F1 News: FIA To Discuss Cockpit Heat Issue With Teams In The Next TAC Meeting

The FIA and Formula 1 teams are said to formally discuss the issue of soaring cockpit temperatures in a meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) after the Mexican Grand Prix.

After a gruelling and incredibly hot Qatar GP that prompted several drivers to receive medical attention after the race, the issue of high cockpit temperatures, which was never under the scanner before, has been added to the meeting's agenda for the virtual gathering on 31 October.

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The TAC is a convention where future rules of the sport are discussed by technical directors of the ten teams, the governing body, and Formula 1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds.

While the FIA promised a full investigation into the problems the drivers faced in Qatar, the most challenging aspect of the installation of cooling equipment is the addition of weight to the car.

Speaking to Autosport about the meeting and the work being done in the background, Symonds said:

"We're going to talk about it at the next TAC.

"The FIA are doing some work on it, and I’m doing some work on it. It's not totally straightforward.

"Indycars have different vent arrangements at different times. They are quite into their cool suits, which I think are a couple of kilogrammes, they're not the end of the world.

"You decide what performance you get from weight. So if you are talking about a couple of kilogrammes for a cool suit, for example, you can figure out what that costs you in physics.

"You can't exactly work out what you gain with the driver, but there will be a point at which you say actually the driver is going to have a drinks bottle.”

Here's what the team bosses had to say about the meeting to overcome the heat problem.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown predicts the probability of teams and drivers having a difference of opinion. He said:

“I think the teams and drivers will have a great ability to have different views on different topics.

"But I think when it comes to safety everyone's aligned, and so you'll get all the smart people in the room together to come up with a solution.

"I think everyone recognises that wasn't a good situation, so we'll get all the right people working together to figure out what's the best solution, and I'm very confident that'll happen.”

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack, who holds experience in cockpit cooling from his time with Porsche in WEC, stressed that all parties will have to sit together to come to a workable conclusion. He added:

“I think the GPDA and FIA are in exchange, and we have to see what happens over the coming weeks.

"It is true that in other categories you have different devices.

"So I think it's something that over the next weeks we have to sit together with all the parties involved and come to a good conclusion.

"I think it’s in the interest of nobody to continue like this and the drivers need to be more comfortable if we want to have them extract everything, and I think we should work together to achieve that.”

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner meanwhile expressed that the easiest solution to the problem was to adjust the calendar rather than make technical changes. He added:

“I think we shouldn't overreact to find technical solutions,” he noted. “To make big holes or big devices in the race car for a situation which came up once in 100 years here.

"I think we need to stay grounded and see is there a risk or not, or can we avoid it by adjusting the calendar, which I think is easiest way to do it.”

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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also cautioned about interfering with the existing technical regulations. He concluded:

“That was, for me, the most extreme driver situation in terms of heat soak that I've seen so far [about Qatar GP].

"And I think there are some hardcore people that would say, ‘Well, that's what the job brings,’ and to a certain degree, that's right.

"You need to be able to train for these extreme situations, but maybe that one was maybe a step too much and it was unanimous from most of the drivers saying that we can't do that.

"And if we can find a solution with the FIA and with the drivers to just cool the cockpit a bit more without drilling big holes into the cockpits, which would then again bring up a situation of what is it actually we need to change and how does it affect the technical regulations?

"I think this is not something we want to open up, but in any case you need to respect the position of the driver, and that wasn't pleasant to look at.”