It’s Sunday afternoon and you’re sprawled across the sofa with a cold beer in hand, watching 20 drivers push their spaceship-like cars to the limit around a racetrack. But with the drivers surrounded by hot tyres and engines which operate at 100ºC, cockpit temperatures can often top 40ºC. We have seen drivers drop 4kg in a race so the performance benefits could be exceptional. But the likelihood is that driver would be facing significant internal and cognitive performance detriment.’. Sadly, the power I could feebly muster from my neck was roughly four times less than an elite driver. Other times it could be the reason drivers end up with the nose of their car wedged in the tyre wall and feeling the effects of a 51-G crash, like Max Verstappen experienced during the British Grand Prix in 2021.

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