Brundle on Miami: Max charge gathers speed, Merc 'mystery' complicates

It's a long time since I've seen these super-fit and perfectly prepared F1 drivers look so battered after a 94-minute race.

I know that horrible post-race feeling well, where your core is so hot and continues to well up, you're missing a lot of fluid, and every organ, muscle, and tendon is complaining heavily in its demand for essential ingredients.

You just can't get away from your own body as the pain builds and the adrenaline fades. I felt for Max Verstappen sitting on the buggy post-race with the camera zoomed in, I'm sure he just wanted to lie down, roll around, and groan a bit.

Occasionally after two hours in the humidity of Singapore they look pretty wrecked, but the grip level of the track and low degradation tyres, and therefore the relentless pace, was tough. There's always an airless nature racing against the walls of a street circuit, and inside the cockpit can be 50+ degrees as the aerodynamicists never want to waste much air and drag on the driver, who are then wrapped in multiple layers of clothing, gloves, helmets, boots, balaclava.

The FIA has insisted recently drivers wear no jewellery or watches, and do wear fireproof underpants, or no underpants just fireproof leggings, which presumably they consider 'low hanging fruit' in the search for incremental safety. Frankly, if your underpants are on fire you've got much bigger issues, and when you step over the side of these cars you've mentally already done a great deal of management as to how much risk you're prepared to take.

I believe a lot of the clumsy contact we saw towards the end of the race was due to overheating drivers, which can make you feel light-headed and your judgement fades a little.

I think the Miami event team and F1 did a really great