Performance over health? He won’t be the last in F1. Yet the second iteration of the Bahrain Grand Prix, 20 years ago, was the most extreme example in the sport’s 75-year history of drivers prioritising pace over physical condition. At 42.6C, beating 40C temperatures in Dallas and Detroit in the mid-1980s, it was the hottest F1 race ever.

After a setback at the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren is hoping to get back on top of Formula 1 in Bahrain this week.

Tsunoda has plenty of experience in Bahrain, having scored points in his first two F1 races there for the Alpha Tauri team, after winning the 2020 F2 feature race in Sakhir.