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Former McLaren driver Jenson Button has urged F1 drivers to speak up about heat exhaustion issues that became the main talking point at the 2023 F1 Qatar GP.
The race in Qatar saw drivers tackle extreme racing conditions and as a result, struggle massively with heat exhaustion. There were reports of drivers passing out in the medical center with Williams racer Logan Sargeant retiring from the race due to the oppresive conditions.
Since then, the FIA has also taken note of the situation and released a statement on the same. The gravity of the situation could be judged from what happened with Alpine driver Esteban Ocon. The French driver revealed after the race that he fell sick by lap 15 and was puking during the race.
When questioned about what happened in Qatar, Button felt that the drivers have to speak up about these things if they want to bring about a change. As quoted by Motorsport.com, the former McLaren driver said,
You can’t do anything, apart from air conditioning, and you’ve never heard of that in an open-cockpit car. IndyCar has a closed kinda cockpit, and it’s clearly hot in those cars, and I know they don’t have power steering, so I know it hurts them too. But then they don’t pull them same G forces as an F1 car pulls [on a road course]."
He added,
“When I raced NASCAR in Austin, I almost stopped in the race. I said to the team, ‘I can’t do this anymore’ – I was just so hot. So different cars have different issues with heat. Until drivers speak up, they won’t change it."
The McLaren driver explains how dangerous heat exhaustion can get
Jenson Button explained how dangerous heat exhaustion can get. The former McLaren driver talked about how racing in Malaysia could get extremely hard because of the heat and humidity. He said,
“I remember racing F1 in Malaysia, when my water bottle broke, I had big issues in the race. You start shivering and then you lose your vision. Then it gets dangerous, so I’ve felt how bad it can be.”
McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made it to the podium in Qatar but both of them agreed that the conditions were maybe a bit too extreme. In the post-race cooldown, both drivers alongside Max Verstappen looked exhausted after the race with the conversation revolving mostly around the racing conditions.
