Verstappen will roll out of the Marina Bay pit lane this weekend with lead weights strapped to his car and no cooling vest on his body. Isack Hadjar, his new Red Bull teammate, told reporters in the paddock that the vest should not even be an option for the rest of the grid.

“I think it should be banned. Because it’s supposed to be tough,” Hadjar said in Singapore.

The intervention lines Red Bull up on one side of a split that has run through the paddock all year. The FIA has activated its extreme heat protocol for the race, triggered when the forecast heat index tops 31°C, which makes Singapore the fourth heat hazard weekend of 2026. Under the protocol, teams must fit the cockpit cooling system; a driver who declines to wear the vest has to carry 5kg of ballast instead, so the car is not lighter for the choice.

Verstappen takes the weight

Verstappen is one of the few drivers willing to accept that penalty, and he is not quiet about why.

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“For me, it’s not needed. Yes, it’s hot, but it’s not a sauna,” the four-time champion said on Thursday.

“And with this cooling vest, you have these stupid cables in your car, so you’re just limiting your movement as well.”

His second objection is about endurance. He does not believe the kit lasts a race.

“I don’t need it. Even if it would work for one and a half hours, like cool, cool, I don’t need it,” Verstappen added. “It doesn’t work anyway for one and a half hours. I’ve never, I think, in any category that it has worked for one and a half hours.”

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Charles Leclerc has described a similar arc on the Ferrari side, telling reporters the vest holds up for the first stint and then falls back toward the temperature a driver would feel without it, per Times Live.

Russell wants it on every weekend

George Russell has argued the opposite case for most of the season, and Singapore did not change his mind.

“I’d race it every weekend, bar (Las) Vegas and tracks that are really cold,” the Mercedes driver said. “I definitely see a benefit in it.”

Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli has had a rougher time with the hardware. He has recounted the pump system failing on him at Austin, delivering water at around 50°C for a full session and leaving him with heatstroke afterwards, according to The Race.

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That is the core of the dispute: not whether a cooled driver is a faster driver, which Russell takes as given, but whether the equipment lasts long enough to be worth the cables, the plumbing and the compromise in cockpit movement that Verstappen keeps pointing to.

A sprint weekend in the heat

Singapore stages the sixth and final sprint race of the 2026 season. The sprint is scheduled for 5pm local time on Saturday, 10 October, and the grand prix for 8pm local time on Sunday, 11 October, according to the Marina Bay weekend schedule.

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