The unwanted combination that made Qatar so extreme for F1

Several races in the latter part of the 2023 season introduced extreme temperatures to the roster of challenges: Las Vegas, although not as cold as feared, was still one of the coldest races
of recent years and Qatar was both hot and
humid. Qatar highlighted that when certain facts align, the outcome can lead to exceptional conditions that really stretch the abilities of the drivers in an athletic sense.

It’s common practice these days for drivers to have to manage their way through a race. The car will generally be fuelled on the assumption that there will be periods when it is not flat out and the best strategic outcome will nearly always occur from stretching stints beyond the length of the tyres’ full capability. This means that a large degree of fuel and tyre management is exercised by the driver.

In terms of tyre saving, the aim is to limit the stress on the tyres in those corners where a high energy input leads to high degradation of performance. Now those high-energy-input corners are also those that put the highest loads on the driver – generally long, fast corners – and so any easing of cornering speeds saves not just the tyres from stress but the drivers too.

In Qatar this year a particular design of kerb was leading to severe damage to the structure of the tyre and, although changes were made to the track layout before the race to try and keep the cars off the kerbs, Pirelli decreed a maximum stint length of 18 laps. With a race distance of 57 laps this effectively mandated a three-stop race.

While the tyres had a fatigue life limit of 18 laps, their predicted performance limit, in other words the number of laps they can do before experiencing a sudden, non-linear, drop off in performance was 21 laps for the soft tyre and as much as 32 laps for the favoured medium compound. This meant the drivers weren’t required to do any ‘tyre saving’.
In other words, they could drive each lap as if it were a qualifying lap, something most of them had never had to do before in a Formula 1 car.

The accepted strategy in Qatar was to drive as hard as possible and change tyres when tactically favourable or at the limit of their fatigue life. Such a situation in itself would not have led to a problem. Indeed, it was common practice in the days of refuelling and multi-stint races, but the ambient conditions in Qatar that evening led to a number of drivers being physically ill from adopting such tactics.

The reason for this lay not just in the temperature that night but the combination of temperature and humidity. As humans, we’re sensitive to many aspects of our surroundings other than just temperature. We often hear people say, “It wasn’t that cold but the wind went right through you.” In fact we perceive temperature as a combination of factors which include the actual ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed and the amount of direct sunlight or solar radiation.

Photo by: Williams F1

Sargeant had to retire due to feeling ill during the race

Meteorologists express this in two ways. The more complex one is known as the wet bulb temperature and is pertinent to conditions of direct sunlight. The full calculation takes in factors such as wind speed and the angle of the sun in the sky. A simpler measure is called the heat index and many commercial weather forecasts will give this value. It takes a less rigorous approach of considering just ambient temperature and humidity and is more suited to conditions in the shade (or at night as in the race in Qatar).

The heat index is expressed as a temperature which is calculated to be above ambient temperature when the humidity is high and gives an approximation of how the body will perceive the temperature. Some weather sites even express it as the ‘Feels like’ temperature. Even this doesn’t account for the entire experience as direct sunlight can augment the heat you experience, possibly pushing the heat index up by 8 degrees.

That night in Losail the temperature was 32.2 degrees C and the humidity 74.8%
mid-race. This equates to a heat index of 43.2 degrees. In other words, to the drivers, and indeed the mechanics and other personnel, it felt as if the temperature was 43 degrees.

A trawl of historic data only showed one race, Malaysia in 2013, that exceeded this number when the heat index hit 45.8 degrees. Singapore can reach the mid-30s and even Dallas in 1984, when Nigel Mansell famously collapsed, was just 39.3

Sports scientists have investigated the limits of heat index at which consideration needs to be taken when exercising. While opinions vary, they recommend extreme caution at a heat index of 39 degrees and anything above this is considered likely to cause heat exhaustion.

Some may say that drivers have coped with this before, but a trawl of historic data only showed one race, Malaysia in 2013, that exceeded this number when the heat index hit 45.8 degrees. Singapore can reach the mid-30s and even Dallas in 1984, when Nigel Mansell famously collapsed at the end of the race, was just 39.3. At this race, where I was running Ayrton Senna, he and several others used cooled balaclavas under their helmets and
all reported positively on their efficacy.

In IndyCars the advent of the aeroscreen initially caused problems for drivers due to the reduced cooling airflow but additional vents were mandated after Conor Daly reported he had lost 12 lbs and sustained an elevated heart rate after the Indianapolis Road Course race in 2020. This
led to the compulsory introduction of forced air
driver cooling as well as the option, which most drivers adopt, of using a cooled undershirt when the heat index is high.

Since Qatar is reverting to a slightly later date in 2024 it’s unlikely we will see such conditions again, but discussion has already taken place about allowing driver cooling systems to be used when the heat index exceeds a given value. There are many who wish they’d used them this year.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The drivers will be relieved that Qatar is moving to a later date in 2024 after an unpleasant experience this year