Former F1 Driver Examines Physical Challenges of Racing

Martin Brundle, former F1 driver and TV pundit, investigates the physical effects of driving a Formula One car by undergoing a series of assessments at QinetiQ's human performance laboratories.

When I was in a Grand Prix car at Silverstone early in this year, it reminded me yet again just having credibly physical layout to drive. From the onboard cameras, it looks like the drive is it just easily turning the wheel and cruising along although we know that they are super fit. In commentary, I’ve struggled to express to you just how difficult this motor racing luck is. Well today, using a number of experiments, I’m going to show you the challenges they face. Formula One Drive is often had access to two physical trainers to help them work out when they’re at test, races and home. The teams will also have physiotherapist on hand. Today’s Formula One drivers are super fit athletes. Now, at 37, I’m not as fit as I used to be when I’m in racing but I’m not—so let’s find out what my base line is. This is a standard gym workout in a normal kit. My resting pulse is 58 and with a solid effort, it will go to 150, easy enough. Constantly driving with a high heart rate, it’s no surprise at all that driver’s cardiovascular system is impressively developed. In a very crammed environment, the heart and lung must pump blood and absorb oxygen in copious amounts. Breathing is surprisingly difficult in the aerodynamic void of the cockpit, especially as they must also wear a crash helmet. Leaving at the lungs and diaphragms is heavily restricted by the seat and seatbelts. Right now though, my body can breathe quite easily. Here, I’m working my cardiovascular system with my legs on the bike. At the driving though, it has developed specific exercises to build essential strength in their upper bodies where it’s most needed. A simple workout like this though, it was a sure representative of the real challenge. So that’s a workout but I am enjoying air conditioning and normal gym kit, that’s not the environment a Formula One driver works in. It just hits in the heat source and it’s completely closed. Let’s see how that feels. All over fireproof clothing, along with gloves, shoes and helmet are great for keeping flames out but also, keep the heat in. My pulse goes immediately to 192 and breathing is becoming very hard. The gym is now up to 50°C just like the cockpit of a Formula One car. My skin rises to 36° and I’m sweating profusely. This is seriously hard work. The cruel irony is that the muscles working hardest in this cramped environment have been done by full harness seatbelts which are so tight, they hurt. The neck protector is invaluable in a crash but as to the muscular challenges. —and you have a heart bursting combination. Okay. That was—there is no way I can do that for two hours when I blink. It’s a—we’re at the benefit of competition and adrenaline but there’s another more mysterious and invisible force that have to cope with. This amazing piece of equipment is called a centrifuge. It’s basic connected in their—they are going to apply g-force to my body so that I can explain to you just what it feels like. Let me tell you what g-force is in real terms. Imagine you’re driving really quickly through around the back and grandma sitting in the back slides from side to side across the car, she’s not going to impressed and it’s the g-force that is doing that but a Formula One car can achieve five g when cornering and breaking, that’s five times the force of gravity. Let’s see what that feels like. This centrifuge is going to apply force to my body as if I were accelerating, that’s 2g in a Formula One car and of course, the drivers have to accept that natural g to the corners and heavy braking g up to five and when you get to that kind of level, trying to push my arms away is a really special effect but I’m really going head side to side and mainly more of energy. I’m struggling to speed now. G-force so tough on your power and your energy affect your ability to breathe and may even affect your vision too. It’s no wonder the drivers have to be so tightly fitted in the car so they don’t move around. The cars are tailored to them like a suit and they’ve got drive the car, communicate with the pit, race with other cars too, all with the kind of forces going on inside the cockpit, absolutely amazing. G-force physically hurts and to experience and purified g without having to see about all the other things going on around you on track is an amazing amount of energy. Now, we understand more about the physical challenges the drivers face every corner of every lap. For our next feature, I’m going to drive the Williams-Toyota at Silverstone to see how all of these relate behind the wheel and on the track.