The temperatures and humidity recorded during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend were quite prohibitive. Additionally, the incidents during the GP at Losail prompted reactions from the drivers and more. While the recorded temperatures were not extremely high, the factor that made everything even more challenging was the humidity. Let’s try to understand why this element intensified the fatigue experienced by the drivers in Qatar.
Top-notch athletic preparation for Formula 1 drivers
Every Formula 1 driver undergoes specific training to endure the forces acting on them during driving. The most demanding ones are the massive lateral and longitudinal accelerations of the current cars. The lateral acceleration values achieved by the 2020 cars (much faster than the current ones) at, for example, Casanova Savelli corner at Mugello and the Pouhon corner at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, exceed 5 G, where a driver’s body is subjected to forces 5 times their body weight. This is why drivers train hard to strengthen their neck muscles, improve their breathing, and condition their legs for better brake pedal control.
Carlos Sainz during a workout to strengthen neck muscles – Credits: Men’s Health
However, their preparation wasn’t enough to cope with the fatigue during the Qatar Grand Prix. Problems with curbs and tires forced everyone to make more pit stops, and short stints compelled all drivers to push to the limit. This turned the race into a 57-lap qualifying session. As a result, the drivers exerted much more effort, pushing their bodies to the limit and maximizing their available energy.
As we all know, when we exert ourselves, our bodies emit heat, and to avoid unpleasant conditions, sweat, our thermoregulator, comes into play. All of this happens if the temperature and humidity conditions allow it, with the latter being the cause of the major issues during the weekend.
The chart explaining the limit of temperature and humidity tolerable for the human body.
To explain how this happened, we need to introduce the concept of Wet-Bulb Temperature. This is an index aimed at determining the temperature and humidity values at which the air is so saturated with water vapor that it doesn’t allow water to evaporate from a wet body. In simple terms, this value sets a limit to the wet temperature beyond which sweat can no longer evaporate. When the wet-bulb temperature exceeds 30°C, the body loses the ability to lower its temperature through sweat. When all this occurs, the human body temperature rises by one degree every 45 minutes, leading to certain death within 4-6 hours.
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Through the graph above, we can understand the human body’s limit. Furthermore, we can easily imagine that the temperature (32°C) and humidity (70-80%) conditions during the Qatar Grand Prix were at the limit. Some drivers nearly reached this limit, given their constant search for air to cool down and attempt to “dry” their sweat. All of this was exacerbated by the high temperatures recorded inside the cockpit, with Fernando Alonso stating that he felt 80°C. This is, of course, due to the almost closed cockpit design, which draws air from a small hole near the nose.
Source: f1ingenerale
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