Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has revealed that the team are trying to fix an issue with the AMR23’s seat becoming too hot, something which caused Fernando Alonso serious problems during the recent Qatar Grand Prix.
The Qatar GP was the hardest race of most of the drivers’ careers, with even Alonso admitting that it was “quite extreme”.
Unbearable heat and humidity caused several issues for the drivers, who were all physically and mentally drained afterwards.
A number of drivers immediately laid on the ground after getting out of their car, whilst others took themselves to the medical centre where they passed out.
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Lance Stroll even passed out during the race, whilst Esteban Ocon was sick in his helmet.
Alonso also experienced a hot problem during the race as his seat was burning, with him having asked for water to be thrown over him.
Aston Martin couldn’t do this as it’s banned, meaning the Spaniard had to just get on with the burns to the side of his body.
“The seat is burning, mate. Anything we can do at the pit stop? Throw me water or something,” Alonso asked during the race.
Qatar wasn’t the first time Alonso has been burnt by his seat, something with Krack revealed also happened in Singapore.
The team boss insisted that the problem is being worked on but that cockpit “air conditioning” could be needed in future races as hot as the one in Qatar.
“Yes, it’s true. He reported on it already a couple of times,” Krack said, as reported by Motorsport Week.
“We were working on it. And it’s not that we have not done anything. We had it also in Singapore, which we thought was much, much better.
“But then obviously, we have another set of extreme conditions, so I think we’re not far from air conditioning if it continues like that.”
Alonso admitted after the race that he suspects Stroll also suffers from the same problem in the cockpit, and that it made for a challenging Grand Prix.
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“I think for Lance and myself we struggled a little bit with temperature in the seat on the right-hand side,” Alonso said.
“I got a burn in the first 15 laps, so I even asked on the radio if they could throw me some water or something at the pitstop, which apparently is not allowed. So yeah, it was quite extreme.
“We have been dealing with some issues. Today was extreme.”