Qatar Grand Prix takes toll on Formula 1 drivers

Alpine's Esteban Ocon said he had thrown up in his helmet early in the race, such was the heat and humidity, while Aston Martin's Lance Stroll told reporters he almost passed out at the wheel.

"I was throwing up by lap 15, 16. For two laps I think," Ocon told Sky Sports F1. "I was doing that and thinking 'sh!t, it's going to be a long one'. Get it under control just mentally and just focus on what I've got to try and do.

"I've never had that in the past. I've always been able to do two race distances in the car, that's what I've always been training for, but today it was just the hot air and how hot the engine is from behind the car.

"I don't think we particularly sealed the cockpit too well. It must have been like 80 degrees inside the car. I'm glad that next year we come back in December here," the French driver added.

Williams' Alex Albon was taken to the circuit medical center after the race with acute heat exposure, and was later released, while teammate Logan Sargeant felt too unwell to continue and was treated for intense dehydration after stopping, while others lay on garage floors to recover after the race.

"Today we probably found the limit," said McLaren's Lando Norris. "Sad we had to find it that way with some people ending up in the medical center or passing out. A pretty dangerous thing.

"On TV it probably doesn't look that physical but when you have people who end up retiring it is too much; for the speeds we are doing it is too dangerous.

"It's something we need to speak about because it shouldn't have happened in the first place," the Briton insisted.

Track temperatures during the floodlit night race at the Lusail circuit never dropped below 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 Fahrenheit), according to tyre supplier Pirelli, while daytime temperatures nudged above 40 degrees.

Red Bull's newly crowned triple world champion Max Verstappen said it was "way too hot to drive", while Mercedes' George Russell said it had been "absolutely brutal" and he felt close to fainting.

"I felt ill during this race. It was insane how hot it was. It was like you were inside an oven," Russell added.

"I sometimes train in saunas and you push your body to the limit and you get to a point where it's too hot and you're like, 'I want to get out.' That was the feeling from about lap 12," the GPDA director revealed.

McLaren's Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, who finished second, said it was "definitely the hardest race I’ve had in my life. It was hot and basically flat-out the entire time."

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said the sport should take note, he commented: "I think we are close to the limit when you have drivers stopping because they are not able to continue.

"They have the lucidity to stop but they could also crash. It means that we have to pay attention. I think we were very close to the limit or over the limit this weekend.

"It was really extreme, probably too much and we have to pay attention to this," the Frenchman maintained.

Charles Leclerc reflected: "I think everybody [struggled], no exceptions. I think it was the toughest race of our careers as drivers.

"The heat was absolutely crazy. Secondly, we've got a lot of high-speed corners. And, third, which I think is the most significant thing, is adding three stops. We were all speaking about tyres that it would be a full push race for tyres with little management.

"But I think we maybe underestimated that that meant we were under so much more stress in the high-speed corners, which is normally not the case.

"It's difficult to put into words how difficult it was. It was twice as difficult as a race like Singapore in the past," the Monegasque reckoned.

The first race in Qatar in 2021 was held in late November while next year's is scheduled for December. There was no race in 2022 due to the soccer World Cup.

Sunday's problem was made worse by restrictions on tyre usage for safety reasons, forcing all drivers to make at least three pitstops but also taking away the need for tyre management. (

Reporting by Alan Baldwin, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247

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