Supercars champion Will Brown was whisked off to the onsite medical centre at Sydney Motorsport Park after he “nearly passed out” due to cool suit trouble.
Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney nearly suffered the same fate. After winning Race 3, he sat next to his car and poured water over his head in an effort to recover from the stifling heat.
While in-race failures are ultimately out of the hands of officials, Supercars and governing body Motorsport Australia has a trigger to ensure cooling systems are used.
According to Motorsport Australia, if the predicted maximum ambient temperature of the day advised by the Bureau of Meteorology for the nearest town – in this case, Eastern Creek – at 8am local time is expected to exceed 32.9 degrees, then each car must use a cooling system.
Teams can use three types of cooling, either individually or together. That includes cool air to the driver’s seat, cooling fluid to a cool suit, or cool air to the driver’s helmet.
Team 18 elected to use cool air to Anton De Pasquale’s helmet during the Top 10 Shootout. However, an issue with its system meant it did not function properly and the team was stung by Motorsport Australia before Sunday’s race.
“[Team 18] said that they had filled the dry-ice ice box secured in the car prior to Part 1 of qualifying and the driver confirmed that the cool air stream had been working during Part 1 and Part 2,” a report from Motorsport Australia read.
“Given the high ambient heat, the ice had evaporated over the 40 minutes from the commencement of Part 1 and the commencement of Part 3 (the TTSO).
“The driver said he was not conscious of the fact that the system was not operating as intended in the TTSO. He said that he felt fine at all times and the fan in his helmet was working.
“The CTM confirmed that it was. The team explained that while the rules permit them to replenish the ice box within one minute of the start of the TTSO, they overlooked doing so on this occasion.
“The stewards are satisfied that there was no sporting advantage capable of being gained from the failure to replenish the ice box. However, the failure could have compromised the health and safety of the driver.
“The stewards determine that the rule was breached and impose a fine on the team in the
sum of $2000.
“Recognising that the breach was due to inadvertence in replenishing the cooling medium, not a failure to have any driver cooling system fitted, and the driver time in the session was only brief, the stewards determine to suspend half of that fine.”
De Pasquale’s teammate David Reynolds also made a medical centre visit after suffering the effects of Sunday’s heat.
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