Oliver Bearman has highlighted what he perceives to be an “unfair” aspect to Formula 1‘s nascent cooling vest, with temperatures set to rise to the high 20s for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Bearman, who has enjoyed a stellar start to his first full season, has noted that the vests, which will become compulsory from next season, have a current flaw due to weight.
The 2026 cars will have the devices fitted via the electrical system, with the current cars requiring them to be retrofitted.
The opt-in-opt-out system means that those who opt out are required to add 5kg of ballast to the cars, something that Bearman has taken issue with.
“So I know that some teams are actually able to run it normally, which I don’t know how that is,” he said to media including Motorsport Week, confirming that Haas is currently not running it.
“Some teams are able to run it, some teams aren’t. Of course, clearly they have the weight margin to do it. But if they’re never going to declare it hot enough to race, then only half the teams are getting the benefit, which seems a bit unfair.
Bearman’s team-mate Esteban Ocon was vocal in his complaints in pre-season, saying the cumbersome nature of the vests meant “no-one” could realistically wear one.
The issue caused the powers that be to frantically seek a way of altering the vest, which Bearman confirmed.
“Yeah, they changed the design slightly,” he said, “so the actual vest itself had an outlet where all the tubes sit, but the outlet was here.
“Here you have the seats around you, so it’s now just moved a bit more towards the middle of your body and therefore you can actually get in the seat.
“Before with the original design, you couldn’t actually get in the car with it.”
Leclerc and Russell highlight issues with cooling vest
Bearman also commented that the vest is now “much better. It seemed really good,” and both Charles Leclerc and George Russell shared their positivity about the concept.
However, both men also conveyed their experience with some early problems with the system.
Leclerc said that on the one occasion he has tried it, in Jeddah, he found it “really helpful,” but stated: “But for the few drivers that have used it in the last race, I was on one of them and the system stopped working in the middle of the race, and then the fluid gets very warm, so I’m not sure if for now I’m happy to use it.”
Russell’s position on the vests must also come from the point of view of the GPDA, of which he is a director.
The FIA’s ruling is that when the ambient temperature reaches 31 degrees, the cooling vests will be required, and Russell believes that an adjustment might be necessary.
“It’s not perfect yet, but it’s definitely an improvement, I feel,” he said. “And every car is also different. I think every cockpit runs at different temperatures.
“I know we’ve seen our cockpit getting up to 60 degrees before, and I think the heat hazard is at 31 degrees, I believe, or 30 degrees.
“But when you compound that with the sunlight and the temperature of the cockpit, you know, it is like a sauna in the race car.
“So, yeah, I don’t know. We’ve not collectively spoken about it. Not everybody’s in favour to run it, which is also fine. Yeah, somebody made the point recently, like a couple of [football] players on a cold day, some people are wearing gloves, some people have got short-sleeve shirts on, and that should be the driver’s choice.
“And maybe that heat hazard should be reduced slightly because we’ve not yet gone over it. And there have been, you know, Saudi was hot, Bahrain was hot.
“So, yeah, maybe it could be adjusted by a few degrees.”
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