The later date for the Qatar Grand Prix in 2024 is the best way to help drivers avoid similarly challenging conditions after this year’s physical issues.
Logan Sargeant retired with severe dehydration in Qatar, while Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were among those who required medical attention, and Esteban Ocon admitted he was vomiting in his helmet early in the race. The FIA is looking into measures to prevent a repeat scenario on what was a humid night at Lusail, and Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says a date change is the easiest solution.
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“Fundamentally, when the air temperature is near body temperature – around 36 degrees – you can blow air at the driver, but it doesn’t have the same cooling effect as when the air is a bit lower,” Shovlin said. “The added humidity also makes it very difficult for them. There were other factors as well. It’s a tough circuit so lots of high g-force cornering. It’s very busy, lots of turns and that places a lot of physical demands on the body.
“With these restrictions in the stint length too, you could push the tires as hard as you like. The race was really a sequence of qualifying laps for the drivers, so it was really busy. All of that combined made it probably the toughest race that any of them have ever had to do.
“Now, what is the real solution to that? Next year the race moves to December. That’s a cooler part of the year and that’s probably the biggest thing that we can do to help.”
Russell’s comments on the race backed up Shovlin’s view, as he had spent multiple laps trying to increase airflow but with limited impact.
“I was so sick in the car,” Russell said. “I wasn’t physically sick. I felt ill during the race and had to ask my engineer to give me encouragement to try to take my mind away from it.
“I do a lot of heat training in a sauna so you push your body to the limit and sometimes you need to get out that sauna. I felt that about lap 20. I had my visor open for the whole race – just hot air but it was better than no air. It was brutal.”