Max Verstappen and Lando Norris revealed how they stay healthy during intense triple headers and constant travel, with several fellow drivers hit with illness ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli and Valtteri Bottas were out of action for Media Day in Mexico recovering from illness, with both drivers expected to be back for the on-track action on Friday.
With the world champion-to-be being unwell going into the weekend he could secure his title, previous winners Max Verstappen and Lando Norris spoke about how they stay well and look after their physical health during triple headers which leave little time for rest and recovery between travel and racing.
“It is of course always quite tough on your body, like three weeks in a row. And yeah, sometimes you can get a little bit unlucky with whatever, a stomach bug,” Verstappen said.
“But it’s normally around this time of the year that not only drivers, but mechanics and people in the team get sick. Because your body can take of course a lot of stress. But at one point of course it also tells you when it needs a little recovery phase. And that’s something that you need to stay on top of.
“And some years it goes a bit better than others. I think you try to learn about it as well a little bit with the more seasons that you do. Sometimes some things are things that you can’t prevent but for sure it’s always very tough. And for me the toughest bit is of course that you can’t really go home in between back to the family. So yeah, that for me is of course nowadays something that I do not really enjoy about triple headers.”
Verstappen: “I really like to just not do anything”
When asked how he keeps track of how he is doing, such as using a fitness tracker, Verstappen replied that he doesn’t like to be tracked, and instead focuses on knowing what his body needs.
“I don’t like to be tracked, so I don’t wear anything. It’s more just knowing a bit what your body needs. One thing that it needs is good sleep. And for me also in between the race weekends I really like to just not do anything.
“Because you can go to the gym and you can work out a lot. But I feel like I’m race fit and fit enough when I’m driving the car. So for example on the Monday and Tuesday after Austin I really didn’t do much. So it’s just spending a bit of time just with myself, by myself. Speaking to people back at home. Organising of course stuff also outside of Formula 1. Things like that. But generally not too much crazy activity.”
“It drains you a lot” says Norris
Similar to Verstappen, Lando Norris highlighted rest as essential to looking after himself. He also emphasised the importance of his diet and not eating foods that could potentially make him feel unwell, saying he has been ill in Mexico in the past.
“I don’t know, I’m pretty simple so I try to avoid all the… I avoid funky foods, I stick to pasta and a bit of chicken every now and then. I don’t know, here I don’t have anything but tap water, I brush my teeth with a bottle of water, all that stuff. Simple things, because I’ve been ill here in the past, I know what it is, water, same in Brazil and things like that.
“I guess over time things become a bit more predictable, you know what to avoid and stuff. I think luckily because I’m quite fussy with my food, I avoid a lot of the stuff that can make me ill. But also just rest, I had Monday and Tuesday off just to myself, to not do anything.
“You don’t realise it but just days, even when you’re part of our job, when you do marketing days and stuff, it drains you a lot. I don’t have a lot of time to recover, even though it’s just talking and thinking about things all day.
“When you’re racing, when you’re travelling, you need a good rest, so just sleep, get into places on time. A lot of people travel out very late, I prefer travelling out very early to places. Everyone has their own way of doing things.”
Norris ‘not obsessive’ over health tracking
Whilst Verstappen doesn’t like to be tracked, Norris revealed quite the opposite. He admitted that using a fitness tracker is ‘an important thing’ for him and discussed how it helps him personally.
“No, but my trainer has access to my work. The fact that he has access means he sees everything. Basically, I’m able to have an ankle monitor on. He obviously can’t see where I go, but he can see how well I’m sleeping.
“Even in the past, here my HIV drops, heart rate goes up, all the little things. But again, you can use previous years of data to understand trends of if I’m falling ill, if my temperature’s high, all these different things.
“I use it for sleep normally to see how I’m sleeping and my recovery. If I need to nap during the day and stuff like that. But I also use it for health trends in terms of my recovery and how my body’s performing.
“It’s an important thing for me. I don’t obsess over it. Of course, I like to wake up and see green, which is rare. I also use it for sports. It’s a nice thing when you’ve done sports all day and you see calories burn and all those little things. They’re also positive things. It’s always nice for your mind to see that kind of stuff. Not obsessive, but it genuinely helps me, for sure, more than it doesn’t.”
Discussion about this post