drivers are not exposed to the wind; with their fireproof suits and helmets the drivers are extremely well insulated to protect from injury.
Races also take place in warm climates so the 80 degree winds wouldn't offer much reprieve.
Don't over exaggerate Lance focuses just as much as the other drivers. He just does it in one tiny spot in front of him, but that spot is focused on like 10 times more than the other drivers.
yep. Playing CS2 Premiere in a tense battle and I will sweat even in the AC. The same game just in DM, no sweat. This is only using fingers on one side and a mouse on the other.
I sweat more playing rocket league than I do actually working out. I don't typically get bo, but I smell horrible too when I play. My wife says she can smell if I played a lot of rocket league on the weekend when she comes into my office lol.
Lot of people not familiar with motor racing don’t seem to realize it takes a lot of work to operate a race car. it’s not like driving your average road car just lightly pressing on the pedals. and F1 races lasts around 1:30 hours
You know when the airplane takes off and you feel your stomach muscles contract? Imagine doing that for hours straight, with turns, while wearing heavy gear.
Abs, they are constantly get whipped side and side as they turn and they have to hold themselves still so they can control the car and keep their head steady
Massive G-forces and no servo assist on the brakes. They're pushing down with >100 kilos of force every single corner. 5G of braking force helps with this, (the rate of deceleration means their leg alone weighs over 100 kilos, but they still have the use their calf muscle to transfer and modulate this force), but it's still a massive, repeated effort.
Here's an interesting article on the matter:
https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/formula-one-brake-systems-explained
Decelerating does help by pushing you into the pedal. I hear it's way harder to drive a racecar if you're too *slow* because of how much is designed to be done at high speeds (stiff braking, high tire temps, aero stuff).
Correct, and the biggest thing, at the f1 level anyway, is tire temperature. You have to get near their grip limit to keep them even close to operating temperature, and if they slip below it the tires essentially solidify and its like driving on ice with 1000hp right behind you.
If you're not fast enough, you will spin and probably crash, if you are too fast you will definitely spin and probably crash. If you do it just right... you'll still be dramatically slower than an actual F1 driver, their reaction times are barely human
This [Top Gear Clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhB0JKjJrQ) does a great job of illustrating it a bit. I don't think Richard ever even makes it into an F1 car in that segment, but even in the slow Formula cars he still has trouble getting the tires into the temperature window, and you can see how difficult the driving is for him because of it.
They have \~2.5G of sideways acceleration in curves and \~3G of forwards/backwards acceleration during braking.
Just keeping your head upright at those accelerations is difficult, in addition, they are wearing a helmet AND have to drive a race car doing 70km/h in sharp corners and 240km/h on straights.
Yeah, there's some helmetcam/helmet mic video clip of Charles Leclerc from the Chinese GP a couple weeks ago. He accidentally left his mic on after talking to his race engineer and you can hear him grunting and panting through every turn.
It sounds like he's running for his life, but hes just trying to stay in control through 5g turns, its crazy. I wish I could find the clip but I'm at work and it's proving elusive.
Ever take a corner fast and kinda slide in your seat? you might be feeling up to 0.8 lateral GeForce across your body. These cars can do 5g's (your own body weight x5) through corners. This basically means you are sloshing your insides back and forth and everything weighs 5x what it should and if you don't control your muscles, it's impossible to control the car. The stamina required to do this for hours is something else.
If there's a quality go Kart track near you with fast go karts, go on a day where you can combine your race sets into one long race. It's exhausting from g forces and strain on your hands, fingers, forearms and even shoulders. That's a fraction of what pro racers will go through.
Check out racer training techniques. There's some crazy torque, their whole body is fighting gforce the whole time. It's a full body workout just to keep your eyes on the road.
https://youtu.be/CE-r2dY2OlE?si=mhXHeG1lM94JK_Ox
They press the brake pedal with one leg using 150kg of force while being subjected to 5g of negative force trying to slam their face into the steering wheel. They have to do that several times a lap while also steering through the next corner at maximum speed. They finely tune that braking to keep from locking a wheel while turning into the corner. Those drivers are all super fit. They maintain a heart rate around 180bpm for the entire race.
I'm drenched in sweat every time I step out of my rig. If I ever got to drive an F1 car I'm pretty sure dehydration would get me before I managed to plant it in the wall 5 minutes in.
I drove a bmw xtreme rallycar last summer. It was maybe 25 celsius outside, so inside the car was maybe 50-60. I was kinda anxious of the heat but turns out that driving on car wide gravel roads at 150kph gets you focused to driving. After the first stage my eyes were literally red because I didn't blink enough and some sweat got in lol.
Saunas are recommended at 100°C at least if you want the health benefits. It's crazy how well your body can keep cool, of course the sauna at 100 is only for 10-15 minutes TOPS.
> That first few feet of air where they sit is probably gross
100% correct. "track temp" is something separately measured and followed for that reason.
Even if you don't know what this feels like, just think about artificial turf on a hot day and how immediately warmer those fields are compared to regular grass.
There is a very fine line of temperature on a motorcycle where you'd like to get much closer to the engine to stay warm or be as far away from it as possible when it's hot out. I assume an F1 car exacerbates this experience to an wild degree.
Thank you, this does make sense now that I think about it because wind doesn’t hit my face through full face helmets. How come the FIA or the teams don’t put vents in the helmet or some kind of ventilation system in the suits as the heat has resulted in driver retirements like Sargeant at Qatar? Is it also in favour of fireproof suits and helmets as if there was a fire then smoke would come in and suffocate the driver?
air intake through the helmet will increase drag and slow the car. It would also be really uncomfortable to have wind blasting you in the face at those speeds.......unless you rebuilt the helmet to allow airflow but then dampen it causing more weight as well as a entire redesign of the helmet
at this highest level of competition; maximizing efficiency beats out any comfort.
Actually since this season driver cooling aids are a thing. Teams can have multiple small openings that channel the air to the driver into the cockpit. You can see them at the tip of the nose but also on top of the nose (like Red Bull or Mercedes).
This has been introduced in response to the extreme conditions that happened in Qatar 2023
And there are drivers that are advocating for more driver comforts in the 2026 rule changes. If the rules don't force a team to make the driver more comfortable, then the idea is to make it as fast as possible. You need rules to force certain things so that they will make the cars like this. Ride height is a big one right now.
And tbh, safety and comfort have increased massively over the decades. Took a lot of terrible accidents and preassure by the drivers. But right now, if you consider all the inherent dangers of F1, the cars abd driver equipments are extremely good.
Yes, cars are much safer now. The current big issue is complaints about Porpoising in the cars because they are so low to the ground, and that being extemely hard on the backs of the drivers, and a big concern for longevity in the sport.
Pretty sure they have porpoising mostly sorted out by now? It was definitely an issue in 2022 (especially at mercedes), but I haven't really seen much of it lately. Heat seems to be the most current issue, along with spray during wet races.
Picture a dolphine (porpoise) swimming through the water beside a boat and going up and down in the water. The car does that, but only a couple of inches, and it's met with hard ground beneath.
Mercedes had it [REALLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACU5Ytsi7Mg) bad last year when the car first came out.
Kinda depends how you define comfort (and how many decades ago we're talkin). They are pulling pretty insane Gs right now, which of course isn't really comfortable. So maybe more comfort in some ways, not so much in other.
Yeah, but I mean... Racing in general doesn't go without high Gs? At least they nowadays have a training regiment to help their bodies withstand the Gs. I think that's something you'll just have to accept if you want to spend your days driving motorised vehicles fast.
Racing in general doesn't go with high G's, but because F1 cornerspeed has gone up a lot over the decades the amount of Gs they have to withstand has increased a lot too. I don't think I can think of a racing sport where you have so many Gs so much of the time.
Their training actually supports the insane thing they go through. You don't see the type of necks F1 drivers have in any other motorsport.
"Driver comfort" is driver safety.
A driver that gets loopy from heat is dangerous to everyone.
HANS, Halos, roll cages, banning ground effect, Nomex suits, ditching methanol (Indycar), tire walls, chicanes (LeMans comes to mind), run-off area, etc...
*Helmets*
A *lot* of stuff to make racing safer rather than faster.
MotoGP riders hit those speeds but have vents in their helmets.
I've reached 2-300km/h on a track as well, and it's not at all wind "blasting" you in your face with a vented helmet.
Formula 1 helmets do have air vents and have had them as standard since the 1990’s.
https://www.magnetomagazine.com/the-intriguing-evolution-of-formula-1-helmets/#:~:text=Holes%20for%20ventilation%20were%20also,kg%20through%20a%20new%20regulation.
>air intake through the helmet will increase drag and slow the car.
Not by any significant degree. From an areodynamic drag standpoint F1 cars are actually fairly dirty, the aerodynamics are put to use creating downforce.
Oh I have no doubt that every little bit of air flowing anywhere near the car is accounted for and finally tuned my only point was that it's not a matter of not being able to do it because of increased drag
First, F1 helmets DO have air vents and have had them as standard since the 1990’s. Second, you don’t feel the air blasting your face at the same speed you’re going. That’s not how they work. Look at motorcycle helmets. They have air vents but you don’t have 130mph wind hitting your face through the vents.
I would've presumed that it shouldn't be that difficult to design a helmet vent where the high speed air inlet slows down the outlet inside the helmet.
Also, from my understanding, F1 actually do have wings. The wings are just upside down to generate downforce to keep the car grounded.
Correct. And they are positioned on the rear (known to us commoners more often as “spoilers”). As someone above mentioned, position and size of wings matter for if they produce downforce or lift.
They’re also in the front and the shape of the body also creates downforce. And position and size has nothing to do with whether it creates lift or downforce, the shape of the air foil is what matters. Wings for downforce are basically upside down airplane wings in terms of the shape of the airfoil
You don't have to blast the air at the face, helmets generally have vents on the top, to allow some air to cool the top of your head.
My motorcycle helmet has vents at the top edge of the visor, on the chin bar (adjustable), at the front/top of the head, and also at the rear/top with large ducts that draw air out.
They're very effective at 60mph+, and these guys are going way faster than that.
And they are working hard - I mean really hard. It takes about 150kg of force to work the brakes, the experience 5G in braking and laterally in corners. They can lose 5-6 kg in sweet during a race.
The helmets do have vents, but you can only do so much. Try opening your window in a car in hot temps. It's still hot. Add in the multiple layers of fire suits, and the fact that it takes a hell of a lot of energy to drive an F1 car, and the eventual result is you're hot. Even with ventilation.
I remember instances of drivers cracking open their visors to get more airflow to cool down. A season or 2 ago, there was a particularly extreme race where it was warmer than normal at the track and there was an issue with the tires that made the racing more intense than normal.
There are 5 compounds of dry weather tire and the tire manufacturer brings 3 to each race. They choose them based on some desired decay rate on the performance. This means it is quite common for drivers to race less intensely in order to make tires last longer.
At this race with the incorrect tires, the performance degradation was way too slow so drivers had no need to save tires. This meant that every lap was done at maximum intensity unlike any other race. Combined with the high temperatures it was honestly very dangerous for the race to go on. One driver mentioned that near the end they were so overheated and dehydrated that there vision was going blurry in some corners. Another driver tweeted that several others had passed out (not clear if literal loss of consciousness or just a colloquial use) in the medical area after the race. Many drivers were filmed having trouble getting out of there cars and walking to those medical areas. One driver even stopped and retired from the race because they were so bad. So much potential for things to go horribly wrong at those speeds if people were that bad.
This was the 2023 Qatar GP. There was an 18-lap limit on each tyre due to track conditions, so the drivers were indeed going all out every lap to get the most out of each tyre. Logan Sargeant was the one who had to retire from heat exhaustion. Esteban Ocon threw up twice in his helmet during the race. Many of the drivers said it was the most physically challenging race of their careers.
You know it's been a hell of a race when the podium finishers are sitting down during the other drivers' interviews. Also, wasn't Max somewhat hungover from celebrating clinching the WDC the day before?
>There are 5 compounds
There are actually 6 as of last season, Pirelli introduced a new tyre between the 2022 C1 and C2. The '22 C1 became the C0, the new tyre became the C1.
There are vents in the helmet, and they can open the visor in several different positions. But it is uncomfortable to have 300 km/h wind hitting your face even if you are hot. And they do not get this air circulating around their head and around their body with all the foam and the fire suit.
There are actually several products available to cool down the driver. They might wear a cooling vest or a full cooling suit. Some of these are passively cooled so you leave them in the freezer before the race and they keep cool through most of the race. Others are actively cooled and is plumbed into a cooling loop in the car circulating water to a radiator. Both of these techniques have their limitations as to how much heat they can get rid of through a race, especially in hotter climates.
Another issue is that they add weight and in the case of active cooling they add drag. So a cooling vest might increase your lap time by a few crucial hundreths of a second that you need to get a good result in the race. Drivers would rather be uncomfortable and fast then comfortable and slow.
Not sure about F1 specifically but a lot of racing drivers will wear something called a cool shirt. It circulates water and hooks up to a unit in the car that cools the water
ventilation systems etc. add weight which makes the car slower.
They do have ice vests, kinda the opposite of a body warmer, but that melts pretty quickly and there are air intakes on the nose to pass air through the cockpit.
Also too add to this they do have air flow for the drivers. if you look at the nose of the car there’s a hole there for airflow mandated by the regulations.
Also, there is an air intake at the front of the well..front wing. A relatively small hole. I think its to ventilate the heat generated by the engine, battery, control electronics, etc.
That was a one off event. And it really was only as bad as it was because they put a limit on how many laps you could do per set of tyres. The tyres could last longer than that set amount of laps, so they were pushing all out every lap. Normally they manage their tyres and don't push as hard for the entire race. That was the bigger issue. The temperature and humidity was similar to that of Singapore every year and the drivers always make it through that race just fine. It was also a surprise it was that hot and the tyres were at risk, so the drivers didn't have a week to prepare for it. It was the suddenness and totality of everything that made Qatar that difficult.
That was like 4 different things happening all at once to make Qatar what it was. The race was earlier in the year than normal. The tyres were at risk of blowing up, so everyone was pushing due to the lap limit of the tyres. It was hotter than expected. The drivers didn't have the time to prepare like they do for Singapore.
1. A lot of the equipment is for safety. Ventilation systems mean the equipment can let hot air or smoke inside if there is a fire.
2. Wind at high speeds is very noisy/uncomfortable. Driver's might not be able to use radio communications if the suits were ventilated.
3. Just because a bunch of rich people live in a desert doesn't mean it's a great idea to hold sporting events that require wearing a ton of protective equipment there.
The helmeted head of the driver sticks out of the top of the car, and the helmet vents are also outside of the car.
A fire *inside* of an F1 racecar is not going to kill the driver by smoke inhalation.
>How come the FIA or the teams don’t put vents in the helmet
I'd be incredibly surprised if the helmets didn't have substantial venting.
My motorcycle helmet does, as do the helmets of MotoGP riders. ~~But I can't say I've yet looked so closely at pictures of the helmets F1 drivers wear!~~
They are vented!
The holes may appear small, but you must consider the air pressure on those vents at high speed; you'll definitely get air flow through the helmet with those.
And here Hamilton describes various aspects of how rigorous driving is: https://youtu.be/jBx3843DI8I?si=QF_Du_GNBoPp6uq9&t1m36s
Edit: rewatched it, I thought this was the interview where he discussed that the engine is literally behind him.
Also, I do not think they are getting a 250kph wind to the face. The aerodynamics of the car shunts most of the wind around them. Certainly they get some but not a gale force wind to the face.
Can confirm this last bit for sure. I live in Phoenix AZ where temps regularly stay above 80 degrees pretty much year round out here. I like to drive with my windows down even at interstate speeds. But it doesn't cool me down that much because all it's really doing is blowing hot air on me. But at least it keeps the air circulating!
f1 drivers lose between 4-10 pounds during a race. they have a small water supply through a straw integrated in the helmet.
I've also come to see that there is a universal standard of having a few small holes in the helmet to allow some airflow that was adopted in 2001
The cars also aren't designed to have outside air circling around inside, that would just increase the drag.
So the air actually isn't coming at them that much.
Similar to how people always seem to think that I love my motorcycle for the wind-through-your-hair experience. But no, not really. Not with a helmet on. Sure it's got a few little vents, but it's still hot and sweaty if it's even the least bit warm out... Same with the jacket and pants and boots and gloves. And that's *without* the fireproof layers that racecar drivers are wearing.
> with their fireproof suits and helmets the drivers are extremely well insulated
> and don’t have A/C.
that raises the question: why don't they build some cooling into their suits, like spacesuits?
i assume the obvious answer is weight, but if they make a rule that standardizes it across all drivers, it shouldn't affect the playing field and benefit driver health
> Races also take place in warm climates so the 80 degree winds wouldn't offer much reprieve.
the tracks are often dramatically worse, due to the road surface and surrounding structures on many tracks.
The vast majority of their bodies are inside the car, with only the head sticking out. The aerodynamics of an F1 car is designed specifically to direct air in the most efficient manner possible so much of the 'outside' air won't make it into the cockpit to cool the driver. Finally the driver has no exposed skin and wears multiple layers of fire retardant material to protect them in case of a catastrophic fire, [such as this one.](https://youtu.be/gCivN-b4FZI)
All of these factors to cause the drivers to get extremely hot during the race, combining with the physical and mental effort that they have to handle during a 3 hour race causes their body temp to climb to dangerous levels. It is not unusual for a driver to lose several pounds due to sweat after a race.
I remember clear as day eating a bowl of Rice Krispies when this crash happened... the nauseous, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, the hairs on my body standing on end, i genuinely thought i had just witnessed someone die a horrible death. Scary stuff!
Yeah, that was a pretty messed up moment. I had just gotten into F1 that season and thought I was legit going to see a driver die.
The fact he got out with nothing worse than scarred hands is amazing. The halo literally saved his life, he would have been decapitated otherwise.
Weirdly enough, I wasn't really worried until my gf who was watching with me said "well he's dead, right ?". In my mind, the cars were so sturdy and the suits were fireproof, and we'd seen so many huge crashes in the last few years where they just walked out of it like nothing happened, so my subconscious just thought "that's impressive, but he's probably fine".
Then when she said that, I started thinking about it, rewinded to see the crash again and realised how bad it was, and that maybe he wasn't fine. Luckily we quickly saw Grosjean was already in the medical car, alive and well.
1.5-2 hours
Total time from start of race to finish, including red flags: 3 hours
Total time the drivers can spend driving on track: 2 hours
Total distance the drivers can cover during a race: 305km + the rest of the lap.
Which ever one of these happens first, ends the race.
>The aerodynamics of an F1 car is designed specifically to direct air in the most efficient manner possible so much of the 'outside' air won't make it into the cockpit to cool the driver.
Semi-true, the FIA mandated that vents be added to the nose to direct air into the cockpit, I think this has been true for a while but they added more intakes this year.
Also, the engines dump a lot of heat into the cockpit too.
Yeah, i but meant 'accidental' air going into the cockpit. Venting is another thing entirely and even then venting is designed to be as efficient as possible to reduce drag.
>It is not unusual for a driver to lose several pounds due to sweat after a race.
Drivers have to get weighed before and after a race for this for safety reasons.
The crash was amazing and awful to watch live. I honestly thought he died. Had this been three or four years earlier he would have died since F1 cars didn't have a protective 'halo', so his head would have been taken off his shoulders by the guardrail.
if i saw that in a movie, i'd still say it was bullshit and they should have made the wreck more believable.
i read the other comment, still thought he was dead after seeing the wreck. i'd love to know what was said those 10s after between the driver and doc(?)
He did an interview where he detailed the whole thing from thoughts in the car to talking to the doc.
IIRC, he had to pull his foot out of his boot that was stuck in the pedals of the car, which resulted in the foot being badly burned. He was insisting that he walk to the ambulance so his family (watching live on TV back home) would know he was OK.
Because the track temperatures are generally speaking very warm already (sun + heat + asphalt = hot) plus the engines are spewing heat out. Doesn't matter how fast the air is hitting you if the air itself is hot.
In addition to this, the cockpit is surrounded on all sides except the helmet at around the chin/mouth level, and the helmet is pretty thick multiple layers of material with air holes/vents.
The cockpit area is called the tub cause it's very much reminiscent of a small bathtub when disassembled. Actually I think it'd be more appropriate to call it a coffin but yeh, it's not difficult to see why the notation does not include that specific word. It still is more like a coffin with one top end open for the driver's head to protrude out.
Because it's so closed, the the tip of the nosecone typically has a small hole to feed cooling air into the cockpit, so the temps inside the cockpit don't exceed a certain threshold and make it impossible for the driver to carry on.
This also true of most race drivers. Even weekend racers. I have a friend that used to race and he had a cooling setup using a small icebox and a pump to pump chilled water through his fireproof suit. I am in south Florida so with the sun blazing and the cars it does get REALLY hot at the track.
At some point, when the outside air is hot enough, wind only makes it hotter.
You can look at motorcycle wind chill charts and see around 90°F/32°C air temperature, the temperature of the wind actually becomes hotter than the air temperature the faster you go.
[Here’s an example](https://keski.condesan-ecoandes.org/motorcycle-wind-chart/motorcycle-wind-chill-chart-motorcycle-forum.html)
While it is true that fast winds will cool an object by aiding convection, it's truly insignificant compared to the amount of heat those engines are giving off, plus the fact that the racers are wearing heavy protective gear in the event their car spins out, crashes, and catches fire.
Because they wear protective gear over their entire body, mainly a fireproof suit and helmet, none of that wind is getting through. It's like wondering why you're hot inside despite the fact that there's a nice breeze outside, but meanwhile your windows are all closed.
Never mind the actual insulation and suits etc. F1 is extremely taxing on their body. It is physically quite demanding, so a lot of their sweat is actually from hard work. The g forces pushing and pulling kn the body are tough. The concentration is insane.
There is a clip of either Vettel or Hamilton from top gear talking about this.
Fun fact, it’s not uncommon in GT or closed cockpit racing to see drivers wearing a “cool suit” that’s essentially a fire resistant shirt with a system of plastic tubes running around it with cooled liquid running through it.
they were forced to since the aeroshield deflects the little airflow drivers received with the halo, so they had to compromise with the cooling duct
even with the duct indycars can reach 140 degrees F in the cockpit
1. The drivers are in fireproof race suits and crash helmets. They don't get the breeze.
2. They're usually following behind a car that it putting off a lot of hot air from things like the engines and brakes. The brakes regularly get over 1,000°C during a heavy braking zone.
3. They usually take place when it's hot out already. Most races take place in the middle of the day and during the summer or the warmer parts of the year. This is excluding a few races like those in the Middle East in the middle of the desert, they race when it's cool enough to race. But its still usually very hot because it's a desert.
4. They're sitting right in front of the engine. The car gets hot because of that, and they only have the tiny hole at the top to let the heat out.
5. An F1 car is designed to be as fast as possible. They don't care about driver comfort pretty much at all.
As others have mentioned, its the clothing. I used to race in a cheapo local race series in texas, and the first time I just put the clothes on in the comfort of my air conditioned home, i felt an instant of panic because of how hot and stifling they are just to wear. They are thick, and they purposefully dont let air pass through them almost at all to protect you from fire.
Strangely, in the middle of a race you feel nothing, your adrenaline is so high, but when you finish the race you realize you are just pouring sweat. We used air scoops made of of dryer hose to route air through the windows a bit, but its just so hot. We used to do a 4 hour endurance race on thanksgiving day, and we would switch drivers every 45 minutes. I think i lost 10 pounds of water or more each session. Then drink as fast as you can to get as much back in as possible.
And i was racing these absolutely crappy maza 1st gen rx-7s, they were good for about 1.2g's of lateral force at best. I cant imagine what its like fighting 3 times that like these guys.
On top of what others have said about aerodynamics and many layers, they’re also sat right in front of a 1000 hp engine running at max revs for 70% of the time. In addition to being sat literally on the floor of the car that often scrapes the track surface in high downforce areas, generating heat from friction.
It's important to note that the 300mph "wind" isn't coming at them. They are coming at it. So it isn't cooled at all when they hit it. They are coming at hot air as races are usually held in warm climates. Furthermore, they are insanely well insulated.
One smart guy running a water/air intercooler with ice and water also used it plumbed into his "cool suit" under all the Nomex and his helmet. He had two 8mm quick connects mounted to the seat.
It's really really hard work in those cars. They are pulling lots of Gs and fighting hard to keep control of the car and go as fast as possible. Here is where one of the drivers left his radio on and you can here him panting.
https://youtu.be/SYsNpwXhCW8?si=izxpMh9KMZRrh0FU
Also they are wearing full flame retardant race suits and helmets. Some how Roman survived this crash and fireball.
https://youtu.be/7YMjw2sjXqU?si=R_RX9KzcUalGRpBN
A combination of the general hot temperatures at most of the venues they visit, all the clothes they wear, a race is extremely physically demanding, confined cockpit, the engine is directly behind them and "wind" isnt always cold.
In addition to the comments on the airflow, it's also worth noting they don't spend much time at those speeds. The circuits where heat is a particular problem, such as Singapore and Qatar, don't have desperately long straights. Singapore had 20+ corners, in 1 minute 45 of lap time there are only two longish straights,.covering less than a quarter of it.
A few reasons.
1. Most of the races take place in hot places. If the air outside is 80F+, even wind still feels hot.
2. Races take place on asphalt, which absorbs and puts off a lot of heat. Track temperatures are often HOT.
3. Driving an F1 car is insanely physical. These guys are working hard to control the car while going around turns at insane speeds.
4. F1 drivers wear a lot of protective gear in case of a crash. Their suits are thick and designed to protect against fire. The helmets are also sealed, which keeps heat in around their head. There isn't any part of skin exposed to wind - so they are thoroughly insulated.
5. The aerodynamics of the car redirect most of the wind around the car, meaning they likely don't feel much, if any, wind when they are sitting in the cockpit. If you look at the front wing of an F1 car, you will see a little hole on the nose - this is for air to be directed into the cockpit to cool the driver down.
6. The engine is literally right behind the driver. They are basically resting their back on it.
7. Unless you are Max Verstappen (or recently Lando Norris - let's go Lando!) you are likely driving behind another car/through it's hot exhaust.
It's not uncommon for drivers to lose a few pounds of water weight throughout a race due to them sweating so much.
Because they're sitting mostly surrounded by the car, only their head and maybe shoulders would get any significant airflow.
But they're wearing racing overalls and a big helmet, so very little high-speed cool air really makes contact with their body to cool them down.
They may open their visor to let some more air in to the helmet, but that also risks things getting in to their eyes.
Races often take place in hot and humid climates, and they're constantly engaging their whole bodies to control the car and keep their heads upright with 5g+ pulling on them in corners and braking zones.
They also have ~1000HP engines a few inches behind their backs, which throughout a race, will cause the driver to get quite warm.
After last year's race in Qatar, teams can place a little duct on the car's nose that funnels air in to the cockpit, that should add some useful cooling, but they're still going to get quite warm - hopefully just not *too* warm, where they end up passing out, as happened to a few drivers in Qatar.
Wrap yourself up in thermal undies and 4 blankets to simulate their fire suit and go stsnd in the wind.. you wont feel a thing and you will get hot. There is little to no ventilation in those suits.
There isnt much wind coming at them. They are fully enclosed in a cockpit with only about half their head sticking out and that part is covered by a helmet. They have added an air duct this season that flows a tiny amount of air into the cockpit but it’s really small because this technically slows the car down. Additionally, they are wearing multiple layers of fireproof clothing which don’t breathe at all. They are also sitting directly in front of an engine that puts out around 800 HP and they are physically exerting themselves. So imagine doing a workout in a gym with the heater on dressed like it’s the middle of winter. It get very hot. And when it’s humid, your body can’t release the heat
There are so many factors to consider here, but one I don’t think I’ve seen is that the track surface itself can get very hot, 40 degrees Celsius+ at times, and all they really have between them and it is a thin sheet of carbon
Many reasons actually
1) most of their bodies are actually inside the car, not exposed to the elements
2) they wear a few layers of protective gear
3) they sit really close to the engine, the temperature inside the car can get upwards of 50c
4) physical stress on the body while driving at such speeds
5) outside temperatures also have an impact
Despite the fast wind, F1 drivers experience extreme heat due to several factors. Their bodies generate heat from physical exertion, while the car's engine and other components radiate heat. Plus, the cockpit lacks airflow, trapping heat and raising temperatures inside.
I've got to assume they wear cool suits? Even when I raced decades ago, better funded drivers has under garments with tubes circulating chilled water. Not detracting from drivers, just trying to figure out how the stay in it.
There were no cooling issues until the halo came along, the center halo brace splits the air, hence making it go around the driver… #don’tbelievethis #I’mlieing
Don’t forget withstanding up to about 6gs off and on for 2 hours. They are at a moderate to extreme physical demand the entire time. Try doing that without sweating.
On top of what everyone else has said, they’re also exerting an incredible amount of energy. It isn’t just holding down the pedal and steering around corners. These folks are pulling similar G-forces to what fighter pilots experience. It takes a ton of core strength and endurance. That alone is enough to make someone break a sweat even if there is wind blowing by.
put on a helmet and go ride a motorcycle down the highway during the summer months. you may feel cool during the ride but as soon as you stop you will realize that you are sweating bullets
The engine itself is fairly well separated from the driver for both for safety and because the fuel tank is in between. On either side of the driver are engine coolers which are heating the cockpit walls to temperatures nearly as hot as the engine. There isn’t much air blowing inside the cockpit so it gets really hot. Working out in a sweatsuit with a warm helmet in the hot cockpit is incredibly hot.
The car generates a lot of heat which encapsulates them. The track itself gets very hot from sun and traction. The race suit and safety pod they sit in means they are barely exposed to the elements.
To give you an idea of how hot it is in the car, most drivers lose around 10 pounds / 4.5kg of body weight from sweating during the race. It can be double that when racing in Singapore for example.
Some drivers wear ice/cold vests to help keep their core body temperature under control. However that adds weight, so they go without if they can.
drivers are not exposed to the wind; with their fireproof suits and helmets the drivers are extremely well insulated to protect from injury. Races also take place in warm climates so the 80 degree winds wouldn't offer much reprieve.
And they are sat very close to the engine which is working very hard and kicks out a load of heat.
And the track is black and hot from the friction. That first few feet of air where they sit is probably gross
And, they're exercising. Race driving entails physical exertion.
And don't forget the mental strain, guys focus very hard for the entire duration of the race. Can't do any good.
Tell that to Lance Stroll
Don't over exaggerate Lance focuses just as much as the other drivers. He just does it in one tiny spot in front of him, but that spot is focused on like 10 times more than the other drivers.
Mental strain and frustration are two things that make me sweat buckets, even without physical exertion.
yep. Playing CS2 Premiere in a tense battle and I will sweat even in the AC. The same game just in DM, no sweat. This is only using fingers on one side and a mouse on the other.
I sweat more playing rocket league than I do actually working out. I don't typically get bo, but I smell horrible too when I play. My wife says she can smell if I played a lot of rocket league on the weekend when she comes into my office lol.
The good news is they have a small water reserve and hose that lets them sip warm water throughout the race. So that’s good.
Lot of people not familiar with motor racing don’t seem to realize it takes a lot of work to operate a race car. it’s not like driving your average road car just lightly pressing on the pedals. and F1 races lasts around 1:30 hours
How so? Not doubting you but what muscles do they actually use besides arms and neck?
You know when the airplane takes off and you feel your stomach muscles contract? Imagine doing that for hours straight, with turns, while wearing heavy gear.
Abs, they are constantly get whipped side and side as they turn and they have to hold themselves still so they can control the car and keep their head steady
Massive G-forces and no servo assist on the brakes. They're pushing down with >100 kilos of force every single corner. 5G of braking force helps with this, (the rate of deceleration means their leg alone weighs over 100 kilos, but they still have the use their calf muscle to transfer and modulate this force), but it's still a massive, repeated effort. Here's an interesting article on the matter: https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/formula-one-brake-systems-explained
The brake pedal is crazy heavy iirc, requires a lot of force to push
Something like 200 lbs of force for full application
Decelerating does help by pushing you into the pedal. I hear it's way harder to drive a racecar if you're too *slow* because of how much is designed to be done at high speeds (stiff braking, high tire temps, aero stuff).
Correct, and the biggest thing, at the f1 level anyway, is tire temperature. You have to get near their grip limit to keep them even close to operating temperature, and if they slip below it the tires essentially solidify and its like driving on ice with 1000hp right behind you. If you're not fast enough, you will spin and probably crash, if you are too fast you will definitely spin and probably crash. If you do it just right... you'll still be dramatically slower than an actual F1 driver, their reaction times are barely human
Wow, this is an interesting read.
This [Top Gear Clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhB0JKjJrQ) does a great job of illustrating it a bit. I don't think Richard ever even makes it into an F1 car in that segment, but even in the slow Formula cars he still has trouble getting the tires into the temperature window, and you can see how difficult the driving is for him because of it.
They have \~2.5G of sideways acceleration in curves and \~3G of forwards/backwards acceleration during braking. Just keeping your head upright at those accelerations is difficult, in addition, they are wearing a helmet AND have to drive a race car doing 70km/h in sharp corners and 240km/h on straights.
In fast corners they're peaking at more like ~5-6G's laterally these days.
Yeah, there's some helmetcam/helmet mic video clip of Charles Leclerc from the Chinese GP a couple weeks ago. He accidentally left his mic on after talking to his race engineer and you can hear him grunting and panting through every turn. It sounds like he's running for his life, but hes just trying to stay in control through 5g turns, its crazy. I wish I could find the clip but I'm at work and it's proving elusive.
Ever take a corner fast and kinda slide in your seat? you might be feeling up to 0.8 lateral GeForce across your body. These cars can do 5g's (your own body weight x5) through corners. This basically means you are sloshing your insides back and forth and everything weighs 5x what it should and if you don't control your muscles, it's impossible to control the car. The stamina required to do this for hours is something else.
If there's a quality go Kart track near you with fast go karts, go on a day where you can combine your race sets into one long race. It's exhausting from g forces and strain on your hands, fingers, forearms and even shoulders. That's a fraction of what pro racers will go through.
You are put under ridiculous G forces with every single turn you take in an F1 car. You've got to be in shape to do it for up to 2 hours.
Their entire body…do you think their core/back/hip/leg muscles aren’t working serious overtime every time they corner?
Legs?
It's hard af to turn and brake those cars
Formula 1 drivers experience up to 5g when cornering. They have to have extreme core strength to keep steady in that.
Check out racer training techniques. There's some crazy torque, their whole body is fighting gforce the whole time. It's a full body workout just to keep your eyes on the road. https://youtu.be/CE-r2dY2OlE?si=mhXHeG1lM94JK_Ox
They press the brake pedal with one leg using 150kg of force while being subjected to 5g of negative force trying to slam their face into the steering wheel. They have to do that several times a lap while also steering through the next corner at maximum speed. They finely tune that braking to keep from locking a wheel while turning into the corner. Those drivers are all super fit. They maintain a heart rate around 180bpm for the entire race.
shoot, I sweat like a pig in my sim rig and a climate controlled room. these dudes are doing it out doors and in real g forces and a fire suit.
I'm drenched in sweat every time I step out of my rig. If I ever got to drive an F1 car I'm pretty sure dehydration would get me before I managed to plant it in the wall 5 minutes in.
I drove a bmw xtreme rallycar last summer. It was maybe 25 celsius outside, so inside the car was maybe 50-60. I was kinda anxious of the heat but turns out that driving on car wide gravel roads at 150kph gets you focused to driving. After the first stage my eyes were literally red because I didn't blink enough and some sweat got in lol.
50-60 *celsius*? Wouldn't you be dead?
Saunas are recommended at 100°C at least if you want the health benefits. It's crazy how well your body can keep cool, of course the sauna at 100 is only for 10-15 minutes TOPS.
Must be nice, not sweating at all.
> That first few feet of air where they sit is probably gross 100% correct. "track temp" is something separately measured and followed for that reason.
Even if you don't know what this feels like, just think about artificial turf on a hot day and how immediately warmer those fields are compared to regular grass.
Not just hot from friction, hot from the sun. I used to work in F1 and we'd run round the tracks in the evening. The tracks even then were roasting.
Well yeah that's the mention of it being black
Did you guys get new shoes every weekend like Williams?
And a long forgotten sponsorship from the coal industry means that small coal fireplaces remain at the drivers feet until 2035.
They also have hot electronics packed under and to the sides of their seats which boost the cockpit temp even more.
There is a very fine line of temperature on a motorcycle where you'd like to get much closer to the engine to stay warm or be as far away from it as possible when it's hot out. I assume an F1 car exacerbates this experience to an wild degree.
Thank you, this does make sense now that I think about it because wind doesn’t hit my face through full face helmets. How come the FIA or the teams don’t put vents in the helmet or some kind of ventilation system in the suits as the heat has resulted in driver retirements like Sargeant at Qatar? Is it also in favour of fireproof suits and helmets as if there was a fire then smoke would come in and suffocate the driver?
air intake through the helmet will increase drag and slow the car. It would also be really uncomfortable to have wind blasting you in the face at those speeds.......unless you rebuilt the helmet to allow airflow but then dampen it causing more weight as well as a entire redesign of the helmet at this highest level of competition; maximizing efficiency beats out any comfort.
Actually since this season driver cooling aids are a thing. Teams can have multiple small openings that channel the air to the driver into the cockpit. You can see them at the tip of the nose but also on top of the nose (like Red Bull or Mercedes). This has been introduced in response to the extreme conditions that happened in Qatar 2023
And there are drivers that are advocating for more driver comforts in the 2026 rule changes. If the rules don't force a team to make the driver more comfortable, then the idea is to make it as fast as possible. You need rules to force certain things so that they will make the cars like this. Ride height is a big one right now.
And tbh, safety and comfort have increased massively over the decades. Took a lot of terrible accidents and preassure by the drivers. But right now, if you consider all the inherent dangers of F1, the cars abd driver equipments are extremely good.
Yes, cars are much safer now. The current big issue is complaints about Porpoising in the cars because they are so low to the ground, and that being extemely hard on the backs of the drivers, and a big concern for longevity in the sport.
Pretty sure they have porpoising mostly sorted out by now? It was definitely an issue in 2022 (especially at mercedes), but I haven't really seen much of it lately. Heat seems to be the most current issue, along with spray during wet races.
Porpoising, what that is?
Picture a dolphine (porpoise) swimming through the water beside a boat and going up and down in the water. The car does that, but only a couple of inches, and it's met with hard ground beneath. Mercedes had it [REALLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACU5Ytsi7Mg) bad last year when the car first came out.
Kinda depends how you define comfort (and how many decades ago we're talkin). They are pulling pretty insane Gs right now, which of course isn't really comfortable. So maybe more comfort in some ways, not so much in other.
Yeah, but I mean... Racing in general doesn't go without high Gs? At least they nowadays have a training regiment to help their bodies withstand the Gs. I think that's something you'll just have to accept if you want to spend your days driving motorised vehicles fast.
Racing in general doesn't go with high G's, but because F1 cornerspeed has gone up a lot over the decades the amount of Gs they have to withstand has increased a lot too. I don't think I can think of a racing sport where you have so many Gs so much of the time. Their training actually supports the insane thing they go through. You don't see the type of necks F1 drivers have in any other motorsport.
"Driver comfort" is driver safety. A driver that gets loopy from heat is dangerous to everyone. HANS, Halos, roll cages, banning ground effect, Nomex suits, ditching methanol (Indycar), tire walls, chicanes (LeMans comes to mind), run-off area, etc... *Helmets* A *lot* of stuff to make racing safer rather than faster.
I assume vents would make the whole setup less fire resistant.
yes, but that could also likely be "solved" by design and manufacturing, which loops us back to; being uncomfortable has more practical benefits
Vents to let in air when you are moving fast can be small. If you have crashed and are stationary, a small vent won't let in much air.
MotoGP riders hit those speeds but have vents in their helmets. I've reached 2-300km/h on a track as well, and it's not at all wind "blasting" you in your face with a vented helmet.
GP doesn't have as much of a concern for the fire insulation though, you're not attached to your potential coffin in a crash.
Formula 1 helmets do have air vents and have had them as standard since the 1990’s. https://www.magnetomagazine.com/the-intriguing-evolution-of-formula-1-helmets/#:~:text=Holes%20for%20ventilation%20were%20also,kg%20through%20a%20new%20regulation.
>air intake through the helmet will increase drag and slow the car. Not by any significant degree. From an areodynamic drag standpoint F1 cars are actually fairly dirty, the aerodynamics are put to use creating downforce.
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Oh I have no doubt that every little bit of air flowing anywhere near the car is accounted for and finally tuned my only point was that it's not a matter of not being able to do it because of increased drag
Yeah winds at their top speeds would feel super not good. (Overly simplistic) reminder that if you put wings on an F1 car, it would take flight.
If you took the wings off an F1 car it would take flight.
Wright brothers: write that down, write it down!
Also true. Bonkers machines, those.
and they put wings on F1 cars too prevent flight wings... how to they work
Shape and position matters. Either they create down force or lift.
yeah. it was a surface level joke. you take the wings off -> it flies you put wings on -> it doesnt fly
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And much lower speeds to get airborne
First, F1 helmets DO have air vents and have had them as standard since the 1990’s. Second, you don’t feel the air blasting your face at the same speed you’re going. That’s not how they work. Look at motorcycle helmets. They have air vents but you don’t have 130mph wind hitting your face through the vents.
An F1 car is a wing - just inverted that it pushes the car into the ground
I would've presumed that it shouldn't be that difficult to design a helmet vent where the high speed air inlet slows down the outlet inside the helmet. Also, from my understanding, F1 actually do have wings. The wings are just upside down to generate downforce to keep the car grounded.
F1 helmets have required air vents for almost 30 years now.
Correct. And they are positioned on the rear (known to us commoners more often as “spoilers”). As someone above mentioned, position and size of wings matter for if they produce downforce or lift.
They’re also in the front and the shape of the body also creates downforce. And position and size has nothing to do with whether it creates lift or downforce, the shape of the air foil is what matters. Wings for downforce are basically upside down airplane wings in terms of the shape of the airfoil
Air coming into your face and possibly making you tear up is undesired.
Or just reversed the wings.
Yeah this really seems like it makes the most sense. Comfort is not really the concern of world class competition
The helmets do have some vents. Just not enough, and cranking hot air through the vents is only so effective.
You don't have to blast the air at the face, helmets generally have vents on the top, to allow some air to cool the top of your head. My motorcycle helmet has vents at the top edge of the visor, on the chin bar (adjustable), at the front/top of the head, and also at the rear/top with large ducts that draw air out. They're very effective at 60mph+, and these guys are going way faster than that.
And they are working hard - I mean really hard. It takes about 150kg of force to work the brakes, the experience 5G in braking and laterally in corners. They can lose 5-6 kg in sweet during a race.
> They can lose 5-6 kg in sweet during a race. As professional athletes, they probably shouldn't eat that many sweets at all. jk
Counterpoint - it is called a sugar RUSH for a reason /s
Also, who drives 300km without some snacks to enjoy on the way?
The helmets do have vents, but you can only do so much. Try opening your window in a car in hot temps. It's still hot. Add in the multiple layers of fire suits, and the fact that it takes a hell of a lot of energy to drive an F1 car, and the eventual result is you're hot. Even with ventilation.
They have air vents in the helmets, they are just as small as possible due to the reasons already stated.
I remember instances of drivers cracking open their visors to get more airflow to cool down. A season or 2 ago, there was a particularly extreme race where it was warmer than normal at the track and there was an issue with the tires that made the racing more intense than normal. There are 5 compounds of dry weather tire and the tire manufacturer brings 3 to each race. They choose them based on some desired decay rate on the performance. This means it is quite common for drivers to race less intensely in order to make tires last longer. At this race with the incorrect tires, the performance degradation was way too slow so drivers had no need to save tires. This meant that every lap was done at maximum intensity unlike any other race. Combined with the high temperatures it was honestly very dangerous for the race to go on. One driver mentioned that near the end they were so overheated and dehydrated that there vision was going blurry in some corners. Another driver tweeted that several others had passed out (not clear if literal loss of consciousness or just a colloquial use) in the medical area after the race. Many drivers were filmed having trouble getting out of there cars and walking to those medical areas. One driver even stopped and retired from the race because they were so bad. So much potential for things to go horribly wrong at those speeds if people were that bad.
This was the 2023 Qatar GP. There was an 18-lap limit on each tyre due to track conditions, so the drivers were indeed going all out every lap to get the most out of each tyre. Logan Sargeant was the one who had to retire from heat exhaustion. Esteban Ocon threw up twice in his helmet during the race. Many of the drivers said it was the most physically challenging race of their careers.
You know it's been a hell of a race when the podium finishers are sitting down during the other drivers' interviews. Also, wasn't Max somewhat hungover from celebrating clinching the WDC the day before?
>There are 5 compounds There are actually 6 as of last season, Pirelli introduced a new tyre between the 2022 C1 and C2. The '22 C1 became the C0, the new tyre became the C1.
Neat. This just makes me miss the ridiculousness of the hyper-ultra-mega-softs and the rainbow of tire colors.
There are vents in the helmet, and they can open the visor in several different positions. But it is uncomfortable to have 300 km/h wind hitting your face even if you are hot. And they do not get this air circulating around their head and around their body with all the foam and the fire suit. There are actually several products available to cool down the driver. They might wear a cooling vest or a full cooling suit. Some of these are passively cooled so you leave them in the freezer before the race and they keep cool through most of the race. Others are actively cooled and is plumbed into a cooling loop in the car circulating water to a radiator. Both of these techniques have their limitations as to how much heat they can get rid of through a race, especially in hotter climates. Another issue is that they add weight and in the case of active cooling they add drag. So a cooling vest might increase your lap time by a few crucial hundreths of a second that you need to get a good result in the race. Drivers would rather be uncomfortable and fast then comfortable and slow.
Cooling vests are used pre and post race but are not allowed during the race in F1, this is different from other series.
Is there a reason they aren't allowed specifically in F1?
“Fire safety”. There was a big dust up about underwear and Lewis Hamilton’s piercing for the same stated reason a few years back
Not sure about F1 specifically but a lot of racing drivers will wear something called a cool shirt. It circulates water and hooks up to a unit in the car that cools the water
ventilation systems etc. add weight which makes the car slower. They do have ice vests, kinda the opposite of a body warmer, but that melts pretty quickly and there are air intakes on the nose to pass air through the cockpit.
Also too add to this they do have air flow for the drivers. if you look at the nose of the car there’s a hole there for airflow mandated by the regulations.
Also, there is an air intake at the front of the well..front wing. A relatively small hole. I think its to ventilate the heat generated by the engine, battery, control electronics, etc.
That was a one off event. And it really was only as bad as it was because they put a limit on how many laps you could do per set of tyres. The tyres could last longer than that set amount of laps, so they were pushing all out every lap. Normally they manage their tyres and don't push as hard for the entire race. That was the bigger issue. The temperature and humidity was similar to that of Singapore every year and the drivers always make it through that race just fine. It was also a surprise it was that hot and the tyres were at risk, so the drivers didn't have a week to prepare for it. It was the suddenness and totality of everything that made Qatar that difficult. That was like 4 different things happening all at once to make Qatar what it was. The race was earlier in the year than normal. The tyres were at risk of blowing up, so everyone was pushing due to the lap limit of the tyres. It was hotter than expected. The drivers didn't have the time to prepare like they do for Singapore.
1. A lot of the equipment is for safety. Ventilation systems mean the equipment can let hot air or smoke inside if there is a fire. 2. Wind at high speeds is very noisy/uncomfortable. Driver's might not be able to use radio communications if the suits were ventilated. 3. Just because a bunch of rich people live in a desert doesn't mean it's a great idea to hold sporting events that require wearing a ton of protective equipment there.
The helmeted head of the driver sticks out of the top of the car, and the helmet vents are also outside of the car. A fire *inside* of an F1 racecar is not going to kill the driver by smoke inhalation.
>How come the FIA or the teams don’t put vents in the helmet I'd be incredibly surprised if the helmets didn't have substantial venting. My motorcycle helmet does, as do the helmets of MotoGP riders. ~~But I can't say I've yet looked so closely at pictures of the helmets F1 drivers wear!~~ They are vented! The holes may appear small, but you must consider the air pressure on those vents at high speed; you'll definitely get air flow through the helmet with those.
It’s also just really hard work. Physically. Go have a run at just a go-cart race track. It’s surprisingly hard work just that.
And here Hamilton describes various aspects of how rigorous driving is: https://youtu.be/jBx3843DI8I?si=QF_Du_GNBoPp6uq9&t1m36s Edit: rewatched it, I thought this was the interview where he discussed that the engine is literally behind him.
Right. Ever been outside when its 90 degrees and the wind is blowing 30 mph? It's like a blast furnace.
Also, I do not think they are getting a 250kph wind to the face. The aerodynamics of the car shunts most of the wind around them. Certainly they get some but not a gale force wind to the face.
Can confirm this last bit for sure. I live in Phoenix AZ where temps regularly stay above 80 degrees pretty much year round out here. I like to drive with my windows down even at interstate speeds. But it doesn't cool me down that much because all it's really doing is blowing hot air on me. But at least it keeps the air circulating!
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f1 drivers lose between 4-10 pounds during a race. they have a small water supply through a straw integrated in the helmet. I've also come to see that there is a universal standard of having a few small holes in the helmet to allow some airflow that was adopted in 2001
humm convection-y
What you're saying is that we need cold weather races.
The cars also aren't designed to have outside air circling around inside, that would just increase the drag. So the air actually isn't coming at them that much.
I'd also say hot wind is still hot.
Similar to how people always seem to think that I love my motorcycle for the wind-through-your-hair experience. But no, not really. Not with a helmet on. Sure it's got a few little vents, but it's still hot and sweaty if it's even the least bit warm out... Same with the jacket and pants and boots and gloves. And that's *without* the fireproof layers that racecar drivers are wearing.
> with their fireproof suits and helmets the drivers are extremely well insulated > and don’t have A/C. that raises the question: why don't they build some cooling into their suits, like spacesuits? i assume the obvious answer is weight, but if they make a rule that standardizes it across all drivers, it shouldn't affect the playing field and benefit driver health
Isn't Azerbaijan at night because the day would be way too hot to race in?
Isn't Azerbaijan at night because the day would be way too hot to race in?
> Races also take place in warm climates so the 80 degree winds wouldn't offer much reprieve. the tracks are often dramatically worse, due to the road surface and surrounding structures on many tracks.
It might. It might actually freez him to death! We have no way of knowing sinse you did not add a unit of measurement.
The vast majority of their bodies are inside the car, with only the head sticking out. The aerodynamics of an F1 car is designed specifically to direct air in the most efficient manner possible so much of the 'outside' air won't make it into the cockpit to cool the driver. Finally the driver has no exposed skin and wears multiple layers of fire retardant material to protect them in case of a catastrophic fire, [such as this one.](https://youtu.be/gCivN-b4FZI) All of these factors to cause the drivers to get extremely hot during the race, combining with the physical and mental effort that they have to handle during a 3 hour race causes their body temp to climb to dangerous levels. It is not unusual for a driver to lose several pounds due to sweat after a race.
I remember clear as day eating a bowl of Rice Krispies when this crash happened... the nauseous, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, the hairs on my body standing on end, i genuinely thought i had just witnessed someone die a horrible death. Scary stuff!
Yeah, that was a pretty messed up moment. I had just gotten into F1 that season and thought I was legit going to see a driver die. The fact he got out with nothing worse than scarred hands is amazing. The halo literally saved his life, he would have been decapitated otherwise.
Weirdly enough, I wasn't really worried until my gf who was watching with me said "well he's dead, right ?". In my mind, the cars were so sturdy and the suits were fireproof, and we'd seen so many huge crashes in the last few years where they just walked out of it like nothing happened, so my subconscious just thought "that's impressive, but he's probably fine". Then when she said that, I started thinking about it, rewinded to see the crash again and realised how bad it was, and that maybe he wasn't fine. Luckily we quickly saw Grosjean was already in the medical car, alive and well.
And then after all that, the dude is racing IndyCars, of all things. These guys are just built different.
even watching it now made my stomach feel weird for a second, even though i know exactly how it ends
1.5-2 hours Total time from start of race to finish, including red flags: 3 hours Total time the drivers can spend driving on track: 2 hours Total distance the drivers can cover during a race: 305km + the rest of the lap. Which ever one of these happens first, ends the race.
>The aerodynamics of an F1 car is designed specifically to direct air in the most efficient manner possible so much of the 'outside' air won't make it into the cockpit to cool the driver. Semi-true, the FIA mandated that vents be added to the nose to direct air into the cockpit, I think this has been true for a while but they added more intakes this year. Also, the engines dump a lot of heat into the cockpit too.
Yeah, i but meant 'accidental' air going into the cockpit. Venting is another thing entirely and even then venting is designed to be as efficient as possible to reduce drag.
>It is not unusual for a driver to lose several pounds due to sweat after a race. Drivers have to get weighed before and after a race for this for safety reasons.
oh fuck..i did not expect that. that is impressive. there is no way.
The crash was amazing and awful to watch live. I honestly thought he died. Had this been three or four years earlier he would have died since F1 cars didn't have a protective 'halo', so his head would have been taken off his shoulders by the guardrail.
if i saw that in a movie, i'd still say it was bullshit and they should have made the wreck more believable. i read the other comment, still thought he was dead after seeing the wreck. i'd love to know what was said those 10s after between the driver and doc(?)
He did an interview where he detailed the whole thing from thoughts in the car to talking to the doc. IIRC, he had to pull his foot out of his boot that was stuck in the pedals of the car, which resulted in the foot being badly burned. He was insisting that he walk to the ambulance so his family (watching live on TV back home) would know he was OK.
I feel like this answer would be obvious after watching one 5 minute "race highlights" of a random race. Still, thank you for explaining
Because the track temperatures are generally speaking very warm already (sun + heat + asphalt = hot) plus the engines are spewing heat out. Doesn't matter how fast the air is hitting you if the air itself is hot.
In addition to this, the cockpit is surrounded on all sides except the helmet at around the chin/mouth level, and the helmet is pretty thick multiple layers of material with air holes/vents. The cockpit area is called the tub cause it's very much reminiscent of a small bathtub when disassembled. Actually I think it'd be more appropriate to call it a coffin but yeh, it's not difficult to see why the notation does not include that specific word. It still is more like a coffin with one top end open for the driver's head to protrude out. Because it's so closed, the the tip of the nosecone typically has a small hole to feed cooling air into the cockpit, so the temps inside the cockpit don't exceed a certain threshold and make it impossible for the driver to carry on.
This also true of most race drivers. Even weekend racers. I have a friend that used to race and he had a cooling setup using a small icebox and a pump to pump chilled water through his fireproof suit. I am in south Florida so with the sun blazing and the cars it does get REALLY hot at the track.
At some point, when the outside air is hot enough, wind only makes it hotter. You can look at motorcycle wind chill charts and see around 90°F/32°C air temperature, the temperature of the wind actually becomes hotter than the air temperature the faster you go. [Here’s an example](https://keski.condesan-ecoandes.org/motorcycle-wind-chart/motorcycle-wind-chill-chart-motorcycle-forum.html)
yup, i start to dress to keep the sun off me and air down. drink lots of water. its over 100f on my way back home from work, 1.5 hr commute.
Used to live where it got over 100F daily during the summer. The wind was more "oven baked" than cooling even just walking around outside.
While it is true that fast winds will cool an object by aiding convection, it's truly insignificant compared to the amount of heat those engines are giving off, plus the fact that the racers are wearing heavy protective gear in the event their car spins out, crashes, and catches fire.
Because they wear protective gear over their entire body, mainly a fireproof suit and helmet, none of that wind is getting through. It's like wondering why you're hot inside despite the fact that there's a nice breeze outside, but meanwhile your windows are all closed.
Never mind the actual insulation and suits etc. F1 is extremely taxing on their body. It is physically quite demanding, so a lot of their sweat is actually from hard work. The g forces pushing and pulling kn the body are tough. The concentration is insane. There is a clip of either Vettel or Hamilton from top gear talking about this.
There is an aerodynamic bubble around the cockpit in modern F1 cars so the air in the cockpit itself is quite stagnant and gets very hot
Fun fact, it’s not uncommon in GT or closed cockpit racing to see drivers wearing a “cool suit” that’s essentially a fire resistant shirt with a system of plastic tubes running around it with cooled liquid running through it.
They're not riding bikes dude, really?
Why are people in houses dry when it's raining?
Don’t Indy Car helmets have a cooling vent attached to it?
they were forced to since the aeroshield deflects the little airflow drivers received with the halo, so they had to compromise with the cooling duct even with the duct indycars can reach 140 degrees F in the cockpit
No AC, fire resistance suits, helmet, limited water (often hot), and climates like Singapore being hot/humid won’t get anywhere cold
1. The drivers are in fireproof race suits and crash helmets. They don't get the breeze. 2. They're usually following behind a car that it putting off a lot of hot air from things like the engines and brakes. The brakes regularly get over 1,000°C during a heavy braking zone. 3. They usually take place when it's hot out already. Most races take place in the middle of the day and during the summer or the warmer parts of the year. This is excluding a few races like those in the Middle East in the middle of the desert, they race when it's cool enough to race. But its still usually very hot because it's a desert. 4. They're sitting right in front of the engine. The car gets hot because of that, and they only have the tiny hole at the top to let the heat out. 5. An F1 car is designed to be as fast as possible. They don't care about driver comfort pretty much at all.
Also the cabins are small, they are wearing fairly thick fireproof clothes and exercising quite strenuously.
As others have mentioned, its the clothing. I used to race in a cheapo local race series in texas, and the first time I just put the clothes on in the comfort of my air conditioned home, i felt an instant of panic because of how hot and stifling they are just to wear. They are thick, and they purposefully dont let air pass through them almost at all to protect you from fire. Strangely, in the middle of a race you feel nothing, your adrenaline is so high, but when you finish the race you realize you are just pouring sweat. We used air scoops made of of dryer hose to route air through the windows a bit, but its just so hot. We used to do a 4 hour endurance race on thanksgiving day, and we would switch drivers every 45 minutes. I think i lost 10 pounds of water or more each session. Then drink as fast as you can to get as much back in as possible. And i was racing these absolutely crappy maza 1st gen rx-7s, they were good for about 1.2g's of lateral force at best. I cant imagine what its like fighting 3 times that like these guys.
Same reason why you don't get cold when you're on a plane: the wind is not hitting your body
How cool do solar winds keep you on the sun? Asking for a friend
On top of what others have said about aerodynamics and many layers, they’re also sat right in front of a 1000 hp engine running at max revs for 70% of the time. In addition to being sat literally on the floor of the car that often scrapes the track surface in high downforce areas, generating heat from friction.
It's important to note that the 300mph "wind" isn't coming at them. They are coming at it. So it isn't cooled at all when they hit it. They are coming at hot air as races are usually held in warm climates. Furthermore, they are insanely well insulated.
One smart guy running a water/air intercooler with ice and water also used it plumbed into his "cool suit" under all the Nomex and his helmet. He had two 8mm quick connects mounted to the seat.
It's really really hard work in those cars. They are pulling lots of Gs and fighting hard to keep control of the car and go as fast as possible. Here is where one of the drivers left his radio on and you can here him panting. https://youtu.be/SYsNpwXhCW8?si=izxpMh9KMZRrh0FU Also they are wearing full flame retardant race suits and helmets. Some how Roman survived this crash and fireball. https://youtu.be/7YMjw2sjXqU?si=R_RX9KzcUalGRpBN
A combination of the general hot temperatures at most of the venues they visit, all the clothes they wear, a race is extremely physically demanding, confined cockpit, the engine is directly behind them and "wind" isnt always cold.
In addition to the comments on the airflow, it's also worth noting they don't spend much time at those speeds. The circuits where heat is a particular problem, such as Singapore and Qatar, don't have desperately long straights. Singapore had 20+ corners, in 1 minute 45 of lap time there are only two longish straights,.covering less than a quarter of it.
The engine is right behind them, and the cockpit can get up to 140 F. They also don’t have an AC tube, like Indycar or NASCAR.
A few reasons. 1. Most of the races take place in hot places. If the air outside is 80F+, even wind still feels hot. 2. Races take place on asphalt, which absorbs and puts off a lot of heat. Track temperatures are often HOT. 3. Driving an F1 car is insanely physical. These guys are working hard to control the car while going around turns at insane speeds. 4. F1 drivers wear a lot of protective gear in case of a crash. Their suits are thick and designed to protect against fire. The helmets are also sealed, which keeps heat in around their head. There isn't any part of skin exposed to wind - so they are thoroughly insulated. 5. The aerodynamics of the car redirect most of the wind around the car, meaning they likely don't feel much, if any, wind when they are sitting in the cockpit. If you look at the front wing of an F1 car, you will see a little hole on the nose - this is for air to be directed into the cockpit to cool the driver down. 6. The engine is literally right behind the driver. They are basically resting their back on it. 7. Unless you are Max Verstappen (or recently Lando Norris - let's go Lando!) you are likely driving behind another car/through it's hot exhaust. It's not uncommon for drivers to lose a few pounds of water weight throughout a race due to them sweating so much.
Because they're sitting mostly surrounded by the car, only their head and maybe shoulders would get any significant airflow. But they're wearing racing overalls and a big helmet, so very little high-speed cool air really makes contact with their body to cool them down. They may open their visor to let some more air in to the helmet, but that also risks things getting in to their eyes. Races often take place in hot and humid climates, and they're constantly engaging their whole bodies to control the car and keep their heads upright with 5g+ pulling on them in corners and braking zones. They also have ~1000HP engines a few inches behind their backs, which throughout a race, will cause the driver to get quite warm. After last year's race in Qatar, teams can place a little duct on the car's nose that funnels air in to the cockpit, that should add some useful cooling, but they're still going to get quite warm - hopefully just not *too* warm, where they end up passing out, as happened to a few drivers in Qatar.
Wrap yourself up in thermal undies and 4 blankets to simulate their fire suit and go stsnd in the wind.. you wont feel a thing and you will get hot. There is little to no ventilation in those suits.
Besides they get no air. The aerodynamics are designed that air resistance even by the drivers head is minimised.
Their drinks bottle / bag is also packaged away close to a radiator so is never cold and quite possibly very hot to drink.
There isnt much wind coming at them. They are fully enclosed in a cockpit with only about half their head sticking out and that part is covered by a helmet. They have added an air duct this season that flows a tiny amount of air into the cockpit but it’s really small because this technically slows the car down. Additionally, they are wearing multiple layers of fireproof clothing which don’t breathe at all. They are also sitting directly in front of an engine that puts out around 800 HP and they are physically exerting themselves. So imagine doing a workout in a gym with the heater on dressed like it’s the middle of winter. It get very hot. And when it’s humid, your body can’t release the heat
There are so many factors to consider here, but one I don’t think I’ve seen is that the track surface itself can get very hot, 40 degrees Celsius+ at times, and all they really have between them and it is a thin sheet of carbon
Many reasons actually 1) most of their bodies are actually inside the car, not exposed to the elements 2) they wear a few layers of protective gear 3) they sit really close to the engine, the temperature inside the car can get upwards of 50c 4) physical stress on the body while driving at such speeds 5) outside temperatures also have an impact
Despite the fast wind, F1 drivers experience extreme heat due to several factors. Their bodies generate heat from physical exertion, while the car's engine and other components radiate heat. Plus, the cockpit lacks airflow, trapping heat and raising temperatures inside.
I've got to assume they wear cool suits? Even when I raced decades ago, better funded drivers has under garments with tubes circulating chilled water. Not detracting from drivers, just trying to figure out how the stay in it.
Also look up motorcycle driving temps, after a certain temperature there is outside the faster you go the hotter it is.
There were no cooling issues until the halo came along, the center halo brace splits the air, hence making it go around the driver… #don’tbelievethis #I’mlieing
Don’t forget withstanding up to about 6gs off and on for 2 hours. They are at a moderate to extreme physical demand the entire time. Try doing that without sweating.
On top of what everyone else has said, they’re also exerting an incredible amount of energy. It isn’t just holding down the pedal and steering around corners. These folks are pulling similar G-forces to what fighter pilots experience. It takes a ton of core strength and endurance. That alone is enough to make someone break a sweat even if there is wind blowing by.
Nobody is mentioning the sustained 180bpm heart rates…it’s extreme adrenaline the entire time
put on a helmet and go ride a motorcycle down the highway during the summer months. you may feel cool during the ride but as soon as you stop you will realize that you are sweating bullets
The engine itself is fairly well separated from the driver for both for safety and because the fuel tank is in between. On either side of the driver are engine coolers which are heating the cockpit walls to temperatures nearly as hot as the engine. There isn’t much air blowing inside the cockpit so it gets really hot. Working out in a sweatsuit with a warm helmet in the hot cockpit is incredibly hot.
The car generates a lot of heat which encapsulates them. The track itself gets very hot from sun and traction. The race suit and safety pod they sit in means they are barely exposed to the elements. To give you an idea of how hot it is in the car, most drivers lose around 10 pounds / 4.5kg of body weight from sweating during the race. It can be double that when racing in Singapore for example. Some drivers wear ice/cold vests to help keep their core body temperature under control. However that adds weight, so they go without if they can.