Hamilton ‘cooked’ in Austria: “Unbearable heat, the thermal vest broke at the start”

A hellish Sunday The FIA ​​had declared a hot alert well in advance in view of the Austrian GP. Despite the race being ‘at high altitude’ – the altitude of the Red Bull Ring varies from 660 to 775 meters above sea level – the temperatures were quite high, and it is no coincidence that the teams took action by significantly opening the sides to facilitate heat dissipation. Winner George Russell had to manage power unit temperatures in the middle phase and the same happened to Lewis Hamilton. His track engineer Carlo Santi requested the activation of the ‘TS mode’ which further removed power from the Ferrari SF-26 number #44 already in ‘debt’ of horsepower compared to its opponents. Furthermore, Hamilton was unable to rely on the supplied cooling vest because this tool stopped working almost immediately. “It was a really tough race – Hamilton explained to ViaPlay – it was incredibly hot, unbearable. The cooling thermal vest broke immediately after the start. The power unit also overheated and I had to reduce the engine power, when already in race mode we have less than our rivals. I had to limit the damage, the crash was torrid”.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-29 10:00:00