F1 Singapore GP: Cooling Vests & Verstappen’s Rejection

After an exciting qualification, the Formula 1 circus is preparing for one of the physically toughest races of the year. After the first official heat alert in Formula 1, the drivers have a cooling vest, to arm themselves at the high temperatures and high humidity.

“The circumstances are not new, but they are increasingly looking at safety. I think that’s a good thing,” says professional driver Nicky Catsburg.

For today’s race, temperatures of just below thirty degrees are predicted. Moreover, the humidity is around 75 percent. “That makes a huge difference,” says Catsburg.

“You feel that you don’t get air, and everything you get is warm. It is much more difficult in terms of heart rate and condition. In a cockpit it gets much warmer than beyond. It becomes an exhaustion stroke, and overheating is of course dangerous. If you do it too often, it’s not healthy.”

“We just saw George Russell driving into the wall two years ago in the final phase. That may have to do with overheating.”

One of the reasons for the strict rules are the events during the Qatar GP in 2023. Even then it was very hot, making different drivers struggling with complaints.

Williams driver Logan Sargeant in particular had a hard time. He stopped his race because it was no longer possible. “There are always purists who say that it has always been that way and there must be better training,” says Catsburg, who drove several GT races under the same hot conditions in his career, for example in Malaysia.

“There is something to be said for that, but it has to do with safety. The drivers are very fit, and in Qatar drivers became unwell. If we already see it on TV, they are really very tough. I have been in the situation several times that you are almost fainting, that is not healthy. In a GT car you still have an air conditioner.”

According to Catsburg, drivers can, to a certain extent, prepare for a race in tropical conditions. “If you go to another country, your sports watch says after a few days that you are adapted to the temperature. It remains tough, so there are certainly drivers who train with many clothes on or in a warm space.”

Not only the circumstances are an extra challenge for the drivers, the Singapore GP is also one of the longest races of the year in terms of driving time. In the past, races in Singapore ran out so that the fixed number of laps was not achieved within the maximum time of two hours.

Driving 62 laps over a circuit full of sharp and angle turns, where the barriers are never far away, is already heavy anyway, says Catsburg. “It requires an extreme form of concentration for a very long time because you have to drive very close to the walls.”

Catsburg compares it with putting down a pilon on the road, where people have to drive close. “Just visit an inch with 10, 20, 30 kilometers per hour. And then with 200. If you have to do that for 1.5 hours at the sharpest of the cut, that is very difficult.”