Schumachers Seat: the pipes are for air bladders to pad out his seat
During qualifying we saw Michael Schumachers seat being refitted. Rather than the simple carbon fibre moulding we normally see, the Mercedes seat also had six lines leading from connectors at the top edge of the seat. These are in fact air pipes, leading to inflatable cushions. Not a sign of Schumachers age, as this is a similar set up he also used at Ferrari. Schumacher like to to be well fitted into his seat, so the inflatable solution allows the engineers to connect an air line to each of the valves at the top of the seat, to inflate the pads to suit Schumachers requirements. There are six pads; around the shoulder, hips and thigh, although only the right side of the seat has four pads, leaving just two on the other side.
Scarbsf1's Blog 
Any idea why the right side has more padding? If anything I would’ve expected the left side to have more, considering the clockwise layout of most tracks.
When I wrote the piece, I was about to add something like ‘extra pads to counter the cornering loads…”. Then I worked out my right from my left and so I am still puzzled..?
whatever it is seems to be working
The lower cushions more likely stretch across the width of the seat, the position of the lower back one looks like a lumbar support so most likely to be central. This means there’s only one air pipe needed for each lower cushion, while as the upper cushions are separate they will need a separate air pipe for each side.
Alternatively the picture above shows two pipes running down to the lower cushions, one attached to the right hand side while the second lower cushion pipe runs under the seat, most likely to be attached to the opposite side from the first pipe.
I guess the extra weight from the seat massager and the air cond that he apparently has is slowing him down…
Probably because he is using his left arm a lot to alternate the breakbalance and stuff on the wheel.
Glad you confirmed what it was, as thought it was some fancy cooling system.
Struck me in Malaysia, that if they can run the weight of various pumps for drinks and pneumatic seats, why not plug the driver into a heat exchanging vest via an umbilical. Ok mini refridge system adds weight but would require less drinking fluid weight to be carried and would place far less stress on the driver.