'Get on with it': Waters weighs in on driver cooling debate

There is no driver cooling problem in Supercars. That's the statement made by Cam Waters in response to a dramatic weekend in Darwin.

Whilst Waters turned his season around to claim the betr Darwin Triple Crown, his Tickford teammate Thomas Randle was a spectator on Sunday, as a result of heat stress inflicted by a cool suit failure on Saturday.

Randle was the second driver to be ruled out of the Darwin finale, with Brodie Kostecki being subbed out by Dick Johnson Racing after a drinks system failure exacerbated an illness the 2023 champion carried into the weekend.

Cool suit failures have been something of a theme through the year, with Broc Feeney, Will Brown, and David Reynolds all requiring medical attention after the third race of the season in Sydney.

However, on the latest episode of Driver's Only, Waters was adamant that there is no issue with Supercars' driver cooling systems, which are split between dry ice set-ups and electric Chillout systems.

The two-time Bathurst pole sitter even compared the reaction to his comments from earlier in the season: "I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion by the media, a bit like the 'A-grade, B-grade' comments to be honest.

"These Gen3 cars are way cooler than the Gen2 cars, and way cooler than when I did the NASCAR Truck race, or the Cup car. Those cars are way hotter than our cars.

"Back in our Gen2 cars, we were doing 250km races. Now we're doing 200km races.

"There's obviously been a lot put on Supercars for them to do or change something, but it's not really their problem. I think it needs to be put back on the drivers, and also the teams to do a better job.

"As a driver, you go to Darwin, and you know that it's going to be hot, so you go do heat training, prepare yourself for that event. You go to Adelaide, it's 40 degrees, go get in the sauna, get yourself ready before that weekend, hydrate before the weekend.

"The same with the teams, the cooling system is open, you can run the Chillout system, or you can run the dry ice and you can develop it. But don't whinge to Supercars that it's their issue, I think the teams just need to look at themselves.

"When you go to Darwin, make sure you plug in the cool suit, make sure the unit is serviced, and get on with it."

The events in Darwin have seen Supercars Permanent Medical Delegate, Dr Carl Le OAM, send an advisory note to teams on how to prepare both their systems and drivers for warm events.

Supercars also implemented a new heat policy in the lead up to Darwin, mandating teams run both helmet air and cool suits systems when the temperature is forecast to exceed 32.9 degrees. This was not triggered in Darwin.

As Waters went on to detail, it's not an exact science given the different reactions drivers have to heat, whilst the potential for drivers to be black flagged should a cooling system fail on a hot day, is a scenario Waters doesn't want to relive.

"I had [Jason] Brighty as a teammate, and he's not the fittest bloke, but he had a cool suit fail at Adelaide and he was like a tank, got it done.

"The other part of it is everyone has different heat tolerances. So Brighty for example, I always thought he was a tank in the car, or Frosty [Mark Winterbottom], they would just kind of get in there and get it done.

"I'm still dirty, back in 2019 I got black flagged for a cool suit failing. That was in Adelaide, and I was fine, I would've got the race done, but I'm still dirty that that still happened."

Supercars are tough environments for drivers to perform in, with cabin temperatures usually 20-30 degrees above the ambient temperature. With fireproof underwear, a cool suit, and fireproof race suit all worn, if a cool suit fails, it can get very uncomfortable very quickly.

Though Waters admitted he hadn't spoken to teammate Randle about his ordeal in detail, he also admitted that factors such as pre and mid-event commitments, as well as car behaviour can make a huge impact.

"I haven't really spoken to him a heap about it, obviously he got pretty hot on the Saturday," Waters added.

"The other thing is I've had races at Winton where it's 12 degrees, and the car's hard to drive. That's harder than racing at Adelaide when it's 40 sometimes.

"If a car is hard to drive, sometimes that cooks you more. Our car was fast, but they were hard to drive on the weekend, so maybe that's contributed to Tom as well.

"The other part is the lead in, how many commitments you've got. Sometimes I'm going into races, and I'm tired just from all the stuff that we've done. All of those thing contribute to it, but obviously what happened with Tom is not good, but it's not his fault.

"The cool suit failed, it's more of a team thing. If he was struggling, he probably should've pitted, but at the same time it was awesome that he got it done, I was so proud of him that he got it done.

"If you're that cooked out there, you need to pit."

The next stop for the Repco Supercars Championship is the NTI Townsville 500 from July 10-12.