Fancy the adrenaline, travel opportunities, stratospheric income and attractive admirers that F1 racing drivers have? You’ll need more than quick reflexes.
Michael Schumacher at his best was arguably one of the fittest athletes on the planet. His job put incredible stresses on his body. His mobile office reached around 300km/h and he was subjected to up to 5 Gs in some corners.
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And while racing drivers appear to live on Bollinger and beluga, their physical fitness programmes are rather more spartan. Most have a rigorous programme of exercise and self-denial. Spraying or being sprayed with champagne is as close as most will get to a pub-crawl.
The racers’ pulse rates stay elevated for hours at a time. Many humans have a resting heart rate of around 70 beats per minute (bpm). But while the average gym-rat’s heart rate hits around 160bpm during a workout, many Formula One drivers experience heart rates of around 200bpm. It’s the sort of rate that would cause most treadmill-plodders to pass out.
Being supremely fit gives the drivers stamina and enables them to recover more quickly from the injuries and bruising that are part of their job description.
It wasn’t always so: in the ‘70s many drivers were chubby, particularly at the end of the off-racing season. Jim Clark dined on steak and chips before each race. The late Ayrton Senna was probably the first driver to acknowledge the need for a punishing exercise regimen and a controlled diet. The drivers started eating wisely, although Gilles Villeneuve would famously consume burgers, French fries and milkshakes while the others struggled through their frugal fare.
Formula One drivers control their diets by carefully regulating the amount of carbohydrate and protein that they absorb. During the race weekends, they eat pasta or other carbohydrate-rich foods to provide energy and to give them enough stamina for the race.
With temperatures hitting 50 degrees C inside their fireproofed suits, the drivers can sweat around two litres during a race. A dehydrated Nelson Piquet was unable to take the winner’s podium after the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix and had to receive intravenous fluids.
The guidelines for drivers dictate a litre of fluid before the race, two litres while driving and two litres afterwards. This can lead to some hopping about on the winner’s podium. Not so for Nigel Mansell, who was so dried out he had to wait an hour before he could produce a post-race urine sample.
Training
Most drivers now follow a weights programme of high repetitions with low weights to build long, lean muscles, with emphasis on the back, shoulders, neck and arms.
It’s not just muscle tone, though. The drivers’ bodies have to adapt to the unique stresses of the track. Schumacher's former trainer Harry Hawaiian says: “His head weighs 6kg, the helmet 1kg more. When he goes around a corner, his head weighs 40kg - we build neck and shoulder muscles to take that.”
The unusual loadings neck and chest muscles have to endure cannot be replicated by conventional gym equipment. Many drivers therefore use specially designed 'rigs' that enable them to develop the muscles they will need to deal with cornering forces. To help him acclimatise, Schumacher adjusts the temperature and humidity of his gym to simulate the conditions of the racing venue.
Visual fitness
The ability to react with precision at 300km/h is crucial, says Sherylle Calder, a world pioneer in visual fitness. If a driver blinks his eye for half a second, he has already travelled 250m in that time. As a result, drivers can’t afford to blink their eyes, they learn to flicker them.
Racing drivers need exceptional visual skills. Calder says: “There’s more to it than hand-eye coordination. You need to hone your visual reaction time, your ability to recognise objects, and your ability to judge distance.”
Staying alert
A driver who is physically fit, is able to concentrate better. Racing drivers not only need to concentrate on driving, but constantly makes calculations about several factors including fuel consumption, tyre pressure and engine performace to make the best decision about when to make a pit stop. - (Health24)
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