Formula 1 drivers need to weigh the same at every race. See inside their intense training regimen. (2024)

• Formula One drivers have a training regimen unlike anything else in sports.
• They must find the perfect balance between stamina, strength, and maintaining the right weight.
• F1 drivers and a trainer talk about what it takes to be a driver at the pinnacle of the sport.
• This article is part of "Behind the Wheel," a series about the highly competitive and high-tech world of Formula 1.

The seven-time world champion Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton returned from his summer break in August with a problem — he was over his target weight and had just five days to drop seven pounds.

"I ate so much food," Hamilton, who is a vegan, said in a press conference. "My weight has to be around 73, 74 kilos" — or around 162 pounds — "and I was almost 77 kilos on Saturday. I was like, 'Oh, God!' so I had to go on an extreme diet these past days."

F1 drivers need to stay at a precise weight while maintaining enough strength and endurance to drive a car around some of the toughest race tracks in the world at 200 miles per hour.

To better understand what it takes for these elite drivers to maintain their weight while staying strong, Insider spoke with two current F1 drivers and a longtime performance coach about the training required in formula racing's most prestigious stage.

Weight is a battle aimed at a specific target

Training as an F1 driver is about striking the perfect balance between competing forces. Drivers have to be strong, but they also need to be light. They need remarkable endurance and lightning-quick reflexes.

Carrying extra weight slows a car down, but there is a limit to how light drivers are allowed to be.

F1's minimum weight for drivers is about 176 pounds, but according to the sport's governing body, that includes the equipment they wear, which can weigh up to 15 pounds — so drivers are pushed to weigh even less.

To maximize speed, drivers are encouraged to land at or below 161 pounds. A single pound can mean a huge difference in races where teams constantly look to shave tenths-of-a-second off of lap times.

"Ten kilos of fuel in the car costs three-tenths of a second every circuit, per lap," Hamilton told Graham Norton in 2019. "So if I'm one kilo overweight, I can lose up to two seconds in the race distance. So my weight is very important."

Patrick Harding — a performance coach who has worked with drivers, Olympic athletes, and boxers — has been the trainer for Alex Albon, an F1 Williams Racing driver, for five years.

Harding told Insider that Albon's in-season weight consistently hovers between 160 and 162 pounds, depending primarily on his hydration level. His biggest concern is maintaining strength.

"Most of my concerns are when his weight drops below that 72.5 because then I know we're losing muscle mass," Harding said, referring to Albon's weight in kilograms.

During races, drivers can burn as many as 1,000 calories an hour. In the thick of the season, drivers are typically more concerned with keeping weight on, even for a taller driver like Albon, who's over 6 feet.

A 2-tiered approach to hitting weight targets starts in the offseason

Preparation for a new F1 season begins during the three-month break after races wrap up, starting in November.

Harding estimates he and Albon spend nearly two months during the offseason preparing for a season, which includes Albon putting on four to six pounds of muscle mass.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo previously told Insider that he trains six days a week in the preseason, with a mix of cardio and strength training.

"You don't need to be a triathlete or a bodybuilder, but you need just good all-around strength and conditioning," Ricciardo told Insider in 2021.

The weight requirements were even stricter before F1 raised the minimum weight in 2019.

Valtteri Bottas, an Alfa Romeo driver, said earlier this year that he believed he had developed an eating disorder earlier in his career to maintain a team-mandated weight of 150 pounds.

Recovery is just as important as training

Once the season begins, trainers focus their attention on the drivers' recovery.

Race days typically fall on Sunday, so Ricciardo told Insider he'll rest on Mondays, do some light cycling on Tuesday, a little bit of core and neck strength on Wednesday, and then return to the track on Thursday. He added that self-care is an important part of his recovery.

Lewis Hamilton told GQ Magazine: "I do cryotherapy, I might do some pool work, and I make sure I get physio or acupuncture that day or just a steam room."

The all-important neck muscles

Drivers and trainers told Insider one of the most important muscle groups for an F1 driver to keep strong is the neck because of the g-forces exerted on the body during turns, braking, and accelerating. The g-forces in racing can be as high as six times the force of gravity.

In a 2022 interview with the German magazine Sport Bild, the Haas driver Kevin Magnussen explained how painful it can be if a driver doesn't strengthen his neck before the season.

"The pressure in the car is so great that the body only gets used to the forces while driving. When I learned a week before the opening race in Bahrain that I would race, I had to immediately start with fitness sessions," he said. "After the first two races, I was hardly able to hold my head up."

Cardio work is also needed to combat g-forces

The g-forces experienced by drivers also have a significant impact on breathing.

In a video produced by Scuderia AlphaTauri, the Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, who was with AlphaTauri at the time, explained how much the g-forces impact a driver's ability to breathe, comparing it to a swimmer who spends much of a race with their face underwater.

"We spend, let's say, 70% of the lap not breathing, in apnea," Gasly said. "We can't breathe in the car because the g-forces are so high when you brake, when you go through the corner, when you accelerate. You can't breathe because you have too many forces on your body."

Gasly and his then-teammate Yuki Tsunoda did endurance exercises and cardio work, such as running on a treadmill, to train the heart and lungs to be more efficient during the moments they can breathe during a race.

While the drivers undergo rigorous training, they must also ensure they don't bulk up too much. After all, they're cramming into condensed co*ckpits.

"These cars are built to be as compact as possible," Albon told Insider. "The cars are designed not for 6-foot-2 athletes."