Here is the reality of modern Formula 1: a driver's health gets weighed against car development, and car development wins. As Crash.net reports, Mercedes drivers Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell will race without cooling vests at the hottest race of the year because of strict cost cap restraints.
This weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia has been declared Formula 1's third heat-hazard race of the 2026 season. Temperatures are forecast to climb above 31C at some point during the race. Inside the cockpit, a Formula 1 machine becomes a sauna where temperatures can exceed 40C, and at Sepang they could even reach 50C. During Friday’s practice running, the air temperature sat above 33C with track temperatures hovering around 60C.
Under current regulations, drivers have the option to use an in-car cooling system that pumps cooled liquid through a network of pipes in a fireproof top worn beneath their overalls. Teams whose drivers opt against this system must carry 5kg of ballast in their car to ensure no competitive advantage is gained. Unfortunately, championship leader Antonelli and Russell will not have the vest in Malaysia. Mercedes made the call to prioritize spending its money on upgrading the W17 car instead.
George Russell explained that the situation is a direct consequence of teams being restricted to spending £163m over the course of the season.
“We won’t be running the cooling vest because we haven’t put the resource into making it robust enough,” Russell was quoted as saying by The Times.
“I feel we need the FIA just to step in and say, ‘Here’s some money extra in the cost cap,’ or there’s an external company who’s going to develop it for everybody, you just put the money towards it. Because we should all be wearing it.”
“When it works, it works great. So I would like to wear it this week, and I would like to wear it next week. But the team asked me … look, we can develop it, and we can put the money towards it [but at the cost of performance].”
While Mercedes has chosen performance, rivals are taking a different route. According to Russell, Ferrari’s and McLaren’s drivers will be using the cooling vests in Malaysia. It is a stark choice, especially given that Russell was among a number of drivers who needed medical attention for either dehydration or heat exhaustion amid extreme temperatures at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.
