Formula 1 drivers travel the world, compete annually 24 times and must perform at a consistently high level. Keeping themselves in optimum condition is vital.
In order to operate at peak efficiency, these athletes work with a close-knit group of people, including performance coaches, who are primarily responsible for their well-being.
“The appreciation of them being athletes has moved on a lot, the sports science support is very high,” Tom Clark, the performance coach for Esteban Ocon of the Haas team, said in an interview.
“You’re looking at a time in the car similar to a half marathon, which is an endurance event, so you need to fuel highly from a calorie perspective. It wouldn’t be uncommon to need upwards of 3,000 calories a day.”
Grand Prix events involve three days of track activity, and this weekend’s event, around the bumpy streets of hot and humid Singapore, is among the most demanding. Nutrition and well-being are consequently vital.
“We’re lucky to have hospitality, with really good chefs, who provide us with the meal plans we need, and it’s energy-focused,” Patrick Harding, the performance coach for Alex Albon of Williams Racing, said in an interview. “We’ll supplement that with some recovery shakes, and we’ll aim for three liters of fluid a day and then an extra liter of water for what he’ll lose in the car, which tends to be at most 2 to 3 kilos.”
A stable diet is also important, as well as the timing of the meals. Ensuring the driver is a consistent weight, given how milliseconds can determine race results, is another consideration.
“If you look at our meal plans across the last five or six races, there’d be very little variation,” Harding said. “Pasta’s always a good shout and that’s good from an energy view. Alex loves Asian food naturally, so rice is a good win, and then we need some good lean protein, chicken or turkey, and any variation around that is good solid food that will sit well, and give him the energy he needs.
“We try and stay away from saturated fats, or fried food, and red meat. It is a little bit bland: chicken, tomato and pasta is his pre-race meal, but you don’t want to be chucking in a chicken jalfrezi just before a race!”
Consistent meals and routine may sound straightforward, but the nature of Formula 1’s complex global calendar has to be taken into consideration, with 21 countries on the 2025 schedule.
“Luckily, the kitchen has good suppliers,” Harding said. “We know there’s countries where certain types of foods are restricted, but if there are pastas or rice we can travel with then that’s easy, the kitchen stock up on that and they put it in freight. There’s obviously some stuff that doesn’t travel well, isn’t safe to travel. I’m not sure we want to be bringing a box of chicken around with us!”
That flexibility and adaptability is important.
“I remember in Azerbaijan in 2018 I wanted some blueberries,” Clark recalled. “But the team said ‘We’re really sorry but here blueberries cost about 20 euros a pack, so could you not be as liberal on those?’ Which is fine, and you swap them out, but I’ll always speak to the chefs and ask ‘What’s good here, what are you happy with the quality of?’”
Food will also be prepared in advance of long-haul flights — of which there are many across the latter stages of each season — to keep drivers’ bodies as stable as possible. Sometimes that is a necessity, because airline meal schedules are regularly incompatible with drivers’ timetables.
“We are now in a situation where we have flown most of the airlines, and we know where the good meals are going to be, or where we can think outside the box,” Clark said. “We do take food with us. I’ve cooked and brought us stuff to take.”
A global schedule means there is an appreciation of different cuisines through the course of the year, which brings with it both advantages and disadvantages.
“We have built up a repertoire of restaurants of what we like and we know the food and we trust it,” Harding said, adding “we like to explore — you can be quite sensible with the places you eat.”
The body’s inherent reaction and conditioning to different cuisines can also have an influence in food decisions.
“With different cultures, if it’s new food, say Mexico, you can go and have the best tacos, but my European belly isn’t necessarily going to be ready, even if the quality is amazing,” Clark said. “So we’d take a decision on do we know it’s going to sit well based on the exposure to that.”
Avoiding viruses is a priority, though Harding emphasized that “you can go to a restaurant in London and get food poisoning,” he said. There are some countries “where you’ll only use bottled water, even to brush your teeth,” he added.
It is not just the drivers who need to be tended to. Each Formula 1 team has up to 60 trackside personnel, often working long days during which they maintain the cars, undertake any repairs and carry out pit stops. In Singapore, that means erratic hours in sweltering conditions.
“It’s a big team, there’s pressure on the kitchen to supply food — and also to the guests — so it’s a compromise,” Harding said. “With the pit stops, we’re asking these mechanics to start seeing themselves as athletes, because they’re a key component of our race weekend from a strategy point of view.
“Providing them with the right kind of food so they can perform is important, given the hours, the travel, garage setup and pack down. It’s intense, so the better we can support them from a nutrition point of view the more likely we’ll have success in a pit stop.”
While there is an emphasis on a clean lifestyle, there are occasions when, despite the focus on a clean lifestyle, simply having sufficient energy in the system is needed
“Alex is a driver who, all he can think about is the car, driving, racing, performing, so nutrition can drift from his consciousness, so it is just about getting the calories in him,” Harding said. “If there’s a cheeky little dessert, Alex is a sucker for a tiramisu, I’ll say, ‘Just have one!’”
Harding also references Michael Phelps’s food intake at the 2012 Summer Olympics, when he was eating about 10,000 calories per day. “Maybe a purist would look at a food diary and say ‘that’s not optimal,’ but actually, when you’ve had four sessions across a race weekend, and the physical, emotional and mental load, and you’re going into the race on Sunday, you just want calories onboard. And having something that is not optimal nutritionally, then I’m OK with that — sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Just don’t let me see you have that bag of Haribo!’”
Once the physical exertion of the race has been completed, it’s the ideal time to relax a little.
“Esteban does have a particular fast-food chain he loves,” Clark said. “Usually after the race you also don’t have the same options. It’s the best time to have it!”
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