Recovery is just as important as training

Once the season begins, trainers focus their attention on the drivers’ recovery.

Race days typically fall on Sunday, so Ricciardo told Insider he’ll rest on Mondays, do some light cycling on Tuesday, a little bit of core and neck strength on Wednesday, and then return to the track on Thursday. He added that self-care is an important part of his recovery.

Lewis Hamilton told GQ Magazine: “I do cryotherapy, I might do some pool work, and I make sure I get physio or acupuncture that day or just a steam room.”

The all-important neck muscles

Drivers and trainers told Insider one of the most important muscle groups for an F1 driver to keep strong is the neck because of the g-forces exerted on the body during turns, braking, and accelerating. The g-forces in racing can be as high as six times the force of gravity.

In a 2022 interview with the German magazine Sport Bild, the Haas driver Kevin Magnussen explained how painful it can be if a driver doesn’t strengthen his neck before the season.

“The pressure in the car is so great that the body only gets used to the forces while driving. When I learned a week before the opening race in Bahrain that I would race, I had to immediately start with fitness sessions,” he said. “After the first two races, I was hardly able to hold my head up.”

Cardio work is also needed to combat g-forces

The g-forces experienced by drivers also have a significant impact on breathing.

In a video produced by Scuderia AlphaTauri, the Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, who was with AlphaTauri at the time, explained how much the g-forces impact a driver’s ability to breathe, comparing it to a swimmer who spends much of a race with their face underwater.

“We spend, let’s say, 70% of the lap not breathing, in apnea,” Gasly said. “We can’t breathe in the car because the g-forces are so high when you brake, when you go through the corner, when you accelerate. You can’t breathe because you have too many forces on your body.”

Gasly and his then-teammate Yuki Tsunoda did endurance exercises and cardio work, such as running on a treadmill, to train the heart and lungs to be more efficient during the moments they can breathe during a race.

While the drivers undergo rigorous training, they must also ensure they don’t bulk up too much. After all, they’re cramming into condensed cockpits.

“These cars are built to be as compact as possible,” Albon told Insider. “The cars are designed not for 6-foot-2 athletes.”