Tag: Motorsports

Through his success in 2023, Max Verstappen delivered the most dominant season by a driver in Formula One history.

At times, races looked like a foregone conclusion before they’d even started. The hope stirred by a close qualifying would quickly fade when Verstappen got into his groove in the race.

He didn’t just beat his previous record of 15 wins in a season from 2022, he destroyed it with 19 victories in 22 races — and over 1,000 laps led.

“When you look back at the season that he’s had, particularly across the different challenges of the different venues, circuits, conditions, he’s been just phenomenal this year,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal.

A combination of factors made Verstappen’s season possible, be it Red Bull producing such a strong car in the RB19, teammate Sergio Pérez’s struggles, and the lack of sustained threat from rival teams.

But 2023 also marked another step in Verstappen’s evolution. His raw speed and “extremely rare, natural talent”, to quote his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, matched with a growing experience that made him almost impossible to beat in 2023.

It was something Horner quickly noted after Verstappen clinched his third title in the Qatar sprint race with six grands prix to spare. “He’s always had the speed from the moment he sat in the car,” Horner said. But speed alone doesn’t make a champion.

“He arrived in Formula One as quite a rough diamond. He’s now a very polished diamond. He’s maintained all those raw attributes that he had, but now brings experience to couple with that.”

That “rough diamond” landed in F1 off the back of only one year in single-seater racing. Verstappen had already fast-tracked from go-karts to Formula Three, where his performances quickly drew interest from all the front-running F1 teams. Only Red Bull was prepared to get him straight into F1 for 2015, starting out with its sister team, Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri). At 17, Verstappen became F1’s youngest ever driver.

Four races into Verstappen’s second season, Red Bull had seen enough: Daniil Kvyat’s struggles prompted it to promote Verstappen to its senior squad and send Kvyat in the opposition direction. It was deemed a huge leap for the young Dutchman — only for him to win on his Red Bull debut in Spain.

“This rough diamond turned up and won his first race. He didn’t take much polishing, did he?” Paul Monaghan, Red Bull’s chief engineer, told The Athletic. “It wasn’t bad from the outset.

“What I saw in Max when he first arrived was a very driven, determined young man with a huge amount of self belief. Sometimes people may perceive that as arrogance, but it’s not. It’s confidence and self belief. And my goodness me, he’s got the talent to back it up.”

That confidence turns into an expectation for nothing but the best — both from the team around him, and himself.

“He doesn’t leave anything on the table, he wants it all,” Horner said in Qatar. “That drives and motivates the team internally. He is relentless in his pursuit of performance, and he doesn’t just want to win. He wants to dominate.”

From winner to champion

There was a time when the idea of Verstappen winning so many races in a season seemed far-fetched. Prior to 2021, victories were a rarity, not the norm. Mercedes and Ferrari’s advantage over Red Bull meant there were few opportunities for Verstappen to challenge for top spot, limiting him to 10 wins from 2016 to the end of 2020 – as many as he won consecutively between May and September this year.

It was all part of the learning curve. Verstappen’s fierce fight for the 2021 title with Lewis Hamilton boiled over on numerous occasions, eventually being settled in controversial fashion on the last lap of the last race of the season. The intensity of that championship undoubtedly played a part in Verstappen’s growth.

His father, Jos Verstappen, has been there for every step of the journey. He agreed that the “experience makes him better”, and although he had not seen any great change in his son, he doubted such a dominant year would have been possible a few years ago.

“It’s the same Max as three or four years ago,” Jos said in Qatar. “The only difference is he has a fantastic car around him. He knows the people that he works with, and I think that makes it look easy.

“But you still have to be there every weekend, and the details make the difference. For me, if he had this car four years ago, I wouldn’t say he would win another 10 races (in a row). But for sure, he was very close to what we have seen now.”

On his Red Bull debut in 2016, Verstappen clinched his first F1 victory. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Verstappen’s confidence behind the wheel extends to all his interactions with the Red Bull team. Besides what Monaghan described as “the occasional verbal volley” on the radio — hardly a sign of tension, more of the strength of the relationship — there has also been another level of self assurance and calmness this year.

“Listen to his radio messages: ‘What’s the gap, what’s this, what’s that, what are the switch changes?’” Monaghan said. “It’s all just taken with driving as quickly as anybody on the track, and it’s just easy. That’s what I see in him. Out of the car, he seems more relaxed to me.”

Beneath it all, there is the unwavering, unrelenting desire to win. Even through the final six races of the season, when he could have let up after sewing up the championship, Verstappen did not miss a beat. As he put it after the season finale in Abu Dhabi: “Winning is great. Why would I not want to win?”

The evolution of Verstappen into such a dominant driver has put him into the same conversation as the all-time greats, even at the tender age of 26. In the past two seasons, Verstappen has gone from 20 victories to 54, leaping from tied for 17th on the all-time wins list to third, with only Michael Schumacher (91) and Hamilton (103) ahead of him. At this rate, both are within his sights before his Red Bull contract is up at the end of 2028.

“He appreciates the history of the sport, and he respects the records that are there,” Horner said.

“A big percentage of his race wins have come in the last two or three years. It really depends on us if we’re able to provide him the tools as well. They’re massive numbers. (To) Lewis, he’s only halfway there in certain respects.

“But he has a lot of racing ahead of him.”

(Lead image of Max Verstappen in 2023: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Keep up to speed with all our coverage from the Las Vegas Grand Prix right here. 

LAS VEGAS — Midway through his post-race interview, Oscar Piastri paused as the huge fireworks display over the Las Vegas Strip interrupted his train of thought.

“Jesus Christ…” he said, the noise turning everyone’s heads towards the sky. He deadpanned: “Welcome to Las Vegas.”

Even as F1 ended its Las Vegas weekend on a high note with one of the most exciting races of the season, a three-way fight for the win that went down to the closing stages, there was no escaping the significance of the off-track show.

It had been a point of contention for many. Max Verstappen, the eventual race winner, had railed against F1’s Las Vegas race being “99 percent show, one percent sporting event” as early as Wednesday. While some drivers understood the need to embrace the spectacle, they still had a job to do, a race to win, 25 points to fight for. That was their focus.

This was always the dichotomy of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. F1 long planned for this to be so much more than one more race, building it up as one of the greatest spectacles in global sport. Ironically, this actually was one of the more exciting races of the 2023 season, thanks to that thrilling late fight and action throughout the field. To get exciting competitive action, something largely outside of F1’s control, was something nice to have, not a must-have.

It was not a straightforward race weekend by any means. No new races are. But no new races have half a billion dollars spent making them happen. In true Las Vegas style, the stakes were raised.

Walking to the grid on Saturday evening, there was a sense of excitement and nervousness typically reserved for title deciders. After 18 months of preparations and hype building, it was time for F1 to deliver. The chips were down.

What followed ticked all the boxes for a great F1 event. The neon signs along the illuminated Strip made for a spectacular visual. The race itself had a close battle for the win and lots of overtaking, a rarity on a street track. Fears about the cold temperatures making the tires impossible to manage were largely unfounded, even if it was tricky on the run to Turn 1 and on the restarts following the safety car periods when the tires had cooled down.

The track pleasantly surprised the drivers. The layout looked quite simple and may have been compared to an upside-down pig. But the profile of the corners and particularly the long DRS zones meant there were lots of overtaking opportunities.

“I did not expect to have that much fun in the race,” admitted Charles Leclerc, whose successful lunge on Sergio Pérez lit up the last lap. “I’m sure it was a good one to watch. I’ll make sure I watch that one back.” George Russell said it was “surreal” being in Las Vegas, but that the track was “a lot better to drive than anticipated” and had “quite a lot of character.”

That does not mean there are no changes required for the future. Because there are big things that must be addressed.

Changes needed

Although it provided good racing, the circuit needs work. The levels of grip were still incredibly low, as tends to be the case on street tracks. “You have to wrestle the car, but it’s not a feeling you get a lot of feedback from,” Daniel Ricciardo explained. “I think if the grip was higher, it would be more enjoyable.” Carlos Sainz also picked out Turn 12, the corner leading onto the Strip, as being “a bit too dangerous” due to the position of the wall. Steps can be made to try and help on both counts.

The greater calls for change, ironically, related to off-track affairs, namely the scheduling of the race. The 10 p.m. lights out was the latest in F1 history, and the result of a lot of compromises, but the F1 paddock was arguably the biggest loser. Rarely did a conversation go by without someone mentioning how little they’d slept or how confused their body clock was. The delays that led to FP2 finishing at 4 a.m. on Friday didn’t help. Ricciardo said people were “delirious,” while Leclerc thought the late timings were “a bit on the limit.” Piastri said he wished this were the season’s last race so he could go straight home, as he already felt like he was on Australian time.

The extravagant nature of the Las Vegas GP is here to stay. (Chris Graythen – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

It is difficult to find the right time to start the race. The push to minimize the disruption of shutting one of the most famous roads in the world means it is not as simple as bringing the start time forward. But it must be something F1 explores because few in the paddock have appreciated such late starts. An 8 p.m. lights out, as we have in Singapore, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, would be more appropriate.

The other factor that made Las Vegas so punishing is what comes now: the trip to Abu Dhabi for the season finale. It’s a journey that takes 16 hours and has a time difference of 12 hours, something everyone must be ready for by Wednesday at the latest. “It’s such a big time shift, especially at the end of a season when everyone is already a bit tired,” Verstappen said. “I think it’s a little bit much. So maybe it would be ideal to find a different date.”

It will only worsen next year: Las Vegas starts a triple-header featuring Qatar and Abu Dhabi to end the year. Ricciardo was shocked to find out that fact on Sunday. “They need to bring it forward because we’ll be wrecked, especially at the end of the season,” he said. Unfortunately, it’s not something that’s viable for next year, and Las Vegas intends to keep this pre-Thanksgiving date slot in the long term. It only adds to the need to try to bring forward the race start time to make the whole weekend a bit easier on the entire paddock.

There are also evident lessons the Las Vegas organizers must learn. The issue with the water valve cover is one that should be easily remedied in the future, as it was learned the hard way. Then there is the tone-deaf handling of the fans in the early hours of Friday morning, forcing them to leave and then offering neither a refund nor an apology but a $200 voucher for merchandise for an event at which they saw a whole eight minutes of on-track action. Announcing on Saturday that ticket deposits were being accepted for 2024 – itself a sign of how expensive the race is to attend – was a bad look.

‘Today’s been fun’

One thing that is unlikely to change is the extravagant nature of the Las Vegas spectacle. The city’s identity and reputation will remain at the heart of the race, ranging from the wedding chapel in the paddock to the number of Elvis impersonators — I’ve genuinely lost count — and the slot machine lever on the timing bridges at either end of the pit lane. It will be authentically Vegas, for better or worse.

Even Verstappen got into the spirit a little after winning, singing “Viva Las Vegas” over the radio as part of a new tradition he agreed to with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

But Verstappen denied the race had changed his tune on Las Vegas. “I always expected it to be a good race today,” he said. “Like I said before, long straights, low-speed corners, you don’t lose a lot of downforce. That’s never been my issue. Today’s been fun. I hope everyone enjoyed it.”

Lewis Hamilton urged people on Wednesday to give Las Vegas a chance and not judge before the race. After the race, he admitted being surprised by just how good a track it was, adding: “For all those that were so negative about the weekend, saying it’s all about show, blah, blah, blah… I think Vegas proved them wrong.” It’s not hard to see whom that comment was aimed at.

The race might not have turned Verstappen into a Las Vegas convert, but it proved that what happens on-track can live up to all the hype being built off-track.

For that reason, F1 will surely consider the start of its Las Vegas residency to be a success. There’s room for improvement, yes, but after how things started, it was a huge turnaround for the sport.

By Verstappen’s measurements, the one percent sporting event outweighed the 99 percent show. Few would have fancied those odds on Thursday night.

More from The Athletic’s Las Vegas Grand Prix coverage:

Why F1’s first Las Vegas grand prix was an utter failure — and a ‘lesson learned’

Our turn-by-turn breakdown of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit

F1’s ‘unacceptable’ night in Las Vegas: How a water valve cover halted practice

(Lead photo of Max Verstappen: ANP via Getty Images)

From the day F1 announced the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the visuals of cars streaking down The Strip at night have captured the imagination.

But the upcoming Formula One circuit will also pass through another element that will catch viewers’ attention worldwide: The new Sphere, a 20,000-capacity entertainment venue that is the largest spherical structure in the world and cost $2.3 billion to build.

The Sphere will be impossible to miss for F1 fans. It already is for any Las Vegas visitor who has been to the city since the Sphere’s “exosphere” – its external LED screen – began lighting up in July.

Next week, when F1 comes to town, the Sphere will sit inside the track near Turns 5, 6 and 7 – adjacent to a fan area with both general admission and grandstand seating called “T-Mobile Zone at Sphere.” That zone will be the main area for concerts and other entertainment during the weekend. (It’s also where The Athletic’s Michael Dominski will report on the race.)

“We’re excited to showcase Sphere to the millions of Formula 1 fans that will be watching around the world,” Sphere executive chairman and CEO James Dolan said on an investor call this week. “As part of our agreement, F1 will have a multi-day takeover of Sphere, including the use of the exosphere (to) display race-related content and compelling brand activations.”

What does that mean? Well, the outside of the structure features 1.2 million puck-sized LEDs, which offers a blank canvas for creative content opportunities. That’s an area F1 has plenty of experience with.

Las Vegas GP organizers plan to use the Sphere heavily during the pre-race buildup and the national anthem, although the visuals will need to be toned down during the on-track sessions to avoid drivers mistaking something on the exosphere for a yellow or red flag.

(Dan Istitene/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

“It will serve as an incredible backdrop to our Sphere grandstands where you have a number of turns, you have a chicane – it will be an incredible place to have a ticket,” Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm told The Athletic. “… We’re just going to continue the momentum around their global exposure. It’ll be terrific racing and a terrific customer experience.”

Of course, it’s not all positive. Concerns have ranged from environmental (light pollution, energy usage) to increased traffic along the heavily-used Sands Ave.

Vegas taxi driver Dale Corson said there have been stories of rideshares taking 90 minutes to reach the Sphere entrance before events because traffic has been so snarled.

“There’s no parking because they have the race setup in the parking lot,” Corson said last month. “So you can’t even get there to park.”

Though the exosphere has gotten plenty of attention – it’s appeared as everything from a giant basketball during the NBA Summer League to an emoji appearing to peek into hotel rooms – it’s the theater inside the Sphere that has generated loads of buzz since opening Sept. 29 with a series of U2 concerts. It also has a film experience by director Darren Aronofsky called “Postcard from Earth” – which, like the U2 residency, has created jaw-dropping visuals on the massive screen enveloping the audience.

‘It’s probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life’ — U2 kicked off its residency at the Las Vegas Sphere in September, 7 years after the venue was first conceptualized pic.twitter.com/5UE8yNJISD

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 7, 2023

Dolan said “Postcard from Earth” and the U2 shows have led to the Sphere generating $1 million in daily ticket revenues through October. Both shows will go dark during race week, but the Sphere itself will still be an attention-getter.

“We are already seeing Sphere’s ability to inspire awe and wonder, and the venue has become a landmark destination in Las Vegas,” Dolan said. “But we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface and are excited by how much further we can take this new entertainment media in the future.”

That includes building additional Sphere venues around the world, though it’s quite an expensive proposition. The Sphere drew headlines this week when its quarterly earnings report revealed an operating loss of $98.4 million (though that did not include any of the October shows). The company’s CFO Gautam Ranji also quit.

But during F1 week, the Sphere-related conversation will likely range from “What the heck is that thing?” to “Did you see what they put on the outside of it this time?”

“The exosphere will be utilized in many different ways, both from an entertainment perspective as well as to support our sponsors who have invested in our race,” Wilm said. “And then also to highlight some areas of the race itself.”

Said Dolan: “Our journey with Sphere is just beginning. And while it will take some time for Sphere to realize its full potential, we’re off to a great start.”

(Lead Image: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton/The Athletic)

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When Formula One announced in the spring of 2022 that it would stage a race in Las Vegas, it made too much sense not to happen. The city’s glitzy, entertainment-focused nature perfectly fits the sport. All the key players were invested not just in 2023 but in giving it a permanent place on the calendar. 

So, the F1-Las Vegas union can’t fail, right? 

It can, actually. We know that because it has failed before — and somewhat spectacularly. All one has to do is look back to 1981 and 1982 to understand why this bet doesn’t offer a guaranteed payout.

The allure of Las Vegas

F1 first came to the Nevada desert in 1981 with the same kind of thinking that marks today’s race. It already had two races in the U.S. — at New York’s Watkins Glen International and in Long Beach, Calif. — but Vegas offered something different. 

As the 1981 season finale, it was hyped as a star-studded affair that would showcase the glitz and glamor that Las Vegas offers, marketed towards a high roller demographic similar to how casinos promoted other sporting events. 

“Caesars (Palace) was holding these boxing matches in their pavilion behind their hotel,” said Chris Pook, the founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix, brought in by race promoters to help organize the new event. “There weren’t a lot of seats, but the seats were very expensive, and they were packed. Everybody that wanted to come and gamble on the fight came, so they would sell out in literally hours. 

“So Caesars was fairly confident if they did something like this for an F1 race that they would be able to get all their high rollers invited to come and participate and enjoy the event.” 

Run in a parking lot, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix lasted just two years. (Bernard Cahier/Getty Images)

Mario Andretti, then driving for Alfa Romeo, was excited when he heard F1 would be visiting Las Vegas. F1’s popularity in the U.S. was surging, with Watkins Glen having established itself and Long Beach quickly proving quite popular. Racing in a city as alluring as Las Vegas made sense.

Then Andretti learned the particulars. The race would not be held on a permanent track like Watkins Glen or even a properly built street circuit like in Long Beach. The organizers instead opted to create a course in a parking lot adjacent to the Caesars Palace hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip.

That’s why the race was not the Las Vegas Grand Prix but the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. 

 “We figured that would be exciting, and we were all looking forward to it,” said Andretti. “But after seeing that venue where it was, I didn’t think it was going to have much life because geographically it was very restricted.”

Where the circuit was located within the city and how it was laid out would become significant factors in why F1 lasted just two years in Las Vegas before ignominiously pulling the plug. 

The cost of compromise

It was a compromise. Lacking suitable options elsewhere and wanting to have the circuit as close as possible to the major casino backing the event meant working within a small plot of land that nestled up against a casino, Interstate 15 and the Las Vegas Strip (which, according to Pook, the city would not allow organizers to utilize fully).  

 The result was a 14-turn, 2.2-mile counter-clockwise circuit that featured no elevation changes and necessitated lots of back-and-forth sections to fulfill the 2-mile minimum length because of the small footprint.

“To fit it in the space was a challenge,” Pook said. “It was tough. Those cars, even in those days, needed to be able to stretch their legs and they were somewhat restricted by the layout of the circuit.

“It’s a bit unfair to call it a parking lot race because it was not really a parking lot — it was part of a parking lot and a lot of desert, dirt, which the circuit was built on. Caesars spent a lot of money, a huge amount of money, building the circuit.”

1982 was the last time F1 raced in Las Vegas (track on the left). On the right we have a very different layout for 2023. #LasVegasGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/jsi9m2wxJf

— F1 Images (@F1_Images) November 8, 2023

Hitting the track confirmed the skepticism. Andretti and Derek Daly, who also competed in both Caesars Palace Grands Prix, recall a physically demanding circuit with short straightaways and constant tight turns. Drivers were pushed even further physically and mentally for the 1982 race when the ambient temperature was nearly 99° F (37° C). (This year, drivers are more concerned about the cold.)

“The heat was extreme,” Daly said. “For the first time and only time in my life as a racing driver, with about three laps to go, I began to get dizzy in the brake zones because it was so hot. I was so dehydrated, and the track was so bumpy, and there was no rest.” 

The circuit was also aesthetically uninspiring. Built mainly upon the space where The Forum Shops mall now resides, that area of Las Vegas in the early 1980s lacked many of the signature structures that have since given Las Vegas its distinct appearance. And with the race being held on a Saturday afternoon, the trademark neon lights were unnoticeable. The setting was rather drab, lacking the kind of backdrop that should be associated with Las Vegas hosting a high-profile global sporting event. 

“It was more a novelty than an event,” Daly said.

A marriage on the rocks

Support within the city was also muted. With Caesars Palace exclusively promoting the race and footing the bill, other casinos and hotels did not help market the race to its clientele, a far cry from the new Las Vegas Grand Prix, where nearly every prominent casino has a financial stake and is thereby motivated to promote the race.

According to Andretti and Daly, even though drivers stayed in the casinos, their presence essentially went unnoticed. And while several celebrities were in attendance, there was little buzz surrounding the festivities. 

“We all stayed at Caesars Palace, and we could get fully dressed in our rooms, which we did, walk to breakfast wearing your driver suit, which we did, and no one noticed,” Daly said. “Nobody understood Formula One. Nobody knew Formula One drivers.”

Before too long, the participants realized that the city and F1 were destined to end like so many Las Vegas marriages: broken up. 

Alan Jones, Alain Prost and Bruno Giacomelli at the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix. (Bernard Cahier/Getty Images)

“Quite honestly, realistically, when you looked at everything, there’s no way that this thing had a long life,” Andretti said. “Mainly, again, because of where it was; you had no solid infrastructure. At that time, you knew there would only be another year or two left.” 

Few were surprised when, after two years, F1 bid adieu to Las Vegas. With the Caesars Palace Grand Prix a money-losing proposition and the fan support tepid, it made little sense to return despite years remaining on the contract between the parties.

In 1983 and 1984, the circuit held an IndyCar race, which also proved unsuccessful. It would be 41 years before F1 returned to Las Vegas, but when it does next week, it will be under much different circumstances and in a much different setting. 

The new Las Vegas Grand Prix has strong support from the state and local government and will be held at night on a course awash in neon lights and before a crowd of up to 100,000 each day of the weekend. Pook estimates that 20,000 to 25,000 people attended the inaugural Caesars Palace Grand Prix for comparison’s sake. 

What becomes of the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be determined with time. However, A lot would have to go awry for it to have anywhere close to the inglorious legacy that the Caesars Palace Grand Prix holds in the annals of F1.

“I think the legacy is a lesson learned,” Pook said. “You cannot put two pounds of manure in a one-pound bag. And in this case, Formula One was great in those days. The racing was great, the competition was great, everything was great. It just didn’t work. It just wouldn’t fit there. It didn’t give justice to the Formula One product.”

GO DEEPER

An ironic compromise: Why the Las Vegas GP starts at 10 p.m. PT

(Lead image of the 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix: Bernard Cahier/Getty Images))

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LUSAIL, Qatar — Two weeks ago, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris cut relaxed figures as they joked around in the cool-down room ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix podium ceremony.

As the top three finishers of the race, they sat nonchalantly in chairs. They watched replays of the race, discussing various incidents and moves that had unfolded behind them, and Verstappen’s dislike of podcasts.

While Sunday’s race in Qatar provided a near-identical result — Verstappen winning ahead of the two McLarens, only with Piastri leading Norris this time — the aftermath of the race could not have been more different.

Norris sat clutching a towel filled with ice. One day after clinching his third world title, Verstappen crouched in the corner and asked if anyone had a wheelchair. Piastri laid out flat on his back.

Read more: Formula One’s path to sustainability ‘is a journey’ – and it’s just the beginning

They were physically finished, like every other driver who raced on Sunday. Logan Sargeant retired mid-race because he felt so unwell. Lance Stroll staggered out of his car after the race before going to the medical center for a check-up. Alex Albon needed help getting out of his cockpit and was also taken to see medical staff, where he was treated for acute heat exposure before being cleared.

The toughest race of my career. But P7!!! 👍🏼👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/oEgWQRzKYT

— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) October 8, 2023

Qatar’s conditions — temperatures around 90ºF (32ºC), humidity around 70% — broke F1 drivers on Sunday.

“This is the toughest race, I think, for every driver in F1 of our career, for everybody,” Charles Leclerc of Ferrari said. “I don’t believe anyone that’s says it’s not.”

As the drivers came one by one to the media pen after the race, the efforts of their exertion were written all over their faces and bodies. Most were drenched in sweat and carried towels around their necks. Nico Hulkenberg left after two questions as he needed to get cool. Liam Lawson wore an ice vest with his overalls undone on the top half.

Many turned up a few minutes later than planned after using an ice bath to cool their bodies — one so cold that George Russell, believe it or not, had to put on a jumper.

There can be a misunderstanding in the outside world about how hard it is to drive F1 cars and just how much physical conditioning the drivers require to deal with the immense g-forces and loads their bodies are put under. They need to be super fit and strong simply to get these cars around the track.

Heat makes everything harder. Singapore has typically been regarded as the most difficult race physically due to the tough street circuit, the long race length, and the high heat and humidity that comes with being so close to the equator.

But this weekend in Qatar took things up another level. While it may have been a night race, starting at 8 p.m. local time on Sunday, the temperature was still incredibly high. It peaked at over 105ºF (40.6ºC) during the daytime and had only dropped to around 90ºF by the time the race got underway.

Inside the tight confines of the cockpit with the engine behind them and the hot air only being blown towards them, the drivers couldn’t stay cool. “The temperature in the cockpit started to be almost too much,” Valtteri Bottas explained. “The feeling is like torture in the car. Any hotter than this would not be safe.”

Although the drivers have water available to them through a tube running from a drinks bottle into their helmets, the high temperature means this gets turned into tea, making dehydration a serious issue.

“It’s not even physical preparation, it’s just dehydration,” Leclerc said. “It’s such a level that your vision is so much worse, your heart rate is going to the stars, and it’s very difficult to control all of this. It was really, really difficult.”

Following Logan’s retirement from the Grand Prix, he has been assessed and cleared by the medical team on-site after suffering from intense dehydration during the race weakened by having flu like symptoms earlier in the week. pic.twitter.com/oeLhDrtfGC

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) October 8, 2023

Esteban Ocon said he started feeling ill around Lap 15 of 57. “Then I was throwing up for two laps inside the cockpit,” he revealed. “Then I was like, ‘s—, that’s going to be a long race.’”

Many tried to find ways to stay cool. Russell and Yuki Tsunoda both opened their visors at points for air to get in, only for that to cause, in Tsunoda’s case, sand to blow into his eyes. Ocon used his hands when possible to try to guide air towards his helmet.

“The more I was breathing to try and get everything lower, the more heat that was coming inside the helmet,” Ocon said. “Honestly, it was hell in there.”

Ocon has a very high level of physical dedication, even by the standards of F1 drivers.“I can normally do two race distances, even in Singapore,” he said. “Physically, like muscle-wise and cardio-wise, I’m always fine.” But not in Qatar. “I was not expecting for the race to be that hard.”

Yet even while throwing up, Ocon did not consider pulling out of the race. “It’s not an option, retiring,” he said. “I was never going to do that. You need to kill me to retire.”

How we got here

A few factors came together to make Qatar such a physical test.

Naturally, the ambient temperature was the biggest contributing factor. While F1 has raced in Qatar before, in 2021, that was at the end of November, when temperatures were a bit cooler. But coming here at the start of October, it is still sweltering. There was also no breeze today, unlike earlier in the weekend, making it even harder for the drivers to get cool. Next year’s race in Qatar is on Dec. 1, meaning the temperature should be more tolerable.

The decision to limit the number of laps per tire stint on safety grounds also had an impact. By making it a mandatory three-stop race, the drivers could push harder as they did not need to manage their tires in the same way as normal. Around such a high-speed track like Lusail, especially through the fast final sector with such quick cars, that only increased the physical toll.

“These cars are so quick in the high speed that when you are doing quali lap after quali lap, the g-forces for 57 laps in this heat are crazy,” Leclerc said.

All the conditioning in the world would not have prepared them for the physical exertions their bodies went through, particularly those engaged in race-long battles that made them work extra hard.

“It’s just too warm,” Verstappen said. “It has nothing to do with training or whatever. I think some of the guys who were struggling today they are extremely fit, probably even fitter than me.

“The whole day, it’s like you’re walking around in a sauna, and then in the night, the humidity goes up.”

Finding the limit

It prompted a number of drivers to say F1 had found — or even surpassed — the maximum heat for them to be racing in, making it a discussion point for the future.

The penny dropped for Leclerc when he got out of the car and saw the other drivers in the FIA garage, where they must be weighed after the race. “We can always look at each other at the end of the race when we are sat down, and this time you could feel it was different,” he said. “Some drivers really felt really bad. This is something we’ll have to discuss.”

Norris said F1 had “found the limit” in Qatar, and that it was “sad we had to find it this way.”

“It’s never a nice situation to be in, if some people are ending up in the medical center or passing out, things like that,” said Norris.

“It’s a pretty dangerous thing to have going on.”

(Lead photo of Max Verstappen: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)