Racing is only for supremely fit
MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX
LOTS of smoking, lots of drinking and lots of sex.
That was how Germany's Keke Rosberg, the 1982 Formula One world champion, had described his off-season training for races.
But ask Ferrari's reigning F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen about his regime, and it would resemble that of an Olympic athlete. Lots of cardio, lots of gym and lots of weights.
Up to five hours a day, every day in the off-season, starting in November, to improve stamina and strength in his 1.75m, 62kg frame.
These days, the typical F1 driver weighs between 60 and 70 kg for his 1.7m to 1.8m frame, boasts a body-fat percentage of around 7 per cent and has a resting heart rate of 40-odd beats per minute.
That is much lower than the average man, who has a body-fat percentage of 15 to 20 per cent and a resting heart-rate of 70.
After all, anything less than supreme fitness, and an F1 driver would struggle to cope with the severe stresses of each race - especially so at today's Malaysian Grand Prix, one of the most gruelling races on the circuit because of the heat and humidity.
At the Sepang International Circuit, temperatures can go up to 70 deg C in the F1 car's cockpit and up to 60 deg C under the driver's helmet and racing overalls. Drivers can lose up to 31/2 litres of body fluid and about 4 per cent of their body weight.
Even without Sepang's heat and humidity - up to 40 deg C and 95 per cent respectively - drivers already have to contend with the normal physical exertions of a race.
Their bodies are subjected to forces of up to 4G under braking - or four times their body weight - and up to 5.5G through some corners.
The driver's head alone, which weighs about 6kg with the helmet on, has to sustain loadings of 24kg repeatedly.
All this, while travelling at speeds in excess of 300kmh trying to outwit and outspeed 21 other similar souls.
"Without stamina, the driver is less flexible and loses valuable tenths of seconds," said Josef Leberer, fitness trainer of former world champions like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, last year's runner-up, did five to 10 intense training sessions each week in preparation for this season.
The 1.74m, 64kg Briton did up to three hours of cardio work - running, cycling, swimming, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing - and gym workouts focused on improving neck and abdominal muscles.
A typical day begins with a morning run, followed by breakfast, then gym or swimming or playing a sport. Lunch is followed by more cardio, like a long bike ride, then back to the gym for another hour or two.
Tapio Korjus, manager of Finland's Kuortane Sports Institute where Hamilton trained in the off-season, told The Times that "a precise, scientific approach" in motor sport was "a relatively new development" that began in the past 10 to 15 years.
"In that period, the physical performance of F1 drivers has increased - and Lewis has set a new benchmark," said the Austrian.
This F1 season will probably be more physically demanding on the drivers than ever, after the sport's ruling body, the FIA, did away with some computerised driver aids. Among them is traction control, which prevents wheelspin and reduces the importance of driver skill.
Training is much less intense during the packed 18-race season.
Drivers work with their personal trainers for three or four days during a two-week period between races, focusing on maintaining fitness and recovering from the previous race.
"If you're going through a race and your body starts struggling, then it starts taking away energy from your mind. It's crucial that you go through the race with ease physically, which gives you 100 per cent mental concentration," Hamilton said in a Johnnie Walker F1 video.
But, for all the fitness in the world, ultimately it is still what you do behind the wheel that counts. As 1978 world champion and American racing legend Mario Andretti had said: "There's only one way to get truly fit to drive an F1 car - and that's to drive one."
This article was first published in The Sunday times on Mar 23, 2008.
