Events at the Qatar Grand Prix in October 2023 sparked debate about driver safety in high temperature conditions. Williams driver, Logan Sargeant, retired from the night-time race as he struggled with ‘intense dehydration’, having been ill with flu during the week. Other drivers were visibly exhausted as they stepped out of their cars.
Wheeling an F1 car for 300km under high gforces is hard enough, but Qatar – where track temperatures remained above 36degC for the duration of the race – demonstrated that extreme ambient and surface heat can escalate driver discomfort into a potential safety risk, even for some of the world’s fittest individuals. That such a situation can occur in F1 means the danger is present on all levels of the motorsport pyramid.
The normal human core body temperature is 37degC. Anything above 38degC is considered high and potentially dangerous, but it’s not uncommon for drivers to exceed that number during a race. Effects of high body temperature include dehydration, dizziness, cramps and heatstroke.
Usually, it’s a case of fatigue reducing a driver’s performance, but serious cases can lead to hospitalisation, even death in rare cases. Instances of the latter include Carl Scarborough at the 1953 Indianapolis 500 and Bobby Isaac at a late model short track race seven years after he won the 1970 NASCAR Cup title.
‘When you exercise, or drive a racecar, your core temperature is going to go up,’ says Dr David Ferguson, associate professor at Michigan State University’s department of kinesiology. ‘The hot blood from your core will be circulated to your periphery and then transfers the heat by sweating.
