Legend: F1 Driver Esteban Ocon Threw Up In His Own Helmet On Lap 15 Of 57 Yesterday In Qatar After Temperatures Inside His Car Reached Over 170 Degrees Fahrenheit - He Still Finished 7th
F1 had themselves a nice little Sunday in Qatar yesterday. Just the fellas having a race, enjoying the sights, doing their thing. By that I mean the drivers claim they had to deal with temperatures reaching 80 celsius in their cars, which equates to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Here were the results.
(source) “That was the hardest-fought points that I’ve ever had to fight for,” Ocon said after the race.
“I was feeling ill, lap 15, 16, I was throwing up for two laps inside the cockpit. And then I was like, ‘S*** that’s going to be a long race'.
“I tried to calm down, I tried to remember that the mental side in sport is the strongest part of your body, and I managed to get that under control, and finish the race.
“But honestly, I was not expecting for the race to be that hard. I can normally do two race distances, even in Singapore. Physically, like muscle-wise and cardio-wise, I’m always fine. It was just like 80C inside the cockpit this race.
Let me say that again. ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DEGREES. Seems like a bit of an exaggeration considering those are unlivable conditions, but it was clearly hot enough to basically make every driver violently ill. An official statement actually backed it up afterwards.
An FIA statement issued on Monday evening acknowledged that a limit had been exceeded in Qatar on Sunday, where air temperatures of over 30 degrees C even late in the evening coupled with high humidity left drivers estimating cockpit temperatures in the 60-80 degrees C range at a circuit comprised mostly of high-speed corners.
We had drivers passing out while in the car racing around the track. Perfectly normal stuff.
Then you got this legend Esteban Ocon who puked in his helmet on lap 15 and somehow finished the race. He had 42 laps to go and gutted it out. BUILT DIFFERENT.
His comments afterwards were epic.
(ESPN) Asked if he considered retiring his car after vomiting, Ocon, who scored six points by finishing seventh, said: "It's not an option, retiring. I was never going to do that.
"You need to kill me to retire. It's true."
Today I gained respect for F1 drivers. Before I didn't think you needed physical endurance and/or fitness to compete like this. I frequently wondered why a fat guy couldn't be dominant at this sport as long as he can get in the car? Well, turns out these guys need to be superhuman. Motherfucker puked in his helmet with 40+ laps to go and finished 7th out of 20 racers. If I throw up in my own helmet while driving a high speed death machine I'm 100% crashing and causing countless deaths. There's no scenario where a normal person finishes the race in one piece.
That's Qatar racing folks. Great race guys. Gave it your all. See you next year, same time?