntary.<\/p>\n

However, concessions were added to the regulations that meant those drivers that elect to use the vest for the race will not be penalised by carrying extra weight.<\/p>\n

The rules require that, with a Heat Hazard in place, all the components that comprise the cooling system must be fitted to the cars \u2013 and be in working order.<\/p>\n

However, drivers have the option of not wearing the actual vest system if they feel that the tubing elements are too uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

The rules state: \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

With the Heat Hazard having now been declared, it will remain in force for the remainder of the Singapore weekend \u2013 meaning drivers will have to make a call on Sunday about what to do.<\/p>\n

While some drivers are not fans of the cooling system, others have got their devices to work and believe it has brought benefits in hot races.<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell gave an F1 cooling vest an under-the-radar debut<\/a> on his way to second place in this year\u2019s Bahrain Grand Prix \u2013 and reckoned it had made a big difference to his comfort in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely very noticeable when I turned on the cool water,\u201d he said. \u201cI think at the start of the race, it was about 16\u00b0C pumping around my body, which feels quite nice when you’re in a cockpit that’s 50\u00b0C-plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there’s always room to improve. But for us as a team, they’ve been putting in so much hard work and had the confidence that the system would work that I wanted to give it a whirl. So far, so good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 has declared its first ever Heat Hazard for the Singapore Grand Prix, meaning drivers now face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-174635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}