Brundle: Races like Qatar make F1 drivers look the heroes

The former F1 driver turned Sky F1 pundit, tweeted this after the weekend at Lusail: "It’s races like Qatar and very rainy days which make F1 drivers look the heroes and athletes they are. Absolutely don’t buy into the weak view we shouldn’t put them through this kind of challenge.

"Check out Senna in Brazil, Stewart at rainy Nurburgring, Lauda post-crash, etc etc." added Brundle. This statement from a driver who raced (1984 to 1986) at the highest level when F1 was far more dangerous than it is today.

Brundle did give credit where credit was due: "Impressive to watch the F1 drivers cope with those condition in Qatar. I’ve been that hot in a Le Mans, or Daytona 24 or F1 car, you can get delirious at the wheel, and when the adrenaline subsides and the heat soaks you just can’t get away from your own body it hurts so much.”

To Brundle's list of heroic f1 drives under trying conditions, he could add Juan Manuel Fangio's three wins at the German Grand Prix, at the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife, in which the great Argentinian drove massive F1 cars for over three and a half hours; or Nigel Mansell during a blistering hot 1984 Dallas Grand Prix pushing his car over the line for a solitary point.

In Qatar, on Sunday night after the race, even race winner Max Verstappen and second-placed Oscar Pisatri were pictured, exhausted resting, lying on the floor of the pre-podium room before their celebrations.

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon said in the TV pen after the GP: "I was throwing up by lap 15, 16. For two laps I think. I was doing that and thinking 'shit, 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 here in December," added Ocon.

During the race rookie Logan Sargeant was forced to DNF his Williams, the American explained: "The main thing is Alex and I are both okay. I’ve been feeling unwell all week which didn’t help with the dehydration in this heat.

"The last thing I wanted to do was retire the car," revealed Sargeant. "But I had to put my health first. Sorry to the team for not being able to reach the finish line. They’ve done an incredible job all weekend in these intense conditions. I’ll be taking next week to fully recover and then bounce back in Austin which I’m really looking forward to," added Sargeant.

Williams seemed most affected by the conditions, as Alex Albon was also a victim and said after the race: "Firstly, I’m glad Logan is okay as it’s never easy to retire from a race. I think this race goes down as one of the toughest of the year, as I suffered with heat exposure myself.

"Our pace was pretty strong, but I need to review what happened, as we were in what felt like a good position, but we ended up falling out of the points. We also struggled with a bit of an overheating cockpit, so we’ll also need to review this," explained Albon.

During the race, Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso reported: “The seat is burning, mate! Anything we can do at the pitstop? Throw me water or something?”

His teammate Lance Stroll has a more extreme experience on the night: “I was passing out in the car. They painted the kerbs and made the track narrower but you can’t feel the kerbs. I couldn’t see where I was going because I was passing out. I was fading in and out. The temperature was too much.”

Fourth-placed Mercedes driver George Russell admitted: “To be honest, there were points that I thought I was going to faint.”