Esteban Ocon was sick in his car during the Qatar Grand Prix but continued and finished seventh; Lando Norris criticised the decision to hold the race in October; F1 returns with the United States GP – live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22
Last Updated: 08/10/23 10:32pm
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Lance Stroll and Alex Albon are both seen struggling to get out of their cars from the onboard cameras at the end of a gruelling Qatar GP, both drivers cleared after medical checks
Lance Stroll and Alex Albon are both seen struggling to get out of their cars from the onboard cameras at the end of a gruelling Qatar GP, both drivers cleared after medical checks
Esteban Ocon revealed he threw up during the Qatar Grand Prix, while Lando Norris called the race conditions “too dangerous”.
The humidity, temperatures which were in excess of 40 degrees and the high-speed corners made the race incredibly tough for the drivers.
Another factor was the 18-lap limit on tyres which led to a minimum of three pit stops, so the drivers pushed harder during the Grand Prix, which was won by Max Verstappen on Sunday.
“I was throwing up by lap 15, 16. For two laps I think,” Ocon told Sky Sports F1 after finishing seventh for Alpine in Qatar.
“I was doing that and thinking ‘s***, 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.”
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Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris compared notes in the cool-down room after a gruelling Qatar Grand Prix
The inaugural Qatar Grand Prix in 2021 took place in November and next season’s event will also happen at that time of the year, when conditions should be cooler.
Lando Norris, who made it a hat-trick of podiums with third place on Sunday behind McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, was very outspoken on the conditions.
“I think we probably found the limit. I think it’s sad we had to find it this way. It’s never a nice situation to be in. Some people are ending up in the medical centre or passing out,” he said.
“It’s a pretty dangerous thing to have going on. But it’s not a point where you can just go, ‘the drivers need to train more’ or anything like that.
Verstappen and Piastri try to recover just moments after the Qatar Grand Prix
“We’re in a closed car that gets extremely hot in a very physical race and it’s frustrating I guess on TV. It probably doesn’t look very physical at all.
“But clearly when you have people who end up retiring, or are in such a bad state, it’s too much. For the speeds we are doing is it is too dangerous.
“I know that this race next year is later on in the season and it will be a lot cooler, a few months later, but it’s something needs to be thought of. I’m sure we will speak about it because it kind of shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
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The best of the action from a dramatic Qatar Grand Prix
Piastri added: “Extremely hot. Even from from the beginning, I put my helmet on before the start of the race and I was sweating. It definitely didn’t get any better once I was driving! Very hot.
“It was a combination of a lot of things – the humidity, having three stops meant we were pushing flat out and just the nature of the track – there’s a lot of high-speed corners that just naturally take its toll. Definitely the hardest race I’ve done.”
Verstappen: Like walking around in a sauna
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Ted Kravitz looks back at all the top stories around the F1 paddock from the Qatar Grand Prix
Verstappen dominated the race and compared the Qatar Grand Prix to Miami and Singapore – two other places F1 visit that seriously test the drivers physically.
“When I saw the weather before coming here, I was not looking forward to it. It’s just too warm and like Lando said, it has nothing to do with more training or whatever,” said the three-time world champion.
“I think some of the guys who are struggling today, they are extremely fit or even fitter than me. Just the whole day, it’s like you walk around in a sauna and in the night, the humidity goes up. The races are quite long.
“But it’s not the only place…a few places are like that. Singapore is almost like a two-hour race and it’s very, very warm. I think it’s also quite on the limit of what should be allowed. So there are a few things to look at, but this was definitely way too hot.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was fifth, told Sky Sports F1: “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.”
Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW for £21 a month for six months
