Are you fit enough to be a world-class racing driver? Part 1

(Part 1)

Whereas a lot of people in the Middle East solely focus on driving the most up-to-date cars both on the racing circuit and on the normal road, and equip them with the latest performance and handling improving gadgets, they are missing out on the most significant variable of the equation, namely the driver.

Using the most sophisticated fuel and oil, is essential for the engine of the car to perform with the maximum efficiency in terms of acceleration, top speed, mid-range torque and fuel consumption.
But what about the car driver himself? Is it enough to be talented to make it to the top ten of the famous Castrol Edge ranking, for example? The definitive answer is a vociferous no.

7 times Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher emphasized this with his famous quote:
"Physical fitness alone is not good enough, to perform at the highest levels in sports or business. Mental fitness is an equally important prerequisite for top performance."

As a matter of fact, professional motorsport drivers, who want to make it to the premium series such as the Formula One, the WRC, the DTM, the Moto GP, the WTCC or even the Dakar desert rally, nowadays follow strictly personalized fitness regimen and tailored nutrition programs to optimize their stamina and aerobic endurance to withstand the challenging G-forces, high temperatures in the cockpit and the subsequent dehydration.

Coordination, reflexes and mental toughness are also trained and continuously improved, as any delay in reaction time could cost a driver a premium spot on the starting grid or on the race podium and in extreme cases, may even jeopardize his life and the lives of other racing drivers and spectators.

It must be mentioned here, that Formula One drivers nowadays are amongst the most conditioned athletes on planet earth. During a race their hearts will register 170 beats per minute (bpm) and peak at 190 bpm. To put that into context, that is three times the 60 bpm of an average man.

If this number does not visualize enough the forces the human body withstands during a race distance, then there are another couple of interesting yet intimidating numbers.

Formula 1 drivers need to be strong enough to withstand forces as high as 5Gs in high-speed corners and under braking, and must have enough stamina to cope with such extreme heat that they can sweat off anything up to 3kg of their body weight during a race.

Equally important after a bout of strenuous exercise, or completing a race distance is the recovery of the racing driver, both physically and mentally.

But before anyone is allowed to step into a cockpit to pursue a professional career as a racing driver in today’s motorsport field, a few obligatory tests are run to make sure that the applicant is fit and healthy enough to participate in this challenging sport. These screening tests are namely the medical assessment and body composition analysis

The first thing that happens when anyone goes with his car to the service, is usually that the receptionist who receives the car, eagerly listens to the client and solely concentrates on what the client has to say about the car and complaints and remarks, if present.

After that, the car is taken into the service center, where all routine checks are done in addition to the routine inspections according to the specific mileage of the car e.g. motor oil, brake pads, radiator fluid, oil filter etc.

Exactly the same is done to any person interested in pursuing a professional career in motorsport or any sport on the globe on the professional level in form of a medical assessment and a complete body composition analysis.

The questionnaire of the medical assessment contains various questions, which will give the examiner a deeper insight into the health level of the person in question.

Examples of these questions range from but are not limited to resting and maximal heart rate, medical history, previous injuries, family medical history, eating/drinking habits, sleeping hours, to food allergies.
The practical tests include a fitness test (flexibility and strength), blood glucose, and complete blood count, electrolyte analysis in addition to cardiovascular and respiratory tests.

Another very crucial practical test is the complete body composition analysis. The result sheet contains vital data about the amount of skeletal muscle mass, distribution of fat in the human body, body fat %, waist-hip ratio, intracellular water, extracellular water etc.

The importance of being lean yet fit and flexible at the same time, can be portrayed by the fact, that the leaner a racing driver is, the more easy will it be to balance the car and optimize its handling.

One thing which always catches my attention is when I find extremely overweight drivers from the Middle East region trying to compete in some regional desert rallies or other racing series. Maybe that is the reason why only, the obviously very lean and very fit, Nasser Al Attiyah is so far the only Arab driver to have succeeded in winning an international completion against international top drivers, when he won the famous Dakar rally with his Volkswagen Motorsport team recently.

With all the figures and the results provided by the complete medical assessment and the detailed body composition analysis, the next step will be to implement the data to tailor a strictly personalized fitness regimen and tailored nutrition programs for the person in question.

In the following series of articles, I will endeavor to shed some light on the importance of the numerous pillars upon which the success of a racing driver are built on, and thereby separating the grain from chaff.

Stay tuned for part 2 soon here on autoarabia.org

Alhussein El Shennawy

16.06.2011