Russell on key 2026 element: 'Not everybody's in favour'

During the Bahrain GP, Russell was among the first drivers to race with a cooling vest. The Briton was enthusiastic about combating the heat prior to the Miami GP:" I feel fortunate that I’ve had the chance to run with the cooling vest. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s definitely an improvement."

Although not every car reaches the same temperatures, Russell believes the vest adds value: "Every car is also different, every cockpit runs at different temperatures. I know we've seen our cockpit getting up to 60 degrees before, and the heat hazard is at 31 degrees. When you compound that with the sunlight and the temperature of the cockpit, it is like a sauna in the race car."

Not every driver is enthusiastic about the new measure; the increase in weight is often cited as a counterargument. Russell understands the noise around it too: ‘’We've not collectively spoken about it, and not everybody's in favour of running it, which is also fine."

"Somebody made the point recently, like football players on a cold day, some people are wearing gloves, some people have got short-sleeved shirts on, and that should be the driver’s choice. Maybe the heat hazard should be reduced slightly because we've not yet gone over it. Saudi was hot, Bahrain was hot, maybe it could be adjusted by a few degrees," Russell concludes.

This article was written in it's entirety by Hidde Korte.