Making the Grade
You're sitting on the grid on board a virtual missile that will, in just a few moments, propel you down a race-track. In a little under four seconds you will be travelling at speeds of around 100mph. Then the first corner appears in front of you. You brake. A weight equal to three times your own hits you square in the chest. Just the act of turning the steering requires an effort of 20kg, but you find the line, hit the apex and floor the throttle, changing up through the gears as you exit the bend. Your neck muscles are straining to keep your head upright as massive centrifugal forces batter against you. Right now the track temperature is around 28ºC and with a cloudless sky above and the sun beating down, it is going to get hotter. That means that very soon you'll be sitting in a carbon-fibre box that will reach temperatures of around 50ºC. The circuit has 14 corners and you've got to get round them 58 times before it's all over. Over the course of the next 90 minutes you'll lose around 6lbs in bodyweight. Add to that the fact that even a momentary lapse of concentration could have you embedded in the scenery and it soon becomes obvious that the job of driver in a Formula One team is no cakewalk. So how do they do it?
The answer is quite simple really....training. |
Training
As can be seen from the example above, driving a Grand Prix car is an exhausting business and keeping it on the track demands incredible levels of mental and physical fitness coupled with huge reserves of stamina. In order to have even the slightest chance of finishing the race the average modern driver must devote around 3 hours of every day to some form of physical training. Working to an individual schedule drivers run, swim and cycle, alongside regular bouts of weight-training. The main emphasis is placed on developing endurance and muscle building, especially around the arms, shoulders and neck.
All of this a far cry from the lifestyles of past drivers. People like Gilles Villeneuve lived on a diet of milk-shakes and burgers. He had to be physically dragged just to get him to go for a run! Mansell was another one whose aversion to training and fondness for fried breakfasts, eventually resulted in him getting too fat to fit in his car!
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Diet
Like most athletes today's grand prix drivers all concentrate on eating healthy balanced diets steering clear of stimulants such as alchohol or coffee. Fat intake is kept to a minimum and drugs are certainly not on the menu. Lifestyles are also very different from the drivers of yesteryear. The public perception of a racing driver has for a long time been that of the playboy - with a girl on each arm and a big cigar to go with the ubiquitous bottle of bubbly. |
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In the 1950s that was a relatively accurate view. Drivers like Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, a handsome and congenial pair, actively cultivated the playboy image and it was often the reason behind their occassional poor showing on the track. |
| The situation during the sixties and seventies was not totally dissimilar with world champions like Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt who would normally scrounge a cigarette the moment they got out of the car. |
While performing his laid-back broadcasts for BBC TV, James Hunt would often pop out of the commentary box for a quick joint. Murray Walker would usually cover up the fact claiming; 'James has just nipped out to have a look at the far side of the circuit.' |
