F1 drivers can choose out of sporting FIA-approved cooling vests – however solely this 12 months

The brand new wearable-tech shirts designed to maintain drivers cool in races in excessive warmth will likely be non-obligatory for opponents within the 2025 Method 1 season, Motorsport.com understands.

The units are being launched as a part of the FIA’s response to the occasions of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, the place Logan Sargeant withdrew for Williams with heatstroke, then Alpine driver Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet and Aston Martin racer Lance Stroll briefly handed out.

As first reported by Motorsport.com, the preliminary pondering on the subject was to try to introduce an ersatz air-conditioning unit to chill automotive cockpits.

However this was deserted on account of complexities arising in adapting such equipment, and so utilising present wearable-tech – such because the Cypher Professional Micro Cooler produced by Chillout Motorsports (pictured above) – was deemed to be the FIA’s most well-liked route.

One of many most important challenges to this work was guaranteeing the cooling units complied with the governing physique’s stringent guidelines on hearth resistance for all driver-worn equipment within the occasion of a crash.

The units mix a shirt with practically 50 metres of tubes that pump cooled fluid saved in a devoted field that homes a micro-processor and the expertise wanted to maintain the related temperatures down round a driver’s torso.

In a press release, the FIA has mentioned the “finalisation of the motive force cooling system following work carried out between the FIA and the Method 1 groups, supported by modifications to outline when such programs have to be used” and so was permitted by the F1 Fee in London earlier this week.

This contains defining when the system will should be used – as its use will solely be mandated within the guidelines for the groups to suit it to their vehicles when temperatures attain a sure threshold.

This has now been set at 31C ambient temperature on the FIA sensors positioned round a typical F1 venue (there are 4 climate stations erected at every race), reasonably than being measured on how sizzling circumstances are in automotive cockpits, which may shortly attain 50-60C.

For the 2026 F1 season, the cooling programs will powered by the in a different way organized electrical programs of the brand new automotive designs and can subsequently be carried always.

However for the upcoming marketing campaign, because the system solely will likely be retro-fitted to vehicles when the 31C mark is reached, drivers have been given the choice of not utilizing it.

The added time earlier than it turns into necessary may even enable additional proof of idea research to be accomplished and for the programs to doubtlessly be additional tweaked forward of 2026.

Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing

Picture by: Williams F1

But when a driver chooses to not put on a cooling vest in 2025, it’s understood they have to nonetheless carry an additional 500g in ballast inside their cockpits to make sure they don’t acquire a aggressive edge by selecting to take this strategy.

On the Hungarian GP final 12 months, when this matter first surfaced within the wake of the FIA’s dedication to make sure the Qatar farce wouldn’t be repeated, Lewis Hamilton declared “it is not wanted”.

“That is Method 1,” he added. “It is at all times been like this. It is robust in these circumstances. We’re highly-paid athletes. And you have to prepare your arse off to be sure to can stand up to the warmth, finally.

“It is robust. It is not simple, particularly while you go to locations like Qatar and Singapore. However I do not assume we want an AC unit within the automotive.”