F1 News: Williams Chief Calls For Safety Boundaries Following Qatar GP
Williams team principal James Vowles has called for safety boundaries to be set following a hot and humid Qatar GP that turned out to be the toughest race for several drivers throughout their racing career.
Logan Sargeant, driving his Williams FW45, was forced to retire after suffering from dehydration. Alpine's Esteban Ocon was sick inside his helmet while Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll revealed that he almost passed out behind the wheel.
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Considering the health and safety risks drivers were put through in Qatar, the FIA and F1 will partner to come up with solutions against extreme climatic conditions, as revealed by a statement after Sunday's GP.
Speaking about Sargeant's condition, Vowles revealed that he had been sick the previous week which caused him to dehydrate sooner. He said, as quoted by RacingNews365:
"He was ill the week prior and ill a little bit leading up to Friday.
"That weakened his immune system and sufficiently so that he was very easily dehydrated.
"The circumstances in Qatar were very different. The rule brought in for safety meant a three-stop was incredibly easy to do on the tyres, so the drivers were pushing flat out from start to finish.
"It really was four sprint races just flat out from start to finish - that was different and unusual to drivers.
"There are elements of this we need to understand and as a sport, do better.
"They have a drinks system on board, it is only a couple of litres and it is not terribly cool when you are 20 or 30 laps into the race, so there are probably elements that we can help with.
"But we are a sport pushing elite athletes to the absolute limit, so what we need to do now is define boundaries to make sure they get to the end safely."
Surprisingly, Qatar was not listed as being one of the hottest tracks by Williams which might have added to the surprise. Vowles added:
"Before the season, we highlight the tracks that are going to be difficult from a physical perspective for the drivers.
"Of that list, Miami and Singapore were at the top level of it - they are sort of in the mid-30s, low-30s in terms of ambient temperature and in Miami, with the sunlight at the track there is a higher temperature.
"There is high humidity as well which means the body isn't able to cool itself efficiently.
"But Qatar wasn't there as one of those tracks - that obviously is wrong in hindsight. It was the most difficult track bar none for the drivers."
