14 replies to this topic

[Angus Lamont]

Our current crop of F1 drivers complaining about the exhaustion caused by the heat and humidity in Malaysia makes me smile.
At Shah Alam, the old Kuala Lumpur race track, on 5 April 1970 John Macdonald raced in the 60-lap Selangor Motorcycle GP on a Yamaha TR2 finishing 4th and completing 59 laps. Not content with this he followed it up by driving his Lotus 47 in the 30-lap Sports Car race leading for the first 23 laps before being overtaken by the eventual winner. To cap it all he then drove his Brabham BT10 FVA in the 60-lap Selangor Car GP coming 2nd and completing 58 laps.
In short, in one day he did 147 laps and covered over 300 miles at racing speeds.
Between races he worked on the cars so had no rest of any kind. At that time there were no facilities for getting a drink while driving and there was absolutely no air conditioning of any kind at the pit and paddock area.
This kind of puts the whines of our current super fit drivers into perspective or maybe they just don’t make riders / drivers like that any more!

[David McKinney]

Good point

On the other, hand, there was also the famous case of the 1955 Argentine GP when the heat was so great that only two drivers were able to complete the race without flaking in the pits and having a team-mate take the car over

[Hieronymus]

"The Heat"...another trump card played by Ecclestone, I presume to confuse the clowns in his circus. BTW...how hot is hot? 30 degrees Celsius? 35? 40? 45? 50?

[Alan Cox]

On the other, hand, there was also the famous case of the 1955 Argentine GP when the heat was so great that only two drivers were able to complete the race without flaking in the pits and having a team-mate take the car over

I read that the track temperature at the 1955 Argentine GP was 135° farenheit, which equates to 57° celsius. A bit hotter than it was in Kuala Lumpur today.

[David Lawson]

BTW...how hot is hot? 30 degrees Celsius? 35? 40? 45? 50?

They quoted cockpit temperatures of 50 degrees C in todays commentary

David

[Tim Murray]

Acording to this Wiki article on the 2005 Bahrain GP, that race ties as the hottest F1 GP on record:

Race afternoon brought some of the highest ever temperatures experienced at a grand prix, with air temperature of 40°C, (104°F) and track temperatures of 56°C (about 132°F). This ties the record temperatures of the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix and the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix.

[UK6]

Acording to this Wiki article on the 2005 Bahrain GP, that race ties as the hottest F1 GP on record:

Surely humidity is an important factor for driver discomfort ie 35C with high humidity probably has the same debilitating impact on a driver as a dry 45C.

[Vitesse2]

http://forums.autosp...ack temperature

[jj2728]

I seem to recall that one of the Indy 500s, '53 or '54 IIRC was run under extremely hot conditions.

[Collombin]

I seem to recall that one of the Indy 500s, '53 or '54 IIRC was run under extremely hot conditions.

1954 was warm, but 1953 was the scorcher that led to countless driver changes and a fatality.

However, on one of the practice days in 1962, track temperatures reached 60 deg Celsius, prompting new Chief Starter Pit Vidan to fry an egg on the main straight!

[scheivlak]

Our current crop of F1 drivers complaining about the exhaustion caused by the heat and humidity in Malaysia makes me smile.

Actually I have hardly seen any complaints by the drivers themselves. It's mostly the journalists and reporters who keep telling how hard it is to race in this kind of conditions.

Edited by scheivlak, 10 April 2011 - 16:27.

[Geoff Smedley]

Our current crop of F1 drivers complaining about the exhaustion caused by the heat and humidity in Malaysia makes me smile.
At Shah Alam, the old Kuala Lumpur race track, on 5 April 1970 John Macdonald raced in the 60-lap Selangor Motorcycle GP on a Yamaha TR2 finishing 4th and completing 59 laps. Not content with this he followed it up by driving his Lotus 47 in the 30-lap Sports Car race leading for the first 23 laps before being overtaken by the eventual winner. To cap it all he then drove his Brabham BT10 FVA in the 60-lap Selangor Car GP coming 2nd and completing 58 laps.
In short, in one day he did 147 laps and covered over 300 miles at racing speeds.
Between races he worked on the cars so had no rest of any kind. At that time there were no facilities for getting a drink while driving and there was absolutely no air conditioning of any kind at the pit and paddock area.
This kind of puts the whines of our current super fit drivers into perspective or maybe they just don’t make riders / drivers like that any more!

Yep! A place I know well, 1968 Malaysian GP at the Batu Tigua circuit Max Stewart was comfortably leading the race but had ceased to acknowledge the pitboard, thinking that perhaps he was suffering from exhaustion I called for a container of water that I could perhaps refresh his memory which I did. Max came in on the following lap for an overdue fuel stop complaining that he didn't mind the water but the ice cubes were a bit over the top, I had forgotten to mention to the crew 'no ice' The fun didn't stop there the refuelling done, the restart didn't happen as the fuel system had developed a big vapour lock and after pushing the car for what seemed like miles, poor Max ended up carless an yours truly woke up in the rear of an ambulance. There are a few stories about fun at this place, it can be described like being similar to having sex in a sauna whatever that means!!

[BRG]

This kind of puts the whines of our current super fit drivers into perspective or maybe they just don’t make riders / drivers like that any more!

Just out of interest, was your heroic driver wearing a three layer racing suit and fire[proof underwear, with gloves, balaclava and full face helmet? No? Didn't think so.

[Gabrci]

Just out of interest, was your heroic driver wearing a three layer racing suit and fire[proof underwear, with gloves, balaclava and full face helmet? No? Didn't think so.

I would also like to know more about the G forces he encountered in the corners.

[HistoryFan]

It's different when there are 40 degrees C with dry air and 40 degrees C with wet air...