As the temperature in Saudi Arabia peaks at 34’C, and that’s just the air temperature, not the track, the F1 drivers say the new cooling vest is “not ready to be used”.

Following a swelteringly hot and humid Qatar Grand Prix in 2023 when several drivers were severely affected by the extreme heat, the FIA explored technology to create a cooling vest for the drivers to wear inside the cars.

Extreme heat warning for the F1 2025 Saudi GP

Williams driver Logan Sargeant retired from the race having suffered intense dehydration during the race.

His team-mate Alex Albon was also unwell while Lance Stroll worryingly revealed he passed out in the car. Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet.

A cooling vest, backed by the FIA, has since been designed for the drivers, with the new wearable-tech shirts using several metres of tubes to pump cooled fluid around the upper body.

It, however, is not mandatory, at least not yet, which is good news as the Formula 1 drivers do not feel it is ready to be used.

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“No, is the answer,” said Oscar Piastri. “I think it still has a bit of fine tuning to go.

“I think it’s been a good process with the FIA and the manufacturers with the cooling system, and I think it will be a big positive for us. But for me personally, it’s not quite ready to be used.

“There’s been a lot of good work going on. If you want to use it, it will come with a weight penalty on Sunday. I think there’s still some work to go, but it’s going in the right direction.”

Ocon, despite his troubles in 2023, also has no intention of using the vest in Saudi Arabia.

“I think it’s a very good initiative the FIA has done for us to be able to fix some of the issues we had in Qatar a couple of years ago,” he said. “It’s a good initiative, but unfortunately, I can’t quite use it at the moment.

“The way the seats are designed and some of the vests – it’s very different to what we are currently using. It’s much more bulky and a lot bigger. We would need to basically redo a complete seat and I’m not even sure that doing that would still be suitable in corners.

“So yeah, good initiative, but I think they need a bit more thought behind it, or from our side as well, on how we could accommodate it better.”

Stroll, who was another driver hit by the heat and humidity, says being that uncomfortable is not worth the “few degrees” that the vest should cool a driver down.

“It still needs some work, that’s the reality,” said the Aston Martin driver. “Depends how desperate you are to be cool in the car. I think it’s going to come down to that in the really hot races if the product doesn’t improve. It’s not very comfortable, but yeah, get a few degrees out of it, so we’ll see.”

The F1 drivers can expect the track temperature to hover around the 50’C mark in Saudi Arabia, if not exceed it.

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