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Max Verstappen won the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
It was the 12th win of the season for the champion-elect and, yet again, came in dominating fashion.
But that was far from the lead story when drivers left the Losail International Circuit.
Instead, the focus was on the unsafe conditions drivers faced during the race due to extreme heat that even caused one driver to abandon the race altogether.
“I think today we probably found the limit. I think it’s sad we had to find it this way,” McLaren driver Lando Norris said of temperatures that exceeded 100 degrees. “But it’s not a point where you can just go, the drivers need to train more or do any of that. We’re in a closed car that gets extremely hot in a very physical race. And it’s frustrating.
“I guess on TV, it probably doesn’t look very physical at all, but clearly, when you have people who end up retiring or in such a bad state, it’s too much, you know, for the speeds we’re doing. It is too dangerous.”
Norris finished the race clutching a towel filled with ice. Verstappen crouched in the corner and asked if anyone had a wheelchair. Second-place finisher Oscar Piastri laid out flat on his back.
Doctors attended to several drivers following the race. And Williams driver Logan Sargeant retired from the race mid-way through due to illness.
Norris wasn’t alone in his criticism, either.
“This is the toughest race, I think, for every driver in F1 of our career, for everybody,” Charles Leclerc of Ferrari said. “I don’t believe anyone that’s says it’s not.”
Series veteran Valterri Bottas also spoke out.
“The temperature in the cockpit started to be almost too much,” Bottas explained. “The feeling is like torture in the car. Any hotter than this would not be safe.”
Bottas spends his off weeks riding in 100-mile bike races.
Thankfully, nobody was serious injured. But it may serve as the impetus for F1 to think long and hard about driver safety.