Why the hottest grand prix was no sweat for De la Rosa

As F1 returns to Bahrain this weekend, the Spanish driver looks back two decades to a red-hot showdown in the desert

- KIERAN JACKSON

Pedro de la Rosa had waited more than two years for a chance to start a Formula One grand prix. With 63 races in his rear-view mirror, the Spaniard had sat on the sidelines as a McLaren test driver, waiting patiently for an opportunity.

So when the call came from McLaren supremo Ron Dennis to replace the injured Juan Pablo Montoya at the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix, there was no time for nerves. And no time to bake in the Gulf oven.

“I was so excited about the race that I didn’t even sweat,” De la Rosa tells The Independent. “I didn’t drink at all – back then if you didn’t put in a drinks bottle, you saved weight on the car. So we didn’t even fit it.”

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 mid1980s, it was the hottest F1 race ever.