Sussing out the details

When an experienced and successful driver, such as Michael Schumacher, travels around a track – even one he’s driven many times before – he isn’t looking at how best to drive the track, he’s investigating any small changes that may have been made since last time he was here. He wants to know stuff like

• Where the protective barriers are placed
• How many layers of tyres are protecting key spots
• Whether the track surface has changed anywhere, and if it has, how the grip levels now compare to the grip levels before
• How deep the gravel traps are (some gravel traps literally beach the car if you go off into them, others can be driven gingerly across)
• Where the access roads for the rescue vehicles are. (These roads can double up as a useful route back onto the track if you go off.)
• Where the marshal posts are. (At each marshal post, a circuit worker is available on a motorcycle to give a driver a lift back to the pits should he need it.)

By observing key details of the track, experienced drivers gain important information that they can use to their advantage during the race. Take Michael Schumacher, for example. Few drivers equal his skill and knowledge of the various tracks, yet he doesn’t rest on his laurels. He susses out the details of each track he races on and uses these little details to hone his approach to the track. You’ll often see Schumacher in the practices pushing like crazy through specific corners, establishing where the absolute limit is. He can do this safe in the knowledge that he’s checked out the gravel trap and knows that, if he goes off, he’s not going to lose the rest of the session because his car got stuck there. He only pushes in this way on those corners where he knows he can rejoin the track.

Getting to Know the F1 Circuit

Most drivers are already familiar with all of the Formula One tracks but in each season there is always a handful of rookie drivers. These drivers may be familiar with some of the tracks – having raced on them during their time in the junior formulas on the way up to Formula One – but some of the circuits will be completely new to them. Furthermore, with new tracks being added to the calendar on a regular basis, even the experienced drivers sometimes have to learn their way around.
So how does a driver learn a track? The most obvious answer is by driving it. Far more is learned on a driver’s first lap out of the pits than from any other method. But drivers occasionally check out simulated Formula One computer games, which enable them to at least know which corner follows which as they make their way out on their first lap. But most drivers agree, as good as these games are, they aren’t a substitute for actually driving around the track because they don’t come close to giving the sensations necessary to get a feel for the track.
Another method of learning the track is to arrive early and walk it. Turn up at a Grand Prix venue the Wednesday before the race and you’ve a good chance of seeing drivers either walking, cycling, riding a motor cycle, or driving a hire car around the circuit. Not all drivers do this. The rookies usually do, of course, but even some of the experienced drivers do it too. Multiple world champion Michael Schumacher is renowned for his thorough preparation, and he invariably takes a trip around the place just to remind himself of its details.

The jet set

The really top Formula One drivers spend millions on their own private jets (Citations are a favourite). Drivers close to the top tend to lease the jets. Although a few drivers have pilots’ licences, none fly their own planes to and from races. Their schedules are already busy enough without the hassle of planning flights. Instead, these men use special agencies that supply a complete service, including pilots.
Flying to and from races used to be quite a popular pastime for Formula One drivers back in the 1970s and 1980s, but has since fallen out of favour as the drivers’ professional lives have become much busier.

Travelling to the Track in Style

Each team has up to 100 of its personnel attend the race meeting. Their methods of travel vary according to role and status – hey, Formula One teams don’t operate on socialist principles. Most of the mechanics travel by standard scheduled or specially chartered flights to the airport nearest the track. Typically, a team of scouts arrives a day or so early to organise hire cars and mini-buses that pick up team members from the airport. Senior engineers and commercial high-ups may travel business class – or even first class, along with the team boss. But then again, the team boss could well be travelling on board his own private jet. Most of the top drivers travel by private jet, too, but you do get the odd down-to-earth soul that insists on travelling commercially, Jaguar’s Mark Webber being the most notable. But then, he’s an Aussie and has little time for the trappings. At the venue, the drivers are given a road car to use. These cars come from the manufacturer the driver’s team is in partnership with. The McLaren drivers, therefore, drive around in Mercedes-Benz; the Ferrari drivers in Fiats or Lancias; the Renault drivers in Renaults; the Toyota drivers in Lexus’, and so on.
At some race locations, the journey from hotel to track may be too long or traffic-infested for the convenience of drivers or team bosses. In these cases, chartered helicopters are use instead of road cars. The top hotels these people stay in invariably have helipads, as do all the circuits.

Monaco – the Formula One drivers’ home

No single place is more associated with Formula One drivers than Monaco. Its glitzy reputation, with the famous harbour front and Casino, fits perfectly with the playboy reputation of racing drivers. So you probably won’t be surprised that almost half the grid lives there. Monaco offers more than just glamour, though. It is the home of many drivers for the following two reasons:
Most importantly, of course, Monaco lacks an income tax. Drivers can keep hold of as much of their wages as possible. The career of a Formula One driver is incredibly short and it is important they save as much as possible for their retirement.
The climate is great. The year-round good weather means that drivers can go out running and cycling every day – it’s definitely easier to get fresh air when the sky is blue and the sun is shining than when it’s pouring down and cold in London or Paris.

Home Is Where the Car Park Is

With a very hectic lifestyle and almost no time to themselves, it’s no wonder that racing drivers love their home comforts. Although the bigger name stars could demand that they stayed at the Presidential Suite of the best hotel nearest the track, some of them actually prefer to keep themselves confined to their own motorhomes.
Former world champions Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard both have their own motorhomes driven around Europe to all the Grands Prix. These aren’t your simple pop-up camper vans, of course. They’re full of all the luxuries that the drivers would have at their homes: big television screens, computer games consoles, stereos, and big beds. Some drivers’ motorhomes even include their own gym equipment so they can keep in shape if they get bored in the evenings or wake up too early in the mornings. The drivers don’t bring these motorhomes to show off; they simply want to make life as comfortable as possible. They don’t have to worry about checking into hotels; they don’t have to deal with noisy neighbours, and fans can be kept at a distance.

Getting a little relief from the heat

In some particularly hot races, like the Malaysian Grand Prix near the start of the season, drivers wear special water-cooled vests that offer some respite from the heat. In addition, the teams do everything they can to help the drivers. When the driver is in the pits or on the grid, he’s often given a special cooling fan to direct cold air into his face and into the cockpit. And Formula One drivers are often only too happy to have a pretty girl holding an umbrella over their car before the start of the race to keep the sun away. The drivers’ helmets are also designed to get as much cool air as possible to the driver. Each helmet features special cooling vents in the forehead and mouthpiece areas that the drivers can open or close depending on how comfortable they feel. Drivers also love to open their visors during pit stops to allow even more air in and may even not shut it completely when they are out on the track – although that is always a risky business because of the danger of debris flying into his helmet.
To keep the driver as hydrated as possible, in the cockpit is a water bottle that’s linked to a tube that leads to the drivers’ helmet. Formula One drivers have to be careful not to drink too much too early, however, because they could get thirsty in the closing stages of the race. Sometimes these water bottles have been known to break and either rattle around in the cockpit or empty out completely in the drivers’ face – causing him more problems than he already has to cope with.