Fit for F1

For 2006, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are going to pool their resources when it come to making sure the drivers are fit enough to go the distance at a race weekend. With the Toro Rosso squad perceived as the rookie team, it makes sense for the drivers to go through the same training programme as their senior colleagues at Red Bull.

“We get a good understanding of the younger guys as they progress and if they do move from one team to the other, the transition on the fitness side should be as smooth as possible,” explains James Milligan who enjoys the godlike title of Head of Human Performance. “It is good to get the drivers together, at training camps for example, as both teams can benefit.”

The other benefits include economies of scale as a smaller team of fitness gurus can handle both sets of drivers. Nick Kitchen, is the trainer and sports therapist responsible for looking after the Scuderia Toro Rosso mob, Simon Fitchett is tasked with following David Coulthard all over the world, Milligan concentrates on Christian Klien and Robert Doornbos and all six drivers can call on the magical skills of Doctor of Chiropracty, Jerôme Poupel. “He concentrates on the neurological side and his programme fits into ours to complete the driver preparation picture,” says Milligan. “The beauty of this arrangement is that any one of us can help where we are needed at any time and I would describe our approach as very proactive in terms of preventing an injury from happening rather than waiting for it to happen and treating it.”

Getting training organised within a busy test programme can cause problems. “We had a training camp booked in December, but it got scrubbed as a test session was booked over it,” complains Milligan. “This is actually a cultural problem that we face, because Formula One is an engineering driven sport and naturally, the car and its performance are seen as the main priority. There is always a battle between engineering and human performance in any Formula One team I have been involved with. However, there is a shift and management are becoming aware of the benefits of having a fit team, not just the drivers, but the staff too. Fitness reduces absenteeism and has an effect on health-care policies. We are trying to put in place a programme at Red Bull Racing and there are plans to start off with a gym in Milton Keynes and include fitness testing facilities within that, which we hope will be up and running by the summer.”

There’s just three weeks to go until the first practice session for the opening round of the season and it’s not just the cars that will be going through last minute preparations. “All six drivers have some time together in Dubai before going to Bahrain which serves as a pre-season training camp and then we will have a further eight days together in Queensland, before going across to Melbourne for the third race,” says Milligan. “The first two races present a tough physical challenge because of the heat and humidity one can expect in Bahrain and Malaysia. In an ideal world you would break the drivers in gently with some cooler European races. Bahrain is not so bad, as it is a dry heat, but Malaysia is usually the toughest race of the season and with just a week in between these two, the drivers will not have been able to acclimatise to the humidity and there will be less time to adjust to the time difference. But I’m confident that all our drivers will be fine.”

If all this talk of fitness has prompted you to get in shape, please remember these rules if using a gym for the first time: Do not blow your nose in the water fountain. The containers on the cross-trainers are not ashtrays, they are for your water bottles. Please clean up after your dog if you have been exercising it on the treadmill. If you want to use the rowing machine, remember no life guards are on duty in the event of it sinking.