Jake951

Read this Road and Track piece: http://blog.roadandtrack.com/dario-f...raking-part-1/. It certainly gave me a new appreciation for what it takes at the highest levels of the sport!

ep3_lol

Anyone who thinks otherwise should spend 15 minutes in 10+hp go karts that lack suspension and power steering. Just those will get to you real quick.

GuyIncognito

I spend a fair amount of time around top level drivers, and every single one of them is in excellent shape. I have friends that routinely do marathons, triathlons, etc and the drivers are in better shape than all of them.

tlarocque

Most of the high level drivers are in phenomenal shape and travel with trainers. I didn't read the whole article but I didn't see much mention of the incredibly high amount of sustained concentration that racing demands and that, in and of itself, sets it apart from almost every other sport.

95ONE

In order to FULLY understand this, go take a ride in an INDY car. Mario Andretti was just in Dallas giving rides in a tandem car. Other cars and instructors doing the same. After just 3 laps, you will know just how demanding that stuff really is. Air craft pilot kinda stuff. (almost)

winders

Elite athletes? That varies from driver to driver. Some are incredible athletes while others are not. The best are certainly in elite physical condition.

Elite physical condition ≠ Elite Athlete

Scott

95ONE

Well Scott, if you consider yourself under that heading, then you are completely correct.

I'm just being silly with a, "drive as fast as you can brother."
Kinda goes with the argument if Golf is actually a sport.

Yeah, I guess to be clear, there are too many types of driving to make such a general statement, but I think you can include Cart and Formula in that statement.

hacker-pschorr

Need to remember this is an athlete:

GuyIncognito

Tony Stewart plays football?!?!?!

hacker-pschorr

Big Stig!!!

multi21

Former baseball player and now TV commentator for ESPN John Kruc once was asked what it was like to be a professional athlete. He responded, "I'm not a professional athlete, I'm a baseball player". If you've ever seen John Kruc you know what I mean.

There are several F1 drivers that compete in Marathons when they have the time and Mark Webber does some extreme triatholon in the off season down under. Obviously the need to be in top physical shape when a car is doing lateral and negative 5Gs for 2 hours is mandatory in this series.

I remember a story when Kimi first came on the scene, he had done only 23 car races ever in his life as he was just a natural God given talent of a driver and did a test for Peter Sauber. Kimi pulled in after only 2 laps and said that he could not go on because his neck hurt from all the G loads. Jeff Gordon also said that he thought his neck was going to break off when he swapped cars with Montoya about 10 years ago in the BMW Sauber car.

mklaskin

I'm of the opinion that most of the top drivers in any discipline are top athletes. Granted, there are exceptions where a high level of natural talent can off-set the requirement to be in top physical shape, but for the most part, these guys deserve the credit.

Wearing three layes, plus a helmet, in 90 degree+ temps, with high humidity, all while maintaining total concentration for hours on end says quite a lot.

When was the last time a Formula 1/IndyCar/LeMans/ALMS/Grand-AM/WRC driver was caught taking performance-enhancing substances?

Okay, NHRA, maybe not as much...

racing916

Frank Biela I guess breaks the mold..

ubercooper

No sport (with the possible exception of soccer in Africa) has the extreme conditions of racing, especially in nomex. Take a look at the endurance training that F1 drivers go through and prepare to feel very out of shape

winders

Don't confuse elite conditioning with elite athleticism.....you don't have to be a elite athlete to be an elite race car driver and you don't have to be in elite condition to be an elite athlete.

Conditioning, driving skill, and athleticism are not directly related.

Scott