Martin Brundle’s passionate defence in heat row: “I’m qualified, been there, done it”
൩The ex-racer and Sky Sports pundit tweeted “absolutely don’t buy into the weak view we shouldn’t put them through this kind of challenge” afte💞r several drivers suffered in the heat.
George Russell๊ and Alex Albon, speaki🅠ng at this weekend’s F1 United Grand Prix, hit back at “these guys who are commenting”.
Russell le𓆉t it be known that “w🦹e're driving cars 20 seconds-a-lap faster than they were”.
Lewis Hamilton, whose race ended on the first lap in Qatar, insisted that F1𓂃 must not become “too soft”.
Brundle has now sa🍬id on Sky TV: “I’m with Lewis on this. I’ve been lifted out of a car a couple of times - two races I’m particularly proud of - I’ve rolled it into a ball, run back to get i💛n the spare car.
“So I feel ꦯqualified to say because I’ve been there, done it.
“NASCAR, GT,🌟 ever🧸ybody puts up with a lot of temperature.
“Qatar was right on the limit. It’ll🍨 get sorted out for next year.
“We are guardians of this great sport. We’re just passing🍃 through. All of us 🔯here! We represent the blood, sweat, tears, broken bones, lost lives of the previous 73 years.
“Hundreds of millions of people tune in. Hundreds of thousands spend hard-earned money to turn up to see something incredible, something you ཧcouldn’t or wouldn’t want to do yourself.
“After the race the drivers looked li༒ke total heroes. I could see they were struggling.
“We edit out most of the danger. Many would say that’s a good thing. We can’t edit out the challenges. We hav💧e to keep th😼em.”
Logan Sargeant retired early in Qatar, unwell. E🐻steban Ocon said he vomited in his helmet, and Lance Stroll claimed he was close to passing out.
Brundle said: “You’re not going to 𝕴pass out in the car. You’re going to pull into the pits, as Logan Sargeant did.
“I’ve 💮said my piece on that. Interesting what others think. I do feel quite strongly about that.”
Brundle said that the conditions will improve next year in Qatar: “The teams will put moꦇre air through the car, the driveಌrs will prepare differently.
“I accept that was on the limit. What was the solution? Cancel the race? Shorten it by 2ꦍ0 l🙈aps? There was no solution.”
Jenson Button added: “I know how it feels, I’ve lost my water bottle bef൲ore. You get massively dehy𝐆drated, your vision goes, you start shivering.
“But it’s a sport that is physical. It’s nice🤡 to see that the limitations are the fitness of the drivers. It’s a sport, it’s supposed to be physic꧂al.
“I agree that if a marathon runner starts to get tired, he slows down. Same as a racin🍒g car driver.
“When my visibility started goi🅰ng, I slowed ꦗdown in Sepang.
🐻“Indivi♏duals saying ‘it is too hard’ will never change anything.
“Qatar was a tricky one. Unbelievably hot, humid, the highest G track in terms of loads of high speedಌ corners, and the other thing was their tyres. They were only allowed to do 18 laps per set of tyr🍬es which meant they were pushing every lap.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a🙈 decade covering everything from🌼 American sports, to football, to F1.
