From now on, F1 drivers are prohibited from using designer or personalized underwear, as well as metal objects in contact with the skin. The reason? Reduce the risk of burns and facilitate rescue in the event of an accident
Luigi Perna
06 May 2022 | 09:47 (edited May 06 2022 | 10:08)
– Milan
No more designer branded underpants in F1. Lewis Hamilton and his colleagues will have to get over it. Since the Miami GP, the FIA has imposed stricter controls on the safety clothing of the drivers, who must wear “gloves, long underwear, balaclavas, socks and shoes approved according to the standards required by the International Federation and resistant to fire”. No exceptions will be allowed even for the most superstitious, such as Antonio Giovinazzi, who when he raced in F1 told of always using the same underpants at races, one pair for Friday, one for Saturday and one for Sunday. The only exception will be granted for “justified medical reasons”, but in that case the pilots will have to wear the ordinance underpants, let’s call them, above their own, and in any case “the use of synthetic clothing will not be authorized in contact with the skin “.
skepticism in f1
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The news was greeted by the riders with skepticism, mischievous smiles and a few stinging jokes when the commissioners announced it for the first time at the meeting preceding the Australian GP. But, from now on, it will be law. Like it or not. Depriving us of unforgettable moments like the one he gave away Davide Valsecchi in 2012, when he was a Lotus reserve driver and suddenly found himself having to replace Kimi Raikkonen in the Barcelona tests, due to indigestion (official version …) of the Finn. The Como-born confessed candidly: “I hadn’t brought the wide boxers to the track, the ones I had bothered me, so I drove without…”.
f1 and safety
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But if those of the FIA have suddenly become so ultra-Orthodox as to invade even the private sphere of the drivers, there is a precise reason. The measure, established by article 31.1 of the sporting regulations, serves to reduce the risk of serious burns in the event of a fire in the car, a topic that returned to the fore in 2020 after the accident in Bahrain in which Romain Grosjean’s Haas was involved. , went up in flames in the collision with a guard rail. The French driver escaped the stake, but seriously burned his hands and ankles, an episode that raised attention to the problem. For years, no fire had been seen in F1, thanks to the design of increasingly solid single-seaters, and the danger of witnessing dramas like the one experienced by Niki Lauda at the Nurburgring in 1976 seemed definitively averted. Instead, an alarm bell rang again.
jewels banned in f1
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In the viewfinder are not finished only … the underwear. From this race, in fact, pilots will also be prohibited from wearing necklaces, jewels and metal objects of any kind under overalls and helmets. Rings and piercings are also bandits. Could the judges have thought of the flashy rapper-style gold chains Hamilton often sported in the paddock? The contact of the metal with the skin increases the risk of burns, due to the conduction of heat, and the presence of necklaces or other jewels “can delay the rescue operations of the doctors and the diagnosis or any treatments to be done later, as well as to create an impediment for the removal of the helmet and other technical equipment in the event of an accident “. Who knows if Sebastian Vettel will be able to keep the San Cistoforo medal that he always wore in his right shoe. In the document, signed by the race director Niels Wittich, surprise checks are also announced. For those pilots who once confessed to peeing inside the cockpit, when he ran away during the race, it would be very embarrassing …
May 06, 2022 (change May 06, 2022 | 10:08 am)
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