Carlos Sainz is heading into his third season in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso, and it’ll be a year that’ll push him like never before… and before an engine has even been fired up in anger the Spaniard has been hard at work getting in shape for the challenges ahead.
Every sport has its physical challenges but 80 minutes of rugby, 48 of basketball, 10 seconds sprinting the 100 metres or two hours at the steering wheel of a Formula 1 car are all incomparable.
But what are the specific challenges involved in those two intense, energy-sapping hours driving an F1 beast and how do you prepare for them? Speed, G-forces to make your stomach churn, concentration… It’s all highly demanding, and will be even more so in 2017 with faster cars. The drivers are going to have to be physically fitter than ever.
“Our fitness levels of 2016 won’t be any good for this year, so for that reason we need to step it up even more,” explains Sainz, who’s been locked into a new fitness regime for weeks.
“Instead of sessions of 50 minutes, which is normal, mine are between 1.5 and 2 hours – the length of a GP – and we’re working at around 180-190bpm heart rate. It also includes boxing and cardio work, it’s relentless and we never stop working during the entire session. It’s full-on physically.”
Once the gym’s done, 60-minute swimming sessions are next on the menu for Carlos’s fitness feast.
A phrase that’s often heard when referring to F1 and the subject of fitness in the sport is “but if they’re sat down all the time, how can they get tired?”.
Actually, the forces and resulting pressures the drivers’ bodies are placed under require optimum levels of fitness, and it’s for an extended period of time too.
Legs, arms and the neck all have to be strong and able to handle some serious G-forces.
“We have two ways of training the neck. The first is with weights in the gym, which helps prepare for the G-forces we’ll have to face in the car. The second is with a specific method when karting,” divulges Sainz.
Weights in the helmet when karting help drivers prepare for those G-forces in an F1 car.
“These weights make the helmet around 1.5-2kg heavier than normal, which corresponds to the kind of extra weight the G-forces will make me feel in F1. This, together with other specialised exercises, give the neck muscles a very god workout.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Carlos doesn’t stop there. Between karting sessions, he uses a rubber band which loops around his helmet and is pulled by his trainer while he maintains form and position.
So there we have it. Even though an F1 driver is sat in the same position for an entire race, the level of physical fitness and strength required cannot be underestimated.
Add to that the mental concentration that’s necessary to race an entire GP, along with the pressures of performing, taking in radio communications, race strategy, and more, and F1 drivers need to be in tip-top shape in every possible manner.
In closing Sainz acknowledged that this has been “the toughest winter of my life.”
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
No comments:
Post a Comment