{"id":428433,"date":"2026-09-07T01:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428433\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:44:27","slug":"how-wecs-hottest-race-tests-and-exposes-the-limits-of-driver-cooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428433\/","title":{"rendered":"How WEC\u2019s hottest race tests and exposes the limits of driver cooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The sweaty elephant in the paddock at the Lone Star Le Mans is that it could\u2019ve been worse.<\/p>\n

Central Texas has suffered triple-digit heat for weeks \u2014 Thursday\u2019s 103-degree high even scuttled drivers\u2019 traditional track walks. But the remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard have brought a merciful breeze, a cameo of clouds and a spit of rain expected mid-race. With race day peaking at 93 degrees, this Texas endurance-racing test might have actually gotten lucky.<\/p>\n

Inside the closed cockpits of WEC\u2019s two classes of sports car, the difference may be academic. The humidity will push up the heat index to 106 degrees by mid-afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very tough. I think physically it\u2019s the toughest race of the year,\u201d said S\u00e9bastien Buemi, who races for Toyota\u2019s Hypercar program.<\/p>\n

WEC is a sport of hours-long stints behind the wheel, split between three drivers. The series and its governing body, the FIA, go to great lengths to keep drivers cool and safe in both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes, from fitness preparation and hydration plans to in-car cooling equipment.<\/p>\n

The FIA\u2019s regulations set a limit on how hot a cockpit can get, and this limit is rigorously monitored and enforced.<\/p>\n

But the drivers\u2019 vital signs are not monitored on track,\u00a0and some of the available cooling equipment receives mixed reviews from drivers and experts.\u00a0Some behind-the-scenes at WEC acknowledge that more can be done to keep drivers safe as temperatures rise.<\/p>\n

Austin is the hottest race WEC runs. The series races for six hours at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, starting at 1 p.m. The city\u2019s September average is 86 degrees, and locals will tell you that the real average is about ten degrees warmer. The endurance racing series also runs in Qatar and Bahrain, but only at night. For most of the season, WEC runs in European locales during the spring and early summer. Austin is where WEC takes the heat head-on.<\/p>\n

Dr. David Ferguson, an associate professor in Michigan State\u2019s Department of Kinesiology, has spent 20 years trying to get motorsport to take overheating seriously. He runs the Spartan Motorsport Performance Lab and chairs the International Council of Motorsport Sciences.<\/p>\n

Ferguson is the closest thing the field has to an authority, in part because the field is so small. By his count, roughly 60 scientific papers have been published on the physiology of racing drivers since 1967. Soccer, he said, produces around 800 a year.<\/p>\n

The physics of heat on a driver\u2019s body is brutal. A driver in a Hypercar puts about 25 pounds of force through the wheel each time they turn it, and between 75 and 150 pounds of force into the brake pedal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Drivers will be in the cockpits for at least two hours each on Sunday (James Moy Photography\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

All that work creates energy, which produces more heat. So do the engine, the drivetrain, the burning tires and the sweltering track surface. Left unventilated, according to FIA circuit sport technical manager Fabrice Van Ertvelde, a closed cockpit can \u201ceasily\u201d reach a little over 160 degrees.<\/p>\n

And the fireproof suits drivers wear work in both directions: they keep fire off the skin and keep the body\u2019s heat in. When you sweat, the body is trying to cool itself, \u201cbut because of the fire suit, that\u2019s really compromised,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

If not regulated, he added, a driver\u2019s core body temperature climbs into the range where \u201cwe start to have concerns about hyperthermia, heat risk, heat stroke \u2014 whatever you want to call it. That\u2019s where cognition becomes impaired, muscle contraction becomes impaired, and metabolism actually slows. It can be very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

In WEC, which runs races as long as 24 hours at Le Mans, the FIA\u2019s current focus on driver safety and heat centers on determining when a cockpit is too hot to race in and then intervening.<\/p>\n

A sensor sits to the left of and behind a driver\u2019s helmet, continuously reporting the temperature to the FIA\u2019s electronic monitors. Throughout the weekend, Elliott Martin, the FIA\u2019s WEC electronics manager, and a small team commandeer a trailer at the back of the paddock, keeping an eye on dangerous data coming off the cars.<\/p>\n

When outdoor temperatures are 77 degrees or cooler, the cockpit temperature must not exceed 89.6 degrees. In hotter weather, the limit is the outdoor temperature plus 13 degrees. Exceed the limit, and the penalty is a stop-and-repair pit stop under a black-and-orange flag. There is no warning, no second offense, no discretion.<\/p>\n

When a car gets flagged, the racing team gets a note (copied to the FIA) and a short window to fix it. Martin can see in the data whether a team\u2019s air conditioning is running, and he said teams sometimes say they\u2019re switching it on just to buy time while the numbers come back down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Ambient cockpit temperature data is relayed real-time to the FIA (Andrea Lorenzina \/ DPPI \/ FIA)<\/p>\n

Asked whether the system could be gamed in other ways \u2014 whether a team or driver could direct any airflow at the sensor and run the rest of the car hotter than the rule allows \u2014 Van Ertvelde shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. We would see it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s too obvious \u2014 and on the other hand, it\u2019s for the driver\u2019s safety \u2026 there is no interest (from teams) because we\u2019re going to knock them back immediately. The risk is too high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing beside a Toyota Hypercar in the team\u2019s COTA garage on Friday, Van Ertvelde pointed out the cooling options available to teams. Two small ducts gather air passing over the car\u2019s nose and open onto the driver\u2019s chest, which they can crack or close themselves on track.\u00a0Some drivers have helmet blowers, and seats that feed air. And for a weekend like this one in Austin, an air-conditioning box gets added to the cockpit, plumbed by two blue lines to connectors at the driver\u2019s left hip, feeding a tubed shirt worn under the fire suits.<\/p>\n

Whether and which system is used is up to the teams each race, as long as the system is one approved by the FIA. At an ordinary 75-degree race, some cars run nothing beyond the ducts, and a driver gets what air naturally enters the cockpit.<\/p>\n

Buemi, who has been doing this since 2012 after leaving Formula 1, described the system without much affection. \u201cWhen the air is so hot, it doesn\u2019t really matter that much,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a hairdryer \u2014 and that\u2019s the only air that comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason most teams stop there is not indifference as much as compromise. Everything added to a race car costs some lap-time performance, and in racing, performance is everything.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Robert Kubica used a helmet blower at the 2026 race in Sao Paulo (Photo Andrea Lorenzina \/ DPPI)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an additional system. It\u2019s additional weight, additional power,\u201d Van Ertvelde said in the Toyota garage, \u201cand the technicians, they do not want to use it.\u201d Nearby, a technician laughed and nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n

That trade-off is a real hang-up. Ferguson\u2019s lab once showed that a driver who is cool and hydrated will be a few seconds faster than one who is overheating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was going to be the most fundamental thing: walk up to an engineer or a team principal and say, \u2018The data says this,\u2019\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cAnd some of them were like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s great, but if I add half a kilo here, that\u2019s going to cost me this (in extra lap time).\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t translate.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by\u00a0The Athletic over email whether the series has ever considered mandating a standardized cooling system in every car, an FIA spokesperson replied that \u201cteams have the opportunity to choose the solution that works best for their particular car architecture and operational needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Races like Austin force the issue, however. Van Ertvelde said most of the field this weekend is running the full cooling package \u2014 ducts, fans, chiller and driver cooling shirt. Whatever the sport currently knows on what to do about overheating, it will be doing on Sunday.<\/p>\n

And Ferguson\u2019s lab has tested most of it. It put trained subjects in full FIA-approved racing gear on a stationary bike in a heat chamber at 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity. The results, published this year in the \u2018Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise\u2019 journal, ranked a suit blower running cold air first and a cold-air helmet blower second.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not recommend the cool shirt,\u201d Ferguson said of the liquid-cooled tubes affixed outside a thin shirt, circulating cold water. Ferguson\u2019s study tested a shirt developed by Rini, which is used by NASCAR. The shirt, approved by the FIA for WEC and F1, is made by Chillout Motorsports and is by far the most widely used cooling device in motorsport, used across the grid at Sunday\u2019s F1 Italian Grand Prix. According to Ferguson, the shirts can fail in the same way regardless of manufacturer.<\/p>\n

Asked how long his shirt stays cold, Buemi scoffed. \u201cIt gets warm from the beginning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n A Toyota team member demonstrates the cooling shirt (Andrea Lorenzina \/ DPPI \/ FIA)<\/p>\n

Ferguson estimates that cool shirts fail roughly 20 percent of the time. Overheating or air bubbles cause the mechanism to enter limp mode, circulating fluid without cooling it. \u201cSo now you\u2019re putting hot liquid on your chest, and that will heat you up,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

Two doctors from Formula Medicine, an Italian center for driver performance working with BMW, which runs two cars in Hypercar in conjunction with the WRT team, directly addressed the suit\u2019s cooling duration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a problem,\u201d said Dr. Alessandro Lucchini, who is with Formula Medicine and BMW as part of his sports medicine residency. \u201cEven in races that are slow (like cycling), that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a written response to The Athletic, the FIA said, \u201cThere are no particular concerns as long as systems used are FIA-homologated and used according to manufacturer\u2019s prescription. To this date, we never experienced issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriele Polcari, a Formula Medicine physio working with Lucchini, stated that cooling equipment is merely a last line of defense, with fitness preparation being the primary focus. WEC drivers expend 600 to 800 calories per hour, burning up to 2,000 calories per stint, and require high-carbohydrate diets to prevent performance decline.<\/p>\n

BMW tracks drivers\u2019 fluid loss by weighing them upon arrival and before and after each session. Drivers receive chilled (not iced) drinks, use cooling spray on their underwear, take ice baths after a stint, and stay in hospitality units kept at 72 degrees to avoid wild temperature shifts before stints.<\/p>\n

Fitness remains foundational. Polcari and Lucchini emphasized that aerobic fitness reduces sweating and heat suffering, calling high physical fitness nonnegotiable for modern drivers.<\/p>\n

But once they\u2019re in the car, the sensors only pick up the temperature around them. Ferguson\u2019s studies point to biometric data as a more useful tool: body temperature, heart rate and other metrics can give a \u201cpretty good idea\u201d within five or 10 laps of when a driver will start losing lap time to fatigue or overheating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very keen on measuring more on the actual driver \u2014 heart rate and things like that,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI personally think that we could do something novel. It would be a tremendous step to take.\u201d The FIA confirmed to The Athletic that, in WEC, biometric data from drivers is not recorded during track time, and that live biometric monitoring systems are not currently permitted under the regulations.<\/p>\n

In the case of a severe accident, the FIA said, the medical team intervenes on track, assesses the driver on the spot and then transfers him to the medical center.<\/p>\n

The caution behind biometric devices is reasonable: any device on a driver must not pose a hazard, withstand fires, and prevent skin burns. This same safety priority forces cooling tubes to be placed over shirts rather than directly on the skin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n The end of the air intake ducts feed air to try and cool drivers in Toyota\u2019s Hypercar (Toyota)<\/p>\n

If Ferguson had his way, the future would look like this: drivers fitted with validated, fire-safe sensors for heart rate, skin and core temperature and sweat rate. Cooling and hydration hardware designed for a race car, not adapted from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

There would then be someone on the timing stand or in the electronics booth whose only job is to monitor the driver\u2019s data, the way an engineer monitors a car, making calls that serve both driver performance and safety.<\/p>\n

And all of it would be routed automatically to the track medical center, so that if there\u2019s an accident, the doctors know the driver\u2019s state before they reach them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I would retire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Everyone seems to agree that it\u2019s good for monitoring to be out of a driver\u2019s hands because, no matter the preparation around the race, once on track the driver may not be aware of when he\u2019s reaching the limit \u2014 or may ignore it.<\/p>\n

Drivers notoriously focus intensely on performance, and, like any athletes, have learned to ignore cues everyday people may follow. \u201cThey\u2019re living for a moment \u2014 to achieve points, a championship, a win, whatever it might be,\u201d Ferguson said. Polcari recalled one who rejected prep and nearly collapsed after a stint: \u201cHe was like, \u2018I don\u2019t need that.\u2019 Well, maybe you needed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So say all of it arrives. Say Ferguson\u2019s dream comes true and he gets to retire. There will always be drivers like Buemi, who, when asked whether drivers now prioritize health over results on track, locked eyes and furrowed his brow.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Once you\u2019re in the race, you push it to the limit. There\u2019s so much at stake. People have been working so hard for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s this hot and you win, he said, \u201cIt feels special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The sweaty elephant in the paddock at the Lone Star Le Mans is that it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,8645],"class_list":["post-428433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}