Formula One’s governing body declared a heat hazard for the Austrian Grand Prix at \u200cSpielberg’s Red Bull Ring this weekend, the first time this season that the designation has been used.<\/p>\n
Race Director Rui Marques said temperatures in excess of 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) had been forecast.<\/p>\n
Declaring a heat hazard requires teams to fit \u200ba driver cooling system, such as a liquid-cooled vest, though drivers are not obliged to \u200buse them and can take a ballast penalty instead.<\/p>\n
The car’s minimum weight is \u2060increased to accommodate the hardware.<\/p>\n
Last October’s Singapore Grand Prix was the first time the heat hazard \u200bdesignation had been applied after it was added to the rules in 2025, followed by the U.S. Grand Prix \u200bin Austin, Texas, the same month.<\/p>\n
“I think the moments where you have zero kph in the car, they are definitely the worst,” said Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar of sitting on the starting grid in such hot conditions.<\/p>\n
“To be \u200bfair, when driving, it\u2019s not too bad. We\u2019ve got good AC (air conditioning) with our open cockpit, \u200bso it\u2019s fine.”<\/p>\n
The Frenchman said he would not be wearing a cooling vest because his felt too uncomfortable and cumbersome.<\/p>\n
“It \u200cworks \u2060really well though for like 10 minutes and then it\u2019s warm again. So, I\u2019m okay. Honestly, I\u2019ve never been to a point where I really needed that vest. If I need it, that means the car as well can\u2019t handle it and we can\u2019t drive. So, I think the car will give \u200bup before I do,” he \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri \u2060was more positive and revealed when asked if he had acclimatised in a sauna that he had prepared for the heat with portable heaters and an \u200bexercise bike in a small bathroom.<\/p>\n
“You can cause yourself a lot of \u200bdiscomfort, a lot \u2060of pain by doing that. So, I do that for the benefit of my performance. Not for pleasure, that\u2019s for sure,” smiled the Australian.<\/p>\n
“I think if you get the (cooling jacket) system working well, then it \u2060can help \u200ba bit. It\u2019s not a complete game changer but when \u200bI used it last year, it was okay.”<\/p>\n
Sunday’s race will be the eighth round of the championship, with 19-year-old Mercedes driver Kimi \u200bAntonelli at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32956,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38059","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The car's minimum weight is \u2060increased to accommodate the hardware.","published_date":"","news_description":"The car's minimum weight is \u2060increased to accommodate the hardware.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38060,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38059\/revisions\/38060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}