Mercedes driver George Russell has called on the FIA to help Formula 1 teams develop cooling vests for hot races, saying teams should receive extra cost-cap funding or access to a shared external supplier. Mercedes has decided not to run a vest because it has not invested the resources needed to make its system robust, Russell said in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which is being held in Malaysia this weekend.

The FIA declares a “heat hazard” at the start of a grand prix weekend when the forecast ambient temperature for an on-track session is above 31C. The Bahrain event is the third heat hazard of the 2026 season, and a fourth is likely next weekend at the nearby Singapore Grand Prix.

Russell told The Times: “We won’t be running the cooling vest because we haven’t put the resource into making it robust enough.” He added: “When it works, it works great. So, I would like to wear it this week, and I would like to wear it next week. But the team asked me…'look, we can develop it, and we can put the money towards it [but at the cost of performance]'.”

Russell said the FIA could help teams address the cost and engineering trade-off. “I feel we need the FIA just to step in and say, 'Here’s some money extra in the cost cap,' or there’s an external company who’s going to develop it for everybody, you just put the money towards it. Because we should all be wearing it.”

His comments prompted some accounts to suggest he was acting against Mercedes or that engineers were making him endure the heat. The circumstances are less direct: the team decided against the development work because resources and spending put into an intermittently used vest would come at the expense of performance improvements for its W17 car.

Driver comfort in hot conditions has been a Formula 1 concern since the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix in Doha, when several drivers showed symptoms of heat exhaustion. The race took place in October that year; it was later moved to December, a cooler period. In response to the conditions, the FIA and all teams researched ways to improve driver ventilation and cooling.

That work led to a vest system that circulates water through a network of tubes. Drivers can use it in extreme conditions, but it is not compulsory. The FIA initially intended to require cooling vests whenever a heat hazard was declared. Many drivers were not satisfied with the standard version, saying it helped for only a handful of laps before becoming more of a hindrance than a benefit.

The FIA instead left the equipment optional. A driver who does not wear a vest must have an additional 0.5 kilograms of ballast added to the car. Teams may develop their own versions within a set framework intended to improve cooling efficiency and ergonomics.

Most teams have not considered that development worthwhile. Heat hazards occur only a limited number of times in a season, and the conditions have not matched the severity experienced in Qatar in 2023. With a mandatory system widely dismissed by drivers, the FIA has remained content to let each team decide, and there appears to be little appetite to reopen the debate.

Mercedes is also defending its position against gains by McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari. Since the vest issue concerns comfort rather than an immediate safety concern, the team has prioritised car performance over spending engineering time and money on equipment used sporadically.

Based on reporting by Autosport.