Get Your Motors Runnin’
A look into the high-speed world of automotive racewear.
Whether you’re a fan of Formula 1, NASCAR, or IndyCar, the driver behind the wheel requires as much protection as possible from fire, extreme cockpit heat, and crashes.
Kaylee Bryson, driver of the #17 LSI Logical Logistics LLC/MMI Services Chevrolet walks the grid during practice for the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway on July 11, 2025 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
“A driver’s suit is an essential item of personal protective equipment designed to help protect the driver from heat and flame in an emergency,” explains Alessandro Gambino, team head racewear R&D and graphics for Puma. “Its primary purpose is to slow the transfer of heat through the garment, providing the driver with valuable additional time to exit the car or receive assistance. However, thermal protection is only the first part to be considered. The fabric must also be lightweight, breathable, durable, and flexible. Drivers compete in hot and physically demanding cockpit environments, so the suit needs to support mobility and comfort without compromising safety.”
To meet these requirements, race car driver suits use fabrics made from high-performance fibers offering the protection drivers need while still thinking about comfort and flexibility. And there’s much to come in the future of automotive racewear with smart textiles in development.
Driving Protection with Inherently Fire-Proof Fibers
According to Nicole Blankenbeckler, vice president of technology for the Aramids business of Arclin, modern racing suits are not made from a single component. “They are engineered systems that combine flame-resistant fibers, specialized fabric constructions, high-temperature sewing threads, and carefully controlled finishing processes to maximize protection, comfort, and durability,” she details.
Arclin manufactures Nomex—an aramid, or aromatic polyamide, that Blankenbeckler says has inherently flame resistant fibers. “The flame resistance is built into the fiber itself, rather than being a finish that is simply applied to ordinary fabric,” she explains. “When exposed to intense heat, Nomex chars and thickens instead of melting or dripping. This creates a thermal barrier that slows heat transfer and helps prevent severe burns.”
At protection and performance apparel company Alpinestars, auto category manager Toby Warrington says because the fabrics they use to construct their driver suits are generally aramid or meta-Aramid based fabrics, the protection is not applied as a coating, so it doesn’t reduce through washing. “They work by providing a strong break-open performance against flame, meaning there are no holes in the fabric layers after exposure to flame, and additionally by providing a barrier against heat transmission, to prevent the driver suffering from burns,” he continues.
Meeting at the Intersection of Comfort and Flexibility
In addition to offering fire protection, the fabric also needs to remain light, breathable, flexible, and comfortable enough to race in, says Kelli Willmore, director of R&D/Production for K1 RaceGear. “Adding material can increase thermal protection, but it also adds weight and traps heat,” she explains. “Drivers are already working in cockpits that can exceed 1000F, so excessive heat retention contributes to fatigue and loss of concentration. Comfort isn’t just a driver request. It affects both performance and safety. The main challenge in racewear is achieving the required thermal protection while reducing weight and bulk and improving breathability, stretch, and mobility.”
When constructing a race car driver suit, Gambino says there’s several textile components, including comfort-facing surfaces and stretch and mobility zones. “The material closest to the body can be engineered to provide a softer feel, reduce friction, and support moisture management,” he continues. “This is particularly important during endurance events or in cars with demanding cockpit temperatures.”
Gearing Up for Smart Textiles
When it comes to integrating smart textiles into driver suits, Blankenbeckler says smart textiles are beginning to move from research labs into motorsports, although today’s race suits are still primarily built around proven flame-resistant fabrics such as Nomex. “The goal of smart textiles is to add sensing, monitoring, and communication capabilities without compromising fire protection,” she adds.
Willmore says where they’re seeing smart textile adoption is in flame-resistant driver equipment with integrated sensors capable of measuring biometrics such as pulse, blood-oxygen saturation, cardiac activity, and respiration. “Formula 1 is probably the clearest example,” she continues. “The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) introduced biometric gloves in 2018, and F1 drivers have been required to use them since. A small sensor provides medical crews with pulse and blood-oxygen data, which can be extremely valuable following an accident when a driver may not yet be able to communicate.”
One of the main limitations of smart textiles, says Gambino, is not only the integration of electronics into flame-resistant clothing, but also the security, confidentiality, and privacy of the data collected. “The information generated by smart textiles could reveal more than the driver’s physical condition,” he explains. “When combined with telemetry and other technical data, it could also help evaluate how the driver is reacting to the car and how the vehicle is performing.”
“However, access to this data must be carefully controlled,” Gambino continues. “If physiological information were intercepted or made available to competitors in real time, it could reveal whether a driver was becoming tired, overheated, stressed, or physically compromised. This could give an opponent an unfair strategic advantage and potentially influence the outcome of a race. For smart textiles to become more widely used in competition, the industry will therefore need clear rules covering data ownership, access, storage, transmission, and permitted use.”
Accelerating Into the Future of Automotive Racewear
Looking at the future of race car driver suits, Warrington expects that the future will see some technical and material innovation that allows for advancing the safety and wearability of driver suits and equipment. “We have some innovative developments which are coming to market at the start of 2027 … the resulting products are a step forward from current performance,” he says. “This should be just the start, and in the next 10 years I think there will be quite a change.”
Willmore predicts the biggest trend will continue to be achieving more performance with less material. “We’re already moving away from heavy embroidered sponsor logos toward approved heat-transfer, printed, and sublimated graphics,” she says. “That reduces weight and bulk while allowing far more complex graphics, gradients, and sponsor treatments. The decoration method still must remain compliant with the applicable safety standard.”
Blankenbeckler says one of the one of the most exciting possibilities for the future of automotive racewear is the integration of impact-detection textiles. She explains that future suits could contain flexible sensors that measure crash forces experienced by different body regions, identify possible injuries immediately after impact, and transmit medical information directly to trackside personnel. “That would turn the suit from something that simply protects the driver from the environment into something that also monitors the driver’s response to that environment,” Blankenbeckler adds.
And Gambino believes the future will see 3D CAD, virtual fitting, and digital pattern simulation, which will allow race suits to be developed more precisely for each driver. “These tools can help improve the fit in the seated driving position, identify areas of tension or pressure, and reduce the number of physical samples required during development,” he adds.
With so many possibilities for the future of automotive racewear, it’s clear that excitement will continue to build both on and off the track!
About the Author
Corrie Pelc is a journalist, editor, and freelance writer with more than 26-years’ experience. A former associate editor for Nonwovens Industry, her byline can be found in a variety of consumer and trade publications, with past and current clients including Medical News Today, IAAPA’s Funworld Magazine, Rinksider Magazine, International Bowling Industry magazine, and HomeTalk.com, as well as AATCC Review and AATCC News.