The weight limits need changed.

[strad]

X...You handing me set lines trying to get me in trouble? ..not many ladies with that relation...HEHEHE

[Kiril Varbanov]

The min. weight definitely needs to be changed, so that blokes like me have their chances at F1!
I can offer an extreme challenge for the designers and lots of downforce - 1.85 cm, 87 kilograms, bad English, and a
passionate crossfit-er as well.
Honestly, I really do feel bad for professional sport players, having been one for some years. No, you can't eat that!

BTW, I ran a piece on the ballast in F1 and its characteristics: http://f1framework.blogspot.com/2013/10 ... in-f1.html

[JimClarkFan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24422038

Gary Anderson weighs in on the issue - sorry couldn't help it

[Hail22]

I know its a few days old..but when I read this, I thought to myself "If a man has to starve to race in a Formula 1 car, what would that do to his/her overall wellbeing 10, 20 or 30 years down the track"

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorsport/ ... 2uyfu.html

I'm no doctor, but his organs would be hurting him in the future as they need a set amount of nutrition / Kilojoules to sustain a healthy / functioning body / brain.

[Websta]

If Alonso goes to Mclaren there´s only one driver in the field that has no problem going alongside world champions.
They all say they will but when it really comes down to it it´s a different story.

So you don't actually consider Jenson Button to be a World Champion? Or do you think McLaren would drop Button to make way for Alonso?

I know its a few days old..but when I read this, I thought to myself "If a man has to starve to race in a Formula 1 car, what would that do to his/her overall wellbeing 10, 20 or 30 years down the track"

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorsport/ ... 2uyfu.html

I'm no doctor, but his organs would be hurting him in the future as they need a set amount of nutrition / Kilojoules to sustain a healthy / functioning body / brain.

You can't maintain the body that Webber has by starving yourself. What he is referring to is the fact that he limits himself to virtually no excess caloric intake to maintain a ludicrously low body fat total (probably around 3-4%, similar to Tour-de-France cyclists or triathletes). I suspect he means that he is 'starving' himself of excessive food or calorie-dense food (like ice cream, cake etc), and just restricts himself to the calories he requires a day. If he wasn't receiving adequate caloric intake, his body would be metabolising his skeletal muscles and he would be losing muscle mass. Last time I checked, he's still looks like he's cut out of granite like a Greek God of endurance:



Quite interesting to see which muscle groups the F1 drivers are working. Notice how he has very large arm and shoulder muscles, but his pecs are pretty small - an F1 driver won't need strong pecs, thus they don't exercise them (muscle is very heavy - 4x heavier than fat!). Also note that those aren't his ribs showing - they are his serratus anteriors (boxer's muscles):



He is in impeccable physical condition and will be reaping the benefits for many years. I'd have to revise the long-term side effects of ketogenic diets, but I am pretty sure there are no significant issues.

Long story short, these F1 drivers are not in any danger of affecting their health. They simply wouldn't be able to train and race if they were under-nourished.

[timbo]

Btw, has anyone ever seen a race-horse jockey more that 5'-3''? An outrageous injustice to tall people isn't it?

But horse racing is all about horses. More forus on driver's skills in F1.

[piast9]

As we can see there are two attitudes:
1) There's no equality in the world and drivers, teams etc should deal with it.
2) Since it is possible to bring the equality in F1 (at least in the driver weight term) let's bring it on.

Personally I am in the favour of the second option. I think that seat ballast idea is brilliant. It should be done in the way in which the COG of the driver-seat combination would be defined and the driver weight wouldn't be an issue.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Quite interesting to see which muscle groups the F1 drivers are working.

From the person who has helped Robert Kubica, I can tell: neck muscles at most. The starting program for a non-F1-trained-robot is 6 hours per day exercises.
A colleague TV host, who has had a chance at WSR 2.0 car and at Renault V10 F1 car said: the difference is sky and earth. On the third lap with the V10 monster your neck muscles are gone, if you push decently. If you don't push, there's no heat in both brakes and tires. And the aero doesn't work. You can't simply sustain the cornering G-forces.

[SectorOne]

So you don't actually consider Jenson Button to be a World Champion? Or do you think McLaren would drop Button to make way for Alonso?

Oh he´s definitely a world champ but i think he was more or less forced to go to Mclaren considering his WDC team basically was a one hit wonder at the time. In order to make sure his future is secured with a big team.
So similar to Ricciardo moving to Red Bull.

But if i think Button would switch to Ferrari or Red Bull and go alongside Kimi, Vettel or Alonso. I doubt it.

[JimClarkFan]

I know its a few days old..but when I read this, I thought to myself "If a man has to starve to race in a Formula 1 car, what would that do to his/her overall wellbeing 10, 20 or 30 years down the track"

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorsport/ ... 2uyfu.html

I'm no doctor, but his organs would be hurting him in the future as they need a set amount of nutrition / Kilojoules to sustain a healthy / functioning body / brain.

So long as he gets the right nutrition, and periods where he can eat he should be ok. However, he could suffer from brain fog, and a lack of energy amongst other things. Something lighter drivers would not have to worry about.

If Alonso goes to Mclaren there´s only one driver in the field that has no problem going alongside world champions.
They all say they will but when it really comes down to it it´s a different story.

So you don't actually consider Jenson Button to be a World Champion? Or do you think McLaren would drop Button to make way for Alonso?

You can't maintain the body that Webber has by starving yourself. What he is referring to is the fact that he limits himself to virtually no excess caloric intake to maintain a ludicrously low body fat total (probably around 3-4%, similar to Tour-de-France cyclists or triathletes). I suspect he means that he is 'starving' himself of excessive food or calorie-dense food (like ice cream, cake etc), and just restricts himself to the calories he requires a day. If he wasn't receiving adequate caloric intake, his body would be metabolising his skeletal muscles and he would be losing muscle mass. Last time I checked, he's still looks like he's cut out of granite like a Greek God of endurance:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lunfu ... o1_400.jpg

Quite interesting to see which muscle groups the F1 drivers are working. Notice how he has very large arm and shoulder muscles, but his pecs are pretty small - an F1 driver won't need strong pecs, thus they don't exercise them (muscle is very heavy - 4x heavier than fat!). Also note that those aren't his ribs showing - they are his serratus anteriors (boxer's muscles):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... terior.png

He is in impeccable physical condition and will be reaping the benefits for many years. I'd have to revise the long-term side effects of ketogenic diets, but I am pretty sure there are no significant issues.

Long story short, these F1 drivers are not in any danger of affecting their health. They simply wouldn't be able to train and race if they were under-nourished.

I've done bodybuilding for the past 9 years. Mark Webber is not muscular, he is also not 3-4% bodyfat. He is closer to 10-12%

At 3% bodyfat, which is not sustainable naturally, you can see every sinew in a person body. Even elite bodybuilders do not get down to that level. This is 3% bodyfat btw:
http://www.traindaly.com/wp-content/upl ... 71x300.png

I'm not saying Mark Webber is starving, but I am saying that I can believe that he is eating under what his body would normally need. I reckon he bulks up in the off season, and because he is on a calorie deficit shrinks during the course of the season.

[Websta]

I've done bodybuilding for the past 9 years. Mark Webber is not muscular, he is also not 3-4% bodyfat. He is closer to 10-12%

At 3% bodyfat, which is not sustainable naturally, you can see every sinew in a person body. Even elite bodybuilders do not get down to that level. This is 3% bodyfat btw:
http://www.traindaly.com/wp-content/upl ... 71x300.png

I'm not saying Mark Webber is starving, but I am saying that I can believe that he is eating under what his body would normally need. I reckon he bulks up in the off season, and because he is on a calorie deficit shrinks during the course of the season.

Mark Webber says in the linked article that he is about 6% body fat, so I was 2% off.

And having low body fat doesn't have any requirement to be extremely muscular as well. High endurance male athletes such as marathon runners have body fat between 5% and 8% typically (my 3-4% was a little off) and are not particularly muscular at all. I've heard of extreme athletes maintaining lower body fat totals as well, although you wouldn't want much lower than 3-4% depending on the person (essential body fat limit in men is between 2-4%).

True, some athletes do vary their body fat over an entire season by bulking and then leaning, so they may not sustain such a low amount over an entire season, but this variability is not extreme in endurance sports from what I remember in my undergrad.

[JimClarkFan]

I've done bodybuilding for the past 9 years. Mark Webber is not muscular, he is also not 3-4% bodyfat. He is closer to 10-12%

At 3% bodyfat, which is not sustainable naturally, you can see every sinew in a person body. Even elite bodybuilders do not get down to that level. This is 3% bodyfat btw:
http://www.traindaly.com/wp-content/upl ... 71x300.png

I'm not saying Mark Webber is starving, but I am saying that I can believe that he is eating under what his body would normally need. I reckon he bulks up in the off season, and because he is on a calorie deficit shrinks during the course of the season.

Mark Webber says in the linked article that he is about 6% body fat, so I was 2% off.

And having low body fat doesn't have any requirement to be extremely muscular as well. High endurance male athletes such as marathon runners have body fat between 5% and 8% typically (my 3-4% was a little off) and are not particularly muscular at all. I've heard of extreme athletes maintaining lower body fat totals as well, although you wouldn't want much lower than 3-4% depending on the person (essential body fat limit in men is between 2-4%).

True, some athletes do vary their body fat over an entire season by bulking and then leaning, so they may not sustain such a low amount over an entire season, but this variability is not extreme in endurance sports from what I remember in my undergrad.

I don't mean to come across as getting to you btw.

The picture I posted is of a muscular guy at 3%, every single vein and muscle belly is visible. Mark isn't even close to that level of leanness. From looking at Mark Webbers picture, I would be very surprised if he was even 6%, I am fairly certain he is closer to 10% - 12%. Having spent many years being around people who do bodybuilding, and from dieting down and bulking up myself, people more often than not get their bodyfat wrong. 6% is super lean. Having had single figure bodyfat once or twice, I can tell you I looked far leaner than mark looks in the picture above.

And being thin does not mean having a low bodyfat, what is not commonly known is that sprinters have a lower bodyfat than marathon runners. How do you tell a lean person? You can see every muscle belly, veins protruding at the surface and they look like they have thin skin. Mark doesn't really have that.

We have kind of got off topic haven't we.

[turbof1]

I know its a few days old..but when I read this, I thought to myself "If a man has to starve to race in a Formula 1 car, what would that do to his/her overall wellbeing 10, 20 or 30 years down the track"

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorsport/ ... 2uyfu.html

I'm no doctor, but his organs would be hurting him in the future as they need a set amount of nutrition / Kilojoules to sustain a healthy / functioning body / brain.

It depends. Fat is just another sort of fuel to power your body. You can suplement or even replace that.

The biggest issue for F1 drivers is the intake of proteins. Their training level is high enough, and fat will be burned down towards a constant level, but when your body is out of sufficient supplies of both fat and sugar, it starts using proteins as fuel, and it gets those out of muscles. Too little of those and you'll burn muscles down, too much and you'll build up muscles. Like Websta pointed out, muscles have 4 times the mass density of fat, so weights 4 times as much. That's a very tricky balance, because on the one hand you need enough muscle mass to cope with driving an F1 car, but on the other you need as less as you can get away with it.

Note that when you neglect protein intake to a point where your muscles are so much detoriated, that your body starts taking proteins from your organs, you simply can't drive a F1 car anymore. I don't even think you could last 2 laps in a car at that point. So organ damage never will be an issue.

Note also that F1 drivers train alot on energy efficiency. You don't need to have more muscle mass to be simply stronger; you can gain huge amounts without gaining a single kilogram of muscle. I for instance have kept the last year a constant body weight, 70kg, but gained out of my upper body around 38% more power, going from an average of 95W to 135W, taken over half a hour.

Like JimClarkfan also mentions, Webber isn't muscular. He looks well toned, and he does seem to have a broad skeleton frame, but his muscle mass isn't that huge. Now next year he quits. I think if he keeps training but starts eating more, he could gain huge amounts of muscle mass within as little as 2 months.

[Websta]

I don't mean to come across as getting to you btw.

Not at all, I think i was a bit too adverserial myself.

The picture I posted is of a muscular guy at 3%, every single vein and muscle belly is visible. Mark isn't even close to that level of leanness. From looking at Mark Webbers picture, I would be very surprised if he was even 6%, I am fairly certain he is closer to 10% - 12%. Having spent many years being around people who do bodybuilding, and from dieting down and bulking up myself, people more often than not get their bodyfat wrong. 6% is super lean. Having had single figure bodyfat once or twice, I can tell you I looked far leaner than mark looks in the picture above.

And being thin does not mean having a low bodyfat, what is not commonly known is that sprinters have a lower bodyfat than marathon runners. How do you tell a lean person? You can see every muscle belly, veins protruding at the surface and they look like they have thin skin. Mark doesn't really have that.

It's definitely not my area of expertise anymore, but wouldn't the 3% TBF body builder in the photo you posted have like 40-50kg (or maybe more?) of muscle, meaning that his 3% TBF is actually under-representative of his actual TBF (which would be a higher percentage if he had less muscle mass). That's what I probably should have said.

I can agree that Webber may have a higher TBF than he quoted, but then again I've seen Jenson Button also say he has 6%. If they are true to their words regarding their workout regimes and diets, then I would be a bit surprised if they weren't in single digits for their TBF. As you said though, you can't accurately tell if someone is lean from a photo.

[AnthonyG]

Mark Webber says in the linked article that he is about 6% body fat, so I was 2% off.

You were actually 33% off, that's quite a lot!


OT: I think no-one made the min weight regulation with super skinny drivers on their mind, so changing it isn't a biggie.
An error isn't a mistake if you correct it.