Interesting facts about Formula One driver’s
We take a look at the demanding conditions of the sport that the drivers have to undergo as well as some other interesting facts about the drivers.
A jet fighter experiences a G Force of over 5G’s in a dogfight for about one and a half second. A Formula One driver experiences over 5G’s for about an hour in a race.
Prolonged and high exposure to such a high G Force and dehydration causes a driver to lose about 4 kg’s in weight and 600 kilocalories in every race.
Drivers have to drink a lot of water before and during the race to avoid dehydration which is caused by heat generated in the cockpits.
The drivers can lose approximately 2 to 3 litres of body fluids during a single race. It is extremely important to recover the lost fluids by increased water intake because 4% loss in body fluids can cause 40% loss in a person’s psycho-physical ability.
Formula One cockpit’s are installed with drinking water and mineral salts containers and are fitted with pipes for drivers to drink. Within a short while after the race start, the water starts boiling.
Formula One driver’s should be muscular enough to withstand the increase in the down-force of the car during a race.
Numbers are assigned to all F1 drivers. The World Champion from the previous season gets the number 1 paint on his car while his teammate is given the number 2 sticker. Number 13 is never assigned to any driver.
Formula One driver’s are very superstitious and they perform certain rituals before every race. David Coulthard used to wear his old lucky underwear during a majority of his races. Fernando Alonso sings before every race as revealed by his mechanics. On the other hand, Michael Schumacher has a lucky pendant without which he never drives.
Kimi Raikkonen’s favourite sports are hockey and car racing and according to him the reason he chose the latter over hockey is that he did not have to get up early in the morning.
As a test driver in 2002, Fernando Alonso used to entertain his mechanics and engineers by performing card tricks and magic tricks. He also used to cook for them.
Jenson Button once admitted that he was scared to drive the streets of Manila when he visited the Philippines in 2002.
Michael Schumacher is passionate about football and used to play for an amateur team near his home. Coincidentally, his coach's name was Patrick Ferrari. Moreover, Schumacher has a number of friends who play for Real Madrid which is why he has played a number of exhibition games for the team.
Michael Schumacher aided in designing the Enzo Ferrari car.
Kimi Raikkonen actually fell asleep at the grid during his first race for Sauber. He actually dreamt of something, but can't remember what it was.
In 1997, Michael Schumacher’s red Dekra caps cost 0.90 cents to make and were sold for $30 each. 5 million of his caps were sold in the year, generating a profit of over $145 million.
In Belgium 1998, Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine was asked before the qualifying about Ferrari’s chances of a good qualification in the rain and Irvine replied "God is with us". None of the Ferraris qualified since both of them crashed.
Fernando Alonso is fond of driving ordinary road cars instead of sports cars. At one occasion, he and Trulli were returning back to the Renault Headquarters after testing when Alonso’s car broke down. The two drivers decided to fix it themselves and barely managed to get it going. They had to drive at 10 km/h for the remainder of their journey. A trail of angry drivers behind them kept yelling at the two to get off the road.
At the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, Christian Klien’s Jaguar had a very expensive diamond embedded on its nose as the team were promoting the release of the Hollywood film “Oceans Twelve.” Klien crashed his car and the diamond was never recovered.
Enzo Ferrari used to drive for Alfa Romeo.
Ralf Schumacher’s wife Cora Schumacher used to be a p**n star and Ralf had to buy all her nude photos when they got together.
When asked why Rubens Barrichello named his son Alonso, he said it was to p**s of Michael Schumacher.
During one of the racing incidents Coulthard out-braked Schumacher and the German crashed into him. After the race both had a huge fight and Schumacher went after Coulthard with a fire extinguisher.
Alonso got his first kart when he was 3, his father actually bought it for his older sister but the sister didn’t want it so he got it instead. By the age of 7, Alonso was karting professionally.
Michael Schumacher could have ended up being a professional mechanic if he didn’t continue with his racing career.
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