Credits: IMAGO / PanoramiC

A career in Formula 1 racing or single-seater racing is not without its hardships. While lack of determination may sometimes be the reason for a potential driver’s failure to reach the highest levels of racing, other times, it may be financial constraints. However, amid these major worries, we often overlook the simplest yet the most noticeable difficulty of being a single-seater driver. And that is the need to relieve oneself while competing in a race. Three-time world champion Max Verstappen recently disclosed one such occasion in which he narrowly escaped being in an uncomfortable scenario during his early racing days.

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While doing a live sim racing stream on his Twitch channel, as per a Reddit post, Verstappen discussed how watching a DTM race before one of his F3 races at Norisring has almost forced him to urinate in his car. Upon being questioned if Verstappen had ever urinated in his seat, the Red Bull driver responded while sharing a funny scenario.

He said, “Luckily not! One time [in F3] I was very close. I was watching DTM, I almost forgot to get ready for my race. I ran back to get into my suit & helmet while all the cars were already lining up to the grid and I jumped in the car while having to go to the toilet.”

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Not only this, Verstappen went on to discuss how he handled the urge to urinate. The 26-year-old initially said that he was sitting in his car holding the urge to urinate after a red flag duration extended from 10 minutes to half an hour.

However, later he revealed that to stop peeing himself in a car, the Dutchman fired up the engine since those vibrations actually helped him to hold the pee.

Do F1 drivers pee in their suits during a race?

F1 drivers naturally find it difficult to ignore nature’s call and set a time for it at their convenience. However, considering this, there comes a question of what happens to drivers who suddenly feel the need to urinate during a race. Even though we can’t talk about every driver, we have some context for what drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo have to say about the subject.

Lewis Hamilton once told on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as per The Mirror that he hadn’t urinated in his suit as drivers can and many drivers do. However, during his conversation, he did admit that his predecessor at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher used to pee in his suit.

Ellen even asked Daniel Ricciardo about the same, as per Talksport. During his conversation with Ellen, the Australian said that he had never peed during a race. The explanation Ricciardo offered for not urinating during the race was that the stress of driving at speeds above 200 mph makes it impossible to unwind and urinate.

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In addition, some drivers were questioned on whether they had ever urinated in a car as part of a ‘Never Have I Ever’ series for F1’s YouTube channel. While Zhou Guanyu claimed to know drivers who had done so, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris denied having urinated in the car. Nevertheless, Nyck de Vries and Sergio Perez admitted to peeing in the car.