If you've ever watched Formula 1 closely -- and we mean really closely -- you might have noticed team members stuffing boxes of what looks like clear, smoke-breathing bricks. They're shoved into the sidepods, brake ducts, and cockpits of their cars, and all that dramatic smoke isn't just for show, although it does look cool. It's actually dry ice, and it's as crucial a part of an F1 team's toolkit as tire blankets
.Dry ice is carbon dioxide in solid form, sitting at a bone-chilling -109.3 degrees
Fahrenheit. It doesn't melt into liquid like ice water -- instead, it sublimates directly into gas, which makes it perfect for cooling high-performance components without leaving behind any moisture. That's key when you're dealing with tightly packaged electronics, batteries, and driver cockpits that are not water-friendly.
In the high-stakes world of F1, where every tenth of a second matters, managing temperatures is just as important as managing horsepower. Dry ice is a controlled way to fight heat, thermal runaway, and overheating while the car is stationary. Whether the car is between practice laps, race starts, in the pit lane, or during a red flag delay, teams don't want vital systems roasting themselves.
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It's More Than Just Cooling Brakes
Sure, brake cooling is the most obvious use case. After all, those carbon-ceramic discs and pads get super hot -- up to 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit during a lap, and have no way of cooling themselves outside of airflow. Teams need to bring their temperature back down before they catch fire, and they do this using dry ice cooling fans as soon as the cars enter the pit garage. That's far from the only application of dry ice you'll see in F1, however.
During qualifying and race prep, dry ice is stuffed into radiators and can be seen falling out when the driver's brake hard for the first time. It's even blown into the sidepods to lower the temps of hybrid systems like the MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit - Kinetic) and MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit - Heat). Back in 2018, Ferrari got everyone talking by tossing bright yellow dry ice bags over their cars' onboard cameras. Officially, it was to keep the electronics cool on the grid, but rival teams and the FIA weren't buying it. Amid whispers of sneaky cooling tricks and airflow games, the FIA eventually stepped in and told Ferrari to cut it out.
You'd think in the hyper-tech world of F1 there'd be some space-age solution to pre-race cooling like liquid nitrogen or fancy cryo-fluids but dry ice works for a few simple reasons. These include the fact that it's effective without being overly complicated, it doesn't introduce liquid into sensitive areas, and its cooling effect is immediate and predictable.
Why Drivers Swear By Dry Ice When The Cockpit Cooks
Cockpit temps in Formula 1 can hit a scorching 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the hotter races. Fireproof race suits makes matters worse for the drivers' cooling needs and they don't get the luxury of air conditioning in an F1 car. So when they're in the garage, teams get creative. You'll often see long ducts or air tubes snaking down from the ceiling, blasting chilled air powered by dry ice.
McLaren has been stuffing a special dry ice container into the nose of the car. The gas from the sublimating CO₂ gets pumped through the cockpit until just before lights out, when the unit is pulled out and the nose is reassembled. They've also gold-foiled the underside of the seat and floor to deflect heat, thanks to a setup that grinds the front skid blocks harder than the rear, cooking the floor directly under the driver.
Some teams pack dry ice vents or cooling boxes into the cockpit before the race. The Aleda Company makes insulated boxes called Movitherm, while BOC provides advanced cooling systems are often seen in action. Some teams even use dry ice to cool the air in helmets and suits.
Formula 1 delves deep into minor tech to convert them to major gains, as seen with the seemingly insignificant flashing red light at the back of F1 cars. In the same vein, dry ice may seem like little more than a cool party trick -- but in a sport where heat can wreck both machines and minds, dry ice becomes an essential race-day survival gear.
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