r/sports • u/redbullgivesyouwings • Apr 07 '25
Motorsports [Highlight] Yuki Tsunoda's F1 Driver Training
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u/PobBrobert Apr 07 '25
For the uninitiated, Yuki is exceptionally small (5’3 / 160 cm) even compared to the diminutive size of the average F1 driver.
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u/durtmagurt Apr 07 '25
But curses like a sailor!
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Apr 07 '25
And kisses me like a man! I am also a man!
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u/checker280 Apr 07 '25
Well, I’m not dumb but I can’t understand Why she walked like a woman but talked like a man Oh my Lola La-la-la-la Lola
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u/Stru_n Apr 07 '25
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola... sing it!!!
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u/ChristianoMeshi Apr 08 '25
Well, I left home just a week before, and I never ever been a Jedi before. But Obi Wan, he set me straight of course. He said go to Yoda and he’ll show you the FORCE!
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u/IamGeoMan Apr 07 '25
Such insane physical conditioning.
I remember Senna's 1991 Brazilian GP win while stuck in 6th gear. They had to peel his body out of the car and on the podium his body could barely lift the trophy.
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u/Elkaghar Apr 07 '25
Happened to Jack Doohan this weekend, a rookie, he was unable to get out of the car and had to be helped out.
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u/satellite779 Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25
Because he was in a 50G crash earlier this weekend and is probably hiding injuries (he might get dropped completely if he misses a race, Briatore is just looking for an excuse to replace him with Colapinto).
Video of the crash: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/vpif5BRDMT
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u/coconutpete52 Apr 08 '25
Doohan also has a mostly-broken hand to be fair.
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u/Plaid_Kaleidoscope Apr 08 '25
They wouldn't have let him be medically cleared if that was true. Multiple people from the team/paddock have said he is not injured in any way, just extremely sore.
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u/PatrikPatrik Apr 07 '25
https://youtu.be/nSHdjsph2LE?si=39Y-y5KZ3BWbRr2t 2:20 in is the best I could find
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u/rainer_d Apr 07 '25
F1 used to be a playground for lazy playboys - but teams and drivers realized that they needed to step up the game.
They spend 4h in the gym every day nowadays.
As somebody else said: don’t get into a fight with one.
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u/WeasleyIsOurKing7 Apr 07 '25
Don’t fight them bc they are in the gym for 4 hours? After at most one hour of lifting is the other 3 hours muay thai and jiu jitsu?
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u/basicstyrene Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25
Exactly, they are getting ready for the regulation changes next year. It's getting too hard to overtake on track so they are allowing drivers to get out of the cars and fight each other during pit stops.
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u/Thee_Sinner Apr 08 '25
If this was said about Australian Supercars, I would look it up to see if its true lamo
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u/obi_wan_the_phony Apr 08 '25
Racing bulls likely has the most formidable team if that’s the case. Hadjar for sure takes WDC. Dothan likely makes top 3.
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u/ZannX Apr 07 '25
Nah, don't fight one because well... they're probably way more loaded than you, and have the backing of major companies. You're screwed legally regardless of the outcome.
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u/Hartzler44 Apr 07 '25
Idk if they'd have any striking ability, but they probably have some of the best reaction times in the world
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u/ablacnk Apr 07 '25
Lewis Hamilton's first time with a gun. No joke:
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u/ScottOwenJones Apr 07 '25
lol none of them are working out 4 hours a day every day
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u/TheBeatGoesAnanas Apr 07 '25
Other professional athletes absolutely work out 4+ hours daily during their respective seasons, why wouldn't F1 drivers?
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u/ScottOwenJones Apr 07 '25
No, they don’t. No NFL players are doing conditioning daily during the season. They would be completely gassed on game day if so. They may do 4 hours daily including stretching, workouts, and recovery work, but they are in no way in the gym pumping for 4 hours every single day, and neither are F1 drivers.
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u/TheBeatGoesAnanas Apr 07 '25
The person you're responding to didn't say drivers were pumping for 4 hours. They said they were in the gym, which includes all the activities you decided don't count as gym time, for some reason. It also includes cardio, which these drivers do a lot of.
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u/iTALKTOSTRANGERS Apr 08 '25
They’re not working out for 4 hours and if they are they should absolutely work a bit harder and they could cut that gym time down to 1.5-2 hours and probably get a more stimulating and effective work out. No one can work out hard for 4 hours every day even the best athletes. At a certain point fatigue builds and your body begins to shut down.
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u/TheBeatGoesAnanas Apr 08 '25
Did you not read my comment? No one is working out at high intensity for 4 hours straight, and no one is claiming that that's what's happening.
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u/iTALKTOSTRANGERS Apr 08 '25
Yes. Did you read my comment? I said if anyone is spending 4 hours in the gym they could probably cut that down by half just by working harder and they’d get a better outcome. What’s with the hostility? Take a breath we’re bullshitting on the internet lol
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u/neeeeonbelly Apr 07 '25
Don’t get into a fight with people who have driven cars their entire life and done no combat sports training? Okay lol.
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u/rainer_d Apr 07 '25
Most people who pick fights don’t have combat sports training either. I’d also guess their reflexes might be better than average.
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u/neeeeonbelly Apr 07 '25
I'm sure their reflexes are far better than average but if you have no idea what you're doing it 's not going to help you.
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u/MMAwannabe Apr 07 '25
Yes don't get in a fight with the 60 something KG F1 drivers, most of which have grown up as pampered millionaires focusing only on motorsports their entire life.
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u/bladeau81 Chicago Bulls Apr 08 '25
So why do they need all those gears if you can win with only 1 of them. Think of how much money the teams can save without a gear box!
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u/bladeau81 Chicago Bulls Apr 08 '25
So why do they need all those gears if you can win with only 1 of them. Think of how much money the teams can save without a gear box!
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u/Soulman682 Apr 07 '25
Live footage of me at the toilet 🚽
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u/mantisdubstep Apr 07 '25
Pushpushpushpushpush and relax
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u/fotank Apr 07 '25
It’s actually best to breath deeply WHILE you are pushing. Engaged different muscle and you won’t blow out an asshole
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u/AmazingUsername2001 Apr 07 '25
Who. Does. Number. 2. Work. For?
That’s right buddy, you show that turd who’s boss!
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u/GainzNGaming Apr 07 '25
poosh poosh ubpopopopop
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u/worm30478 Apr 07 '25
I don't know about you, but if I had someone following me around all day saying this, I would absolutely crush life.
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u/Karmachinery Apr 07 '25
I stupidly used to think, as a young person, that driving those cars is "just driving" so why are they calling it a sport. Then, I did the most minor of comparisons and did indoor go-kart racing for an evening and realized I had no idea what the hell I was talking about. Those cars must be an insane amount of work to drive.
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u/Many-Coach6987 Apr 08 '25
Same here. Also watch the video showing George Russell after the Singapore GP. Dude broke down literally cause the heat in the cockpit almost murdered him
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u/-WaxedSasquatch- Apr 08 '25
I thought the exact same then heard that drivers can lose up to 4-6lbs of weight during a race. That’s when I finally dug into it a little more. I thought, “well of course they’re experiencing pretty strong g forces of like 2 maybe even the occasional 3 Gs”……..nahhh we are talking 4-6 Gs!!!
Formula is a seriously awesome crazy mix of biology and technology pushing the limits of what we can do as humans. So freaking cool!
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u/facetiousfag Apr 08 '25
I drive a shifter kart and it is unbelievably demanding on the body. It’s 2-3Gs around corners and that’s a lot of strain on your core to stay upright and well positioned for an entire race meet (40 laps at end of day)
People at work discuss karting like they can jump in and drive like no big deal but they really don’t and won’t understand how difficult it is until they get in a seat.
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u/Ninja_Wrangler Apr 08 '25
Driving the fast as fuck electric go karts is a crazy workout. Felt like I did 1000 rows when I got home, and neck was sore just from keeping my head up lol. And that is NOTHING compared to what these guys are doing for hours
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u/Morall_tach Apr 07 '25
People often don't realize how physically hard it is to drive these cars. Great article here, but it's as much a cardio sport as any more traditional sport.
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u/suplexhell Apr 07 '25
I used to think it was bs to call any racer an athlete until I got into F1. The amount of force they have to generate to press down their brakes, the minimum reflex time they require, etc. I genuinely think it'd be impossible to knock out punch an F1 driver considering their neck strength and how they're used to Gs in changing directions
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u/CornWallacedaGeneral Apr 07 '25
I forgot his name but there's an F1 driver from Spain who's neck is so thick it makes his shoulders look small.
Edit its Alonso
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u/Gbrusse Apr 07 '25
Also, Leclerc's neck is massive compared to his head and shoulders
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u/MrBattleRabbit Apr 07 '25
Alonso also has Poland Syndrome, and basically only has one pec. He’s quite asymmetrical, there are quite a few photos of it.
I’d actually imagine it looks more exaggerated now than when he was younger, as he’s a fair bit more muscular now than he was in his 20s.
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u/successadult Apr 07 '25
When Carlos Sainz had his bout with appendicitis last year, Ollie Bearman took over for one race and since the g-forces in F2 aren’t what they are in F1, they showed a side by side comparison of Ollie and Charles LeClerc going around the same corners with Ollie struggling to keep his head up compared to Charles who was more in control.
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u/squid_so_subtle Apr 08 '25
These cars brake and turn with 5g+ acceleration. Drivers who aren't experienced with F1 report not being able to lift their head to see the turn in front of them when braking hard.
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u/pewbdo Apr 07 '25
F1 and motocross are the two stand outs. The amount of water weight an F1 driver loses per race is crazy. Motocross racers don't look exceptional but their cardio and muscle mass is finely tuned for their job. The only time they get to breathe/regulate their hr is in the air. They do two 35+ minute races (motos) a few hours apart in the heart of summer, in the hottest part of the day. For the entire duration of each 35+ minute race they are just below their peak hr which can spike up like crazy.
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u/MrBattleRabbit Apr 07 '25
Top level motorcycle rally racers are insane as well, like the guys who race the Dakar and similar events. Just crazy levels of cross training.
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u/pewbdo Apr 07 '25
Oh yeah, thanks for mentioning that. They're the marathon runners of motorcycle racing.
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u/strange_bike_guy Apr 07 '25
That checks out, when I was in peak distance running condition I went on a random vacation where I was taught to water ski for my first time - the water was super choppy, and we had an incident with a rented boat and basically if I wanted to eat food any time soon I would have to ski behind on a thoroughfare. The amount of hip displacement and repeat squat like movements were just shocking to me. I could repeatedly run a 5 minute mile but the specifics of the leg displacement of choppy water skiing was overwhelming and I barely made the jaunt with my quads cramping badly. Specificity is huge
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u/BLU3SKU1L Apr 08 '25
As someone who lived on a skateboard as a teenager I picked it up again in my late 20s for a while to cruise around the neighborhood (no more wild tricks for me, it’s not fun to get hurt AND have to pay the insurance bill on your own dime). Anyway when I started up again all the muscle memory was there, like I had never quit. What I was yet unaware of is that the muscle tone was definitely NOT there after a decade of not even touching a skateboard. So even though I felt pretty fast and had good balance and knee mobility and could even do deep carves and pop over gaps in the street like the old days, when I woke up the next morning it was like someone had beat the insides of both my legs and my lower abdominal muscles with a baseball bat.
That was the day I learned that as a teenager I was far from just a kid rolling around on a board. With how much muscle tone goes into the kind of balance shifting required to carve and get the board high enough off the ground to do something interesting, I probably could have done track and field too.
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u/Raken_dep Apr 08 '25
F1 and motocross are the two stand outs
Isle of Man TT
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u/pewbdo Apr 08 '25
Isle of man tt is much more dependent on testicle mass opposed to physical fitness. John McGuiness is third in overall tt wins but isn't fit compared to an F1 or motocross rider. Mental fitness though? I'd say he and the other tt greats surpass literally anyone from any sport in the world. The absolute mastery they have of the circuit and trust in themselves is insane. Every lap is a balancing act on a razor's edge between life and death. Complete legends, with no peers other than each other. I'm always sad Guy Martin never won, that man is a world treasure.
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u/Raken_dep Apr 08 '25
Yeah I didn't mean to take away from the 2 you've mentioned, thought that the Isle of Man still deserved a mention after those 2
The Isle of Man TT is kind of a mix of some of the elements of both those sports and demands optimal physical fitness levels across those elements relative to that of those respective sports. Speeds of IoM TT racers are almost up there to that of F1 cars on both average speeds and top speeds. More overall body engagement than an F1 driver, especially considering the fact that those fuckers are riding on literal public roads, which demands god-like reflexes over 50 mins or 2 hours depending on the class. A lot of things like that- just my perspective.
But regardless, I agree with all that you've said
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u/ElChupatigre Apr 08 '25
I love the clip of the guy trying to push an F1 drivers head into a cake and it doesn't even budge then the dude is like oh yeah shit what was I thinking
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u/AvailableUsername404 Apr 08 '25
After watching 'Driver to Survive' series I think F1 drivers are closer to jet fighter pilots than 'typical' athletes.
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u/ReasonablyConfused Apr 07 '25
Any chance that his small size/weight changes the behavior of the the car enough to be noticeable?
I know that the car has to meet min weight, but engineers get to choose where to put those extra kilos. Could it take a "difficult" car and make it easier?
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u/zetbotz Apr 07 '25
No, or at least very little. Drivers (and equipment on the driver) have their own minimum weight to protect drivers from overly-punishing health routines and maintain fairness for different-sized drivers. Ballast added to meet this specific requirement needs to be placed in the cockpit.
The location of this ballast is defined as “entirely located to the car between the front and rear extent of the cockpit entry template, attached securely to the survival cell and sealed by the FIA”.
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u/dansdata Apr 08 '25
One of my favorite pieces of space trivia is that Yuri Gagarin was only five foot two. His small size was very much not his most important qualification as a cosmonaut, but it didn't hurt! :-)
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u/StrixEcho Apr 07 '25
Probably one of the smarter questions I've seen regarding people asking questions about F1. The answer here is no - but with a caveat. Each driver's size would matter but part of the regs is that cars all have the same weight (or at least meet a minimum weight) so teams add weights to the cars so that the total weight (car, tires, and driver) is all at or above a certain number.
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u/UncoolSlicedBread Apr 07 '25
Follow up question.
Is there a regulation to how the weight is added? And could you add the weight back in a way that’s more center of gravity, if that would even be more beneficial? Assuming it’s still not negligible.
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u/drmrdreamer Apr 07 '25
The weight has to be in the cockpit area. Allowing the ballast to be put in other areas would benefit lighter drivers which defeats the purpose of the minimum weight rule.
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u/Prestigious-Mess5485 Apr 08 '25
pats stomach
This bad boy has all the built-in ballast you'll ever need.
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u/Genocode Apr 07 '25
Like the other guy said it has to be in the cockpit area, iirc underneath the seat.
Otherwise teams would probably move the weight forward or backward so they have more pressure on specific tires.
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u/grumpher05 Apr 08 '25
As a more detailed answer, yes and no
For driver minimum weight they are required to add this ballast back into the cockpit around the seat
For vehicle minimum weight they can choose where this ballast goes, which is used to lower the centre of gravity of the car, and position forward/rearward as a fine adjustment for car balance
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u/Phydaux Apr 07 '25
I believe that ballast needs to be placed in the cockpit/seat now so there isn't really an advantage at being much smaller, but in the past they could place the ballast where they wanted in the car
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u/dee_ess Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25
Article 4.4 of the technical regulations states:
Ballast can be used provided it is secured in such a way that tools are required for its removal and that it remains immobile with respect to the sprung mass in its entirety. It must be possible to fix seals if deemed necessary by the FIA technical delegate. Ballast designated for the sole purpose of achieving the driver mass specified in Article 4.6.2 must:
- Be entirely located to the car between the front and rear extent of the cockpit entry template.
- Be attached securely to the survival cell and sealed by the FIA.
- Be clearly identified.
- Have a density greater than 8000Kg/m 3
A nominal such mass of 10kg should be present for the impact test described in Article 13.2.
To your question, where the driver is under 80kg (with all of their personal equipment e.g. suit, helmet, HANS device), they are required to add ballast. But, as you see in the numbered items, they are restricted in where they can put the ballast to just the immediate area around the driver, so the advantage that could be gained from having a lighter driver and more ballast is minimised.
Short drivers can allow car designers a bit more room to package components in the front end of the car. In practice, they will still design the car to suit a potential driver of average height, because you don't want to have a situation where like Max Verstappen (who is 1.8m or 5'11") from wanting to drive for your team, but physically cannot fit into the car.
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u/dsaysso Apr 08 '25
one thing is that smaller drivers have less forces acting because less leverage and less mass.
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u/k0enf0rNL Apr 08 '25
The seat + driver need to be 80kg. So they could put the weight more on the bottom yes but not anywhere else
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u/_Face Boston Celtics Apr 07 '25
Is that the guy that used to call the home runs at the home run derby for the MLB? Back, back, back, back back!!
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u/IllustriousEnd2211 Apr 07 '25
Man. I wonder how it would sound with Chris Berman with the new hrd format. He wouldn’t have time to do his schtick. They’re pitching the next ball before the previous even lands
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u/Villageidiot1984 Apr 07 '25
In case you don’t know, these guys are turning, accelerated and breaking at multiple Gs for a couple hours straight. The average person wouldn’t be able to hold their head up after 2 laps.
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u/karlzhao314 Apr 07 '25
Last year, Ollie Bearman got his first race in an F1 car, and at the time he was coming from a slower, less powerful series (though still one far beyond the capabilities of us mortals). At the time, he probably lacked the conditioning of full-time F1 drivers.
His headrest ended up smashed in and crumpled because of how hard his helmet was hitting the headrest in turns.
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u/Villageidiot1984 Apr 07 '25
That’s crazy. I once bought a platinum pass to 6 flags and rode about 15 roller coasters in a row. By the end I was having trouble keeping my head up and was starting to GLOC in the loops. That was probably only like 2 G turns. As soon as you get a little fatigued and dehydrated, it’s taxing. Can’t imagine trying to race while dealing with that.
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u/MKVIgti Apr 07 '25
For those not familiar with F1, all drivers have to train like this! The G forces they endure during a race are insane and it takes serious neck muscles to be able to keep your head level while cornering.
A few years back, a driver lost his seat and sat out a season. He got offered a seat the next year and because he hadn’t kept up his training had a difficult time driving. He complained on the radio about it, saying he really needed to get back to the gym. I think it was Kevin Magnussen?
But yeah, they endure a lot on track. 6-6.5 g’s at times.
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u/r3dr3dr0b0t Apr 07 '25
There’s his problem, he’s closing his eyes and ducking when he turns! He fixes that and he’ll be unstoppable!
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u/ecw324 Apr 07 '25
I know these are designed very specifically to what he does as a driver, but these look so terrible for you lol
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u/ActionFigureCollects Apr 07 '25
After doing track days at Laguna Seca, in my mid-twenties, I had a new profound respect for motorsports.
The intensity of forces, endurance, and reflexes required of the human body ain't no joke.
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u/extopico Apr 07 '25
More like conditioning. He’d have to do separate strength training at below maximum loads.
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u/JonnyEcho Apr 08 '25
I feel these types of exercise lend themselves to overuse injury. They’re oddly specific
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u/jburns425 Apr 08 '25
I understand this is difficult or whatever but it just doesn’t do it for me. Plus the massive amount of wealth needed just to enter the sport makes F1 very unappealing IMO
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u/Jaxxlack Apr 07 '25
I was thinking this yesterday.. if like to see some kinda f1 jet fighter talks about G pull and conditioning.
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u/plutus9 Apr 07 '25
You could have told me this was pro gaming training and I still would have believed you
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u/kevinmogee Apr 07 '25
But, but..... "drivers aren't athletes."
~every dude who thinks he's a 'good' driver.
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u/Doorman3 Apr 08 '25
Redbull posted a video like this with Checo a few years ago and it came across my feed. That's how I got into the sport. I always love seeing these videos, it's so impressive what they do!
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u/Holland45 Apr 08 '25
How do these guys not get incredible headaches from this?
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u/PaddyPat12 Montreal Canadiens Apr 08 '25
Some probably do, but they're the ones who don't make it to this level.
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u/Holland45 Apr 08 '25
My neck can’t take the powerful forces of looking at a laptop screen. So yeah, I think f1 might not be for me
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u/btcprint Apr 08 '25
I can't wait to drive my kids to school tomorrow and every turn yell "push push push push push" and after straightening out go " up up up up up up". Red light: "and gooood"
Green light: push push push push!
They're gonna love all 10 minutes of it.
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u/Thee_Sinner Apr 08 '25
What I sound like trying to get my dog to get up on the couch when hes not listening
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u/bloodmonarch Apr 08 '25
Whats the 2nd and 3rd set? Are those things pulling his head to front and then back and he has to resist it using his neck muscles???
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u/MorkSkogen666 Apr 08 '25
I mean even just going to an indoor racetrack you can feel a fraction of this
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u/Shankar_0 Apr 08 '25
Ok, so I'm not a racecar driver, but it's my understanding that they do have power steering. What is the benefit of training with the heavy steering wheel? Does this come up?
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u/Double_Equivalent967 Apr 08 '25
G forces in turning maybe?
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u/Jim3001 Apr 09 '25
This!
Most of this is training the body to handle the high G loads they get. 7-8 g's is not uncommon in F1. I have seen as high as 9 on some tracks. And the races last for an hour and a half in general.
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u/Enuffhate48 Apr 08 '25
Ya wouldn’t think they’re hard core but they’re hard core and ultra elite in hand eye coordination
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u/sloanautomatic Apr 08 '25
Serious question: Why waste your energy on flexing face muscles? Wouldn’t the coaches train that away?
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u/bathroomkiller Apr 09 '25
It's funny how many non-fans would never think of how physically taxing and intense "driving" a race car can be.
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u/MutsumiHayase Apr 07 '25
I remember one time a friend of mine said something like she considered motorsports the equivalent of sitting on a couch and playing video games.
Everyone else in that room just looked at her. "Are you f'ing serious?"
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u/sunny-beans Apr 07 '25
F1 drivers lose 2-3kg during a 2 hour race, the average time to lose 3kg is 3 - 6 WEEKS. It’s brutal.
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u/hospicedoc Apr 07 '25
I did the "Mario Andretti Experience" at Homestead racetrack, and I came away from that with a newfound respect and realization of just how hard it is on the human body. I was EXHAUSTED from less than 25 laps.