Let's get physio.

Phil Young and Achim Hofstadter are performance specialists. Not unusual in a speed-obsessed world like Formula One, where everyone is constantly working for more power, more pace and more traction. But unlike the majority in F1's fraternity, their field of expertise concentrates on human rather than automotive performance.

Young and Hofstadter are the respective physiotherapists for Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jenson Button and Takuma Sato. It's a full-time role that has become more and more crucial to the well being of today's F1 driver, on whom unbelievable physical stresses are placed. A physio is likely to spend more time with his charge than any other member of the driver's entourage and such is their importance, all drivers now employ the services of one of these specialists.

Q:
Phil, Achim, to both of you: what's your history and how did you get here?
Achim Hofstadter:
I worked in the World Rally Championship for the last five years working with the likes of Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, but Taku is the first F1 driver I have worked with. I did a test with him last year and that's how we got to know each other and towards the end of the season he asked me if I would be interested in working with him.
Phil Young:
Before Formula One I was involved with the British cycling team for three years, working with mainly the men and women's road endurance teams. I did World and European Championships, that sort of thing. Before all that though, I ran my own clinic. I've done the 'touring around Europe' thing before and got a good grasp on what it's like working away from home for long periods of time.

In 2000 I got a call out of the blue from the performance manager at Benetton who had heard about my work with cyclists and was asked along for an interview. I got the job, started working with Jenson and when he signed for B?A?R, he asked if I would go with him, so here I am.
Q:
Is there much difference between your previous sports and what you find in F1?
AH:
Not so much in mine really, because both are driver-based. One specific difference is the focus on building up the neck muscles, because the G-forces are much higher in F1 than in rally.
PY:
Obviously there are several differences from cycling; the main one is the development of the muscle groups in the legs. This isn't so important for an F1 driver, although cycling is an excellent cardiovascular exercise for any F1 driver.
Q:
And how about the athletes themselves. How does a Formula One driver stack up against other sportsmen in terms of fitness?
AH:
It's difficult to tell unless you can compare their data, but fitness is a very specific thing. Perhaps the fittest sportspeople are decathletes and cross country skiers, and an average F1 driver may be below that range. However, that doesn't mean to say that a decathlete would be specifically fit enough to drive a Formula One car. In truth it's easier and more accurate to compare the fitness of an F1 driver to that of a fighter pilot. They have more in common.
PY:
As Achim says, it's very difficult to stack one against the other because Formula One is a very specific sport. There's nothing really quite like it. If you look at a sprinter, they are completely different. If you get a sprinter, a marathon runner and a Formula One driver together, all three of them would be fit for their sport. But you couldn't really compare them. They've all got different goals and they all train differently just because a sprinter couldn't run a marathon doesn't make him less fit. It's very difficult to cross one sport with another. It's about specific fitness.
Q:
So what are your roles and responsibilities for your driver?
PY:
It's a general sort of caring role really. Your main priority is to make sure they are fit enough to be in the car and the maintenance you need to perform on the body so he can get into the car without too many problems. Most of the work is done on the soft tissue, muscular work and obviously the training side. Getting him physically fit to be able to get into the car and be able to withstand the rigors of the race.
AH:
It's as Phil says. Basically, I am Taku's physiotherapist so I'm working in that area and I also supervise his training. But we also look after the general well being of our drivers.
Q:
What sort of training do they like and dislike?
AH:
Well Taku doesn't like running! But we do different types of cardiovascular training and he already has a good base because he's been a cyclist in the past. Then, more specifically, we focus on the key areas like the neck, the lower back and core, stability. Cycling is his favourite, but he's into anything that is interesting and involves co-ordination, such as rock climbing. He doesn't like to do repetitive training such as the multi gym.
PY:
Jenson hates going to the gym even though he knows he has to do it. Basically he doesn't like training indoors. Anything that is outdoors he enjoys. We do a lot of canoeing, kayaking, hiking in hills, cycling, running, swimming. In the summer we do a sea swim rather than swim in a pool. We try and do as much outside as possible to make it as fun as possible. If it was dull, of course he'd do it, but he wouldn't enjoy it as much. You have to make any form of training as enjoyable as you can.
Q:
We are currently in the middle of a particularly hectic part of the year. How hard is it to maintain a regular fitness programme during the race season?
AH:
The problem is we can't really do any consistent training due to the tight schedule that they have. They finish the race on Sunday then they fly to test on Tuesday. It's equally important to give them time to rest and recover, particularly after long-haul flights, then do proper training when there's the time to do it.

It's more recovery training in the season, such as a bike ride or swimming or something like that. With normal training you get a certain fatigue and you don't want that on top of the race and then going into the next race.
Q:
So you work around the travel issues?
AH:
Yes, you have to. In between Australia and Malaysia we stayed on Langkawi island and did some acclimatisation training in the heat. We did several sessions of Nordic, walking up a mountain on Langkawi. That was excellent preparation for the heat and humidity expected for the race weekend. Depending on where we are, we try to use the situation for training as much as we can.
Q:
What are the specific fitness areas an F1 driver needs?
PY:
He has to be cardiovascularly fit, because in a typical race you are talking about an hour and a half of driving. It's not like a marathon runner where you are running at a certain pace and the pace would stay virtually the same throughout. In a race it's more like interval training - he is working through the corners more than on the straights where he can be more relaxed. A lot of people don't realise that when a driver is going at top speed along the straight, he is actually in a recovery phase, or at his most relaxed physically. The corners are when the heart rate will go up and also when he is fighting for position, defending or attacking another driver.

So you have to be cardiovascularly and aerobically fit without building body mass too much as he has to fit in the car! It's a delicate balance between weight and strength. If you lose too much weight then you can sometimes lose the strength.
Q:
Are F1 drivers much fitter than, say, ten years ago?
PY:
They are, but then the cars, in terms of the various forces put upon a driver, are much more demanding to drive. Another one of my roles at the end of the race is to go to the parc ferme to meet the driver and you do see varying types of tiredness. If you not eating properly or drinking properly prior to a race you could get caught out - especially in places like Malaysia - one or two drivers looked a bit worse for wear. You would never get away with what they got away with years ago now though that's for sure! Even from year-to-year there is a big difference - at some circuits we are lapping three seconds faster this year than we were last year, so that is an extra strain on the body.
Q:
Will there ever be a time when a driver's own levels of tolerance dictate how quick a car can go?
PY:
That's an interesting question. I suppose it probably will in the end. There must come a time in any sport where you assume you can't go any faster, but I'm sure technology would help out when it gets to a certain level in F1. But what it might mean is that we see drivers wearing pressurised suits like fighter pilots do to cope with the G forces put on them.
AH:
Theoretically of course that's possible. Technically they could easily build a car now that would be impossible to drive because of the physical demands on the driver.
But the question is, where is the ultimate level of driver fitness. I don't know the answer to that but drivers always manage to get fit enough to cope with the technical demands and with increased fitness technology who knows where it will end?


Feature courtesy of the BAR-Honda 'Lucky Tribe' media site.