Balancing Fitness & Motorsport
Racing drivers juggle a lot just to get on track.
Finding and maintaining sponsors
Travelling to race meetings
Simulator practice
Team briefings
Sometimes a full-time job on top
But one responsibility is usually missing: training.
Training is a critical part of the sport. You need elite-level cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance to endure the physical and mental stressors of motorsport. The consequences of losing concentration or energy behind the wheel can have serious consequences.
If you don’t make time to train like a racing driver, I don’t blame you. Race seasons that span 7 to 10 months with races every 1 to 2 weeks leaves little time for motorsport athletes to make time to improve fitness.
But there is a way to balance the demands of life and motorsport while optimising your mind and body for performance.
Here’s why training is a critical part of your racing career, and how to realistically implement it in a sustainable, enjoyable way.
Why training is important for racing drivers
Training often gets pushed to the bottom of your priority list. It can be boring, and you don’t see immediate results like you do when you’re on a race track.
From an outside perspective, racing is easy. You can turn up to a race track and get started straight away, whether you’re 20kg overweight, or you never heard of a warm-up. All we do is sit down and push pedals, after all…
However, the best drivers in the world understand the importance of preparing their mind and body for racing. There’s good reason why all every Formula One drivers works with a dedicated performance coach to help them.
Your body takes a beating throughout a race, regardless of the category you compete in. And if you don’t prepare for the stressors that come with racing, you are letting the serious drivers pass you on both on track and in your racing career.
In IndyCar, steering wheel forces can reach 157 N (roughly 16kg) per turn. And brake pedal forces range from 600 to 1200 N (61kg to 122kg). Although this is a high-level example, it puts into perspective the significant strain on hand, arm, and leg muscles throughout a race.
These external stressors of motorsport prove that prioritising physical training becomes paramount for racing drivers to endure the rigorous demands of their sport and maintain optimal performance.
See the image below from Michael B Reid and J Timothy Lightfoot’s article in the ‘Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise’ journal to see each stressor visualised around Sebring International Raceway.
You now know why training is important for racing drivers, but that doesn’t stop the issue of finding time to commit to it. I mentioned earlier that there’s good reason why all 22 Formula One driver employ their own performance coaches. But not everyone has the resources to employ a performance coach to help them.
So here are 5 ways I’ve found to balance racing and training.
1 — Prioritise your health
If you’re not a healthy human, you’ll never be a successful athlete.
Physical fitness directly impacts your endurance, reaction times, and mental focus on the track. Treat your body like the high-performance machine it is, and prioritize your fitness accordingly.
2 — Manage your time with purpose
Time is your most valuable resource, and as a racing driver, your schedule is packed with races, sponsor commitments, and more. Try time blocking, where you allocate specific chunks of time for different activities. Use tools like Google Calendar to schedule your workouts, ensuring they become a non-negotiable part of your routine.
I live my life through my Google Calendar. If it isn’t in my calendar, I’ll never remember to do it.
3 — Train Like a Racing Driver, not a Bodybuilder
With the lack of specialised motorsport fitness training information available, it can be easy to settle on a generalised programme not built for you, or your sport.
Unfortunately, the loudest people in the fitness community are bodybuilders. You might follow a bodybuilding training programme without even knowing it, just because it seems to be the only option available.
This is a waste of time for racing drivers.
You need to train like a racing driver. This means programming around your race schedule, not optimising for muscle growth.
Some key areas to focus on in your training should be:
muscular endurance
neck strength
cardiovascular conditioning
heat tolerance
I wrote an article on this topic here.
This, like most things, is individual to you, so I cannot programme a generic “racing driver training programme” as that defeats the entire message of this article.
If you want help building a programme around your racing schedule, reply to this email.
4 — Get someone to do the hard work for you
Your focus should be on improving your driving skills and winning races, not on optimising your training. If you have the resources, hiring a coach or personal trainer to design your fitness programme can save you valuable time and mental energy.
A coach can tailor workouts to your specific needs, monitor your progress, and adjust your training schedule as necessary, allowing you to concentrate on what you do best.
5 — Make training fun
Above all, committing to your fitness shouldn’t feel like a chore; it should be something you look forward to.
Experiment with different types of workouts to find what excites you — whether it’s high-intensity interval training, circuit training, or even activities away from racing. You can’t scroll your social media feed in the off-season without seeing an f1 driver competing in another sport like golf, padel, or skiing.
Incorporating variety into your routine not only keeps things interesting but also targets different muscle groups and prevents burnout.
Start now
Motorsport is often treated as a technical sport.
But the drivers who last the longest and perform the most consistently treat themselves like athletes first.
If you want to race seriously, your training should reflect that.
