Way back
when, Formula 1 drivers were daring chaps who enjoyed life to the full.
Shortly before the race many would casually have a cigarette, and when it
was over they would quite often enjoy a cool beer. Fitness training was
something they would scarcely consider. Today, it is the key to success.
On average, a Grand Prix lasts for 60 laps. For almost two hours drivers are
exposed to extreme stress, only comparable with flying a fighter plane or
the space shuttle. This depletes their physical resources, particularly when
a Grand Prix is held in hot weather such as in Bahrain. “In this sport, if
you don’t have the necessary fitness,” said Daniel Dobringer, fitness
trainer for Ralf Schumacher, “then you might as well not show up.”
Only if you have a balanced training plan, in which power and endurance are
increased along with coordination and speed, will you attain the right level
of fitness. The forces that act on a driver during the course of a Grand
Prix are enormous. In races on demanding tracks, sports scientists have
calculated that the muscles in the neck, shoulders, arms and legs have to
cope with a total load of 40,000 kilograms. Ligaments, tendons and joints
are made to work doubly hard. |
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No other type of
sport places as much stress on the body of an athlete as Formula 1. When
braking down from high speeds and going into fast corners, forces of up to 5
g have been measured – this is equivalent to five times the body’s own
weight. This means that a head weighing six kilograms and a helmet weighing
1.5 kilograms together weigh five times as much, albeit for a brief period –
and the neck muscles have to withstand 37.5 kilograms. But the torment does
not stop there: the legs are highly taxed too. At the race in Monza, for
example, full braking takes place 212 times – and each one has a force
expenditure of 80 kilograms. Steering is not child’s play either: without
power steering, on high-speed tracks such as Spa and Suzuka where the front
and rear wings produce maximum downforce, it takes 40 kilograms just to turn
the wheels. Then there’s the gear shifting: on average there are 2,600 gear
shifts per Grand Prix; in Monaco, with its many corners, this figure rises
to 3,100 times.
Drivers have to achieve top performance under the most extreme conditions.
Lashed securely into the seat with the six-point harness, it is difficult to
breathe when the heart rate reaches its peak rate of around 190 beats per
minute. Especially when in hot-weather races, maximum temperatures of 60
degrees Celsius are measured under the overalls. In other words, every Grand
Prix is tough work and this is what differentiates it from all other types
of extreme sport. “Even the fittest of long-distance runners,” according to
Erwin Göllner, recently fitness trainer for Jacques Villeneuve, “would not
be able to last the 60 laps at Monza.” The fitness required for such top
performance is something the drivers work up in the body-building room or
out in nature. Inside, for example, they go through running exercises on the
treadmill or they undergo training on specific equipment on which they can
simulate the loads in the cockpit; outside, jogging and cycling are the
preferred activities. Drivers know only too well that alongside factors such
as tyres, engine and aerodynamics, it is their own fitness that is decisive
for their performance out on the track.
Fitness has to be worked at; training is an all-year-round process. The
majority of drivers always commence their preparations for an upcoming
season at the start of November, only two to three weeks after the last race
in the previous season. Ralf Schumacher, for example, trains in winter four
to five times per week with stints of four to five hours; during the season
itself, three to four training units, each lasting from two to three hours,
are customary. Training regularly serves to keep the drivers’ fitness at the
right level, even between the seasons, and therefore they do not have to
start right back at the beginning when it is time to prepare for the new
season. Fitness also helps the drivers with their self-confidence. Those who
are really fit generally demonstrate it during the last third of the race
when concentration and response start to wane. In view of the physical loads
and the increasingly complicated electronics in a Formula 1 cockpit,
physical and mental fitness are inseparable. And they are trained together.
One fitness trainer makes his protégé solve maths problems while on the
ergometer – a form of qualifying race for those little grey cells.
In a hot-weather race such as the Bahrain Grand Prix, drivers may lose
between three to four litres of fluid – and approximately four percent of
their bodyweight. Therefore they have to drink a lot to compensate. Each
driver’s fitness trainer makes up special energy drinks using water, various
minerals, salts and vitamins. Each one swears that his is the best recipe –
naturally it is top secret. In one matter they all agree, however: the water
bottle in the car is really a contingency reserve only – it is much more
important to drink lots before the race starts. “If you don’t drink enough
and then drive off with only 80 percent,” says Daniel Dobringer, “you cannot
make up for it during the race. And that’s when your performance will start
to drop off.” |
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