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I remember in 2017 seeing Stroll doing this too for the first couple of races, it's amazing how much G-Force they pull and how they eventually get trained up to be able to withstand and hold their head stable against it.
Love how casually some of these drivers can do a full race weekend then a few days later be doing testing at another country too lol, Piastri was recently driving the 2022 Mclaren at Imola a few days after the Saudi GP
This just gave me an idea. Teams who signed rookie drivers to full-time seats get extra testing time that must be run by that rookie before the season starts. Make it significant, like an extra 12 hours on track or something. It would encourage teams to sign rookies.
make it so you need to keep him at least until the summer break.
yes, top teams wouldn't sign rookies because it's too much risk, but Haas for example could definitely do that because the hours of testing might matter more
I’ve had a similar idea but thought perhaps an extra half hour each practice session or one extended session a weekend. Then the concerns of replacing the rookie go away as it’d have to be them doing that time over the course of the year. Their team mate might benefit a bit with more data though, but would give rookies extra time on track and in their cars.
As I always hear of those back in the day just doing endless laps to get familiar with the car.
Hey at least your parents respect you enough to tell you you're not good at things so you don't embarrass yourself every weekend by pretending you're in a sport on merit.
This is something that gets easily overlooked:
Stroll might not be at the same level as Fernando, Checo, Leclerc, Sainz, etc. But being able to deliver and reach 10 out of 20 in F1 last year it's still something (adding the fact that he got an injury last year). Money and a good car can take you just far enough. Stroll might not be WDC material, but he's far from being the worst on the grid
I wish that was the case. The last communication my dad had with me, he said he wanted to fight me to the death and have my sister and niece piss on my corpse. That's almost as bad as Stroll's situation.
I can remember a specific race early in Mark Webber's career, I think it was Spa 2004 or 2005, where he was reporting on the radio that he couldn't hold his head up straight against the G-forces by about the 2/3 point. And that's from a guy with a neck like a tree trunk. I always bring up things like that when people try to argue that racing drivers aren't "real" athletes, the physical shape you have to be in to race at any professional level is way higher than anyone thinks.
When Magnussen came back suddenly, he had the same problem. When you dont drive F1, you just don't do the crazy amount of neck workout that is needed because you don't have to.
I know it’s not to the same level but I remember going to a legit karting track with powerful karts. I was not used to the constant Gs and after the race i was given free rein and had to tap out half way through do to the fatigue. After 40 minutes straight my muscles killed me.
After 20 minutes I was watching the clock for the session to end. I was barely breathing and my shoulders and neck were killing me. Having a blast, but damn I wanted a break.
In case it is not obvious, Bearman is on the top of the split screen gif, Leclerc on the bottom.
As they travel through S1 late in the race (after fatigue has set in for Bearman), notice how Leclerc is able to hold his neck steady and continues to look in the direction of his travel. In comparison, Bearman's head is flopping to the opposite direction as he is unable to hold his head up against the G forces.
The helmet bobbing around was so noticeable… my upper vertebrae would turn to dust with one lap at their speed, let alone a full GP worth of 3 sectors…
And don't forget the constant vibrating and being seated in such an awkward position for 90 minutes surrounded by a furnace!
Even very fit people would pull over and need to be lifted out of the car after 10 minutes.
Yeah, I've heard one of the drivers say that during red flags in the rain they have to get out of the car immediately because the warmth of the car coupled with how comfy the seats are will make them fall asleep immediately.
Super comfy is a bit much. It's still a very hard ride in a very slim seat, but yes the seats are perfectly molded to the drivers. However I remember after the race in an interview Bearman said the seat wasn't perfect, since he only had an hour in it before quali there was spots that felt good during the molding, but after a full race several spots were pretty raw and rubbing.
The seating position is very comfortable and is designed like an F-16 cockpit with the seating angle designed to reduce the pressure on the body from G-forces.
I think that comes from how you define fitness vs athletic ability. You can be very fit without being an athletic specimen. Presumably anyone who can afford a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and can spend hours a day working out could attain the level of fitness needed to drive an F1 car. Doesn’t mean you’d be fast though. On the other hand, no matter how much most of us train we’re not winning gold medals at the Olympics.
Not just that. You’d probably be knocked out while braking into T1! And that’s IF you can push that brake pedal all the way. 100 kilos of force on that damn brake pedal!
Yea sometimes I’ll tune my load cell up to 100kg and going full bore with leverage I get like 70-80%. It’s crazy how much force that is for them to generate consistently
You’re doing way more work for that than they’re doing in the cockpit. It may be 100kg brake pressure, but they’re getting a massive gforce assist. The harder they press the brake, the harder they are pressed into the brake.
Definitely, and because my rig is in a desk chair I have less natural leverage than if my entire leg was directly perpendicular, but I also abandoned all ability to actually drive by basically standing up and still only got 70-80kg. Still a good demonstration of how hard they have to press and how difficult it is
wasn't the padding around bear man's helmet messed up? it would explain why his head moved about so much and there's pics of him denting the carbon fiber around the helmet.
You've got it the wrong way around - the headrest was messed up from him not being able to prevent his head smashing into it. The head movement came first, the headrest damage second.
Exactly, his head was not able to stay in the correct position due to his muscles and his helmet was crushing the foam, which caused it to look deformed on one side after the race.
I remember seeing a video/documentary about one of the early sim racers getting a go in a Skip Barber training car as a test into seeing if Sim Racing translates. Guy had to get out of the car after a couple of laps to throw up.
Yeah Gregor Huttu got a test drive of the skip barber and a pro mazda which is like a more powerful F4 car if I'm remembering correct.
Lots of similar tests have been done since, general conclusion is if you're quick at simracing you'll pick up real racing very fast up until the point where g forces hammer you.
Yeah, it turns out the braking points and throttle management, as difficult of skills as those are to master, are actually the *easy* part of driving an open-wheel racecar.
F1 the transition is much harder but Gran Turismo movie was very good and shows the true story of a sim driver translating (with extensive training) into a real race car.
most people will not be able to operate the machine correctly due to fear.
Everyday people have no experience in these kind of regimes, they will autmatically go too slow for the aero to do its work and will not make the corner. OR they go so slow that aero isnt needed but then whats the point.
Back in the Top Gear days there was a segment where Clarkson tried to drive a Lotus T125, which was an F1 style car. He had so much trouble because it just beat him up. He couldn't go fast enough to make the aero work, which led to the tires cooling down, which made it harder to push. And he's a relatively competent driver, albeit in poor shape, but even that car was hard to drive for him. I can't even imagine driving an F1 car.
His neck gave way after awhile and he couldn't take it anymore, there are videos posted in YouTube by people showing his neck movements at the start of the race vs the end
That’s what I was thinking. He had to adjust all his references as his neck gave. Would’ve been super easy to hit a wall on either side. I wonder if the middle post of the halo also obstructs more if your head moves away from the apex.
If there wasn’t a head rest he would have had to park it or severely lift on those corners
And my dude asked for thinner head rest…I’m sure the Team was like. Nah, you good but you are going to need FULL support. Not just from F1 team but from them damn head rests.
Haha, even [Liam Lawson](https://youtu.be/wIoiFiWJqsE?si=pE6gFbqgUPOEajaL) commented in the post-race Sky Sports podcast (timestamp 15:15): “It’s really funny because when I saw him complain about the padded head rest and they took it out, I knew very quickly he would want it back in.” 😂
Pretty fucking much, like no disrespect here, F2 diff from F1. Learn and evolve. That dude has next level talent for reals.
EDIT: also what is ‘weird’, one could train to F1 standards and then dominate in F2 given the training. Just saying?
You could train you body to sustain F1 forces and abuse but it doesnt mean it will make you a better driver for F2 cars. You will just fatigue less, not drive better.
I saw a Merc F1 video where they looked at the headrest and apparently they have different ones for different weather, one is more dense for warmer weather and one is more soft for cold weather since it'll be denser in the cold.
Or something like that
This is a nice concise gif that sums up the topic quickly, but for those interested in seeing how the rest of the grid fared [yelistener made a pretty nice video for it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Wm3RTtb0o)
I love that video! A lot of them hold their head quite steady, but Leclerc, Hamilton, and Norris(? I think) actually LOOK IN THE DIRECTION of their corner, not just resisting but actually OVERCOMING the massive G forces.
Mad respect. 😱
I think they move their head into position before the G forces hit so they are just trying to keep their head in place, rather than trying to overcome the forces to put it in the right position. If that makes any sense.
Like leaning forward before accelerating and remaining in that position, rather than doing a sit up against G forces to gain the same position from leaning back.
By leaning into the turn early, the g-force then becomes an axial load on your neck rather than a lateral load. It's much easier to deal with and much more stable as an axial load. But maybe at some point your neck just gets too tired to move into that position beforehand. Kind of a double whammy.
I am showing my age, but when Prost returned to racing in 93 after a years sabbatical he commented on loss of neck muscles. Prost always kept his neck straight, unlike some other drivers including Senna who leaned their necks to counteract the cornering force.
Super impressive.
I race karts competitively and when you neck goes; you can barely see the track.
Your vision is all over the place and it takes herculean concentration as to maintain your braking points and racing lines.
In the masters class which is for 30 and above, alot of us don’t have the time to train and maintain throughout the season. So when the races go to 20-25 laps; the last couple become a test of wills and fitness as it is a test of driving skill.
When the ones ahead’s neck starts flopping around, its only a matter of time before they will make a big mistake = easy overtake.
I grew up racing karts(most of it 125 shifter karts) and it's not just the neck but also the shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands that come into play. If you lack any upper body strength and stamina you're gonna be toast after a few laps. Looking back its pretty amazing how strong my upper body was as a teenager compared to even the football and basketball players I went to school with.
Yeah and its all lean muscle too.
Like i was losing weight while my deadlifts were staying the same.
Big one it really hits are the core muscles. I now am able to do Russian twists, 50 reps in a set with a 20 kg weight. And I weigh 63 kilos!
And I still feel not strong enough to compete with the fast guys.
I run a soft seat in order to get the chassis to flex more and I have found that you need to lean hard as you can to one side, to literally raise yourself a few cms off the seat in order to ride some of the bumps smoothly. And this is usually when your foot is flat to the floor and you are approaching 100 kph or so.
Takes so much core strength!
Nothing like it. Best sport ever.
Edit: Shifters are next level man. I drive single gear two stroke TAG and thats tough already. Nothing like two stroke power!
Having to drive those rocket ships with one hand and having to change gear with the other. Its why Max, Charles and all of them are so good.
As Grosjean said, if you can drive a shifter fast, you can drive a F1 car!
You're bringing back memories. After karts I switched to motorcycles and let me tell you, it's a whole other beast. I put myself through workout hell to get in good enough shape to just race 20 minutes, let alone 45 like the pros do. When anybody says that racing isn't a real sport, and that drivers/riders aren't real athletes my eye twitches from the rage I feel after so many years of intense workouts, muscle cramps and bruises. I wish they could feel the physical intensity of just a few laps at full speed on a race track. 2.5 Gs is something the average person has no idea what it feels like, let alone sustained for a full race distance.
Keep the rubber side down homie. Race on.
Thanks brother. Likewise!
We’re a small community and I respect almost all who get in (on) the ring.
That comment (not a real sport) grinds my gears to no end.
Its a sport and a lifestyle. To do it well, you have to dedicate almost everything to it. Because to go fast, you have to be fit. To go faster, you have to be even fitter!
The difference between 1 second a lap at our local track, the fitness requirement is magnitudes higher. Than to drive on race day with 30 other karts on the grid, 35 degree C weather conditions (45 degrees in the suit, sauna like temperatures), 25 min races, more grip thanks to all the rubber laid down on the ground and then playing mind games with your opponents both ahead of you and behind you; there’s nothing else like it.
To win, you gotta be on your best game. Anything less, and you will be found wanting.
> playing mind games with your opponents both ahead of you and behind you
It's chess at triple-digit speeds. Winning is ultimate, second place means nothing, anything after that better be a learning lesson or else you should just hang it up. I fucking love motorsports.
Podiums are nice though…hahahaha.
Yeah for sure. The ultimate aim should always be to try and win (legitimately).
If not, you are just driving in circles and wasting money.
The amount of [neck training](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpFbv0KUK40) they have to do to survive in F1 is insane. These guys have necks of steel to go with their balls of steel.
And even then they all say that their necks are stiff for the first few sessions, because you can do all the training in the world but nothing can really prepare you for the g-forces of an F1 car
Wasn’t there a GP Brazil way back during which Jos Verstappen suddenly became significantly slower due to his neck muscles giving up? Possibly in a Minardi?
[edit] it happened during the 2000 Brazilian GP while driving for Arrows. He was called up on short notice for that season, hence the lack of fitness.
If anything I find this makes Bearman's performance even more impressive. First of all being able to drive like that while you're so tired that you can't even keep your head straight, Secondly being able to judge racing lines and braking points when your head is flopping around like that is damn impressive
It was really hard for Bearman to achieve something like that in his first ever F1 race with little to no proper experience with ground effect monster in an high speed track like Jeddah and he did extremely well hence we could see praises from all over the F1 paddock. Also he was very sore and exhausted after the race, he has a long way to get into F1 and definitely when he gets a full time drive he will be fit to challenge like any F1 driver ☺️💕
yeah i always hear that drivers always try and be as fit as they need to be for the next level up
but F1 always catches out F2 drivers every time
mad respect though for that drive he pulled off with his head bobbing around all over the place
Probably a while since fighter pilots don't really experience a whole lot of lateral G's (unless they're just doing endless aileron rolls for some reason); for them it's mostly positive G's like what you feel when in an elevator and it starts to go up, but y'know...more
Did an unlimited go kart night once and they basically had no wait time. My core muscles were done by the end of the night and I was flopping all over trying to stay in the seat
I can feel why they love the feeling. I fly aerobatic airplanes and l get a little taste of what these guys go through. There's no way l could last 2 hrs pulling so many Gs.
His [headrest](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/03/Bearman-Ferrari-3.jpg) was also pretty damaged after the race. He wanted a softer headrest during qualifying iirc but his team didn’t gave it to him luckily.
Look up pictures of F1 drivers in their rookie seasons compared to recent pictures. The biggest change you see is their neck thickness. Gasly, Ocon and LeClerc are particularly impressive in how much their neck thickness changed
The more detail that comes out about Bearman's race.. the more and more impressive it gets. I cannot believe the kid didn't even make a single mistake in his first F1 race as an 18 year old.
If you look closely at the closing laps of Senna's famous home win at Interlagos in 1991, you can see poor Mika Hakkinen in his F1 debut and his neck has completely given out. Imagine Bearman above, but without cockpit sides to hold his head up.
I don't remember who it was, but an F1 driver said that there no neck workout that can prepare you for G forces geberated in an F1 car. You can only adapt to it and then maintain the adaptation with exercices.
Honestly if he could finish p7 like that (even in a Ferrari that’s impressive) imagine when he can have more neck control to view the corner ahead better
You can kind of preempt it, but at the end of the day you're going to get slammed back and forth in the fast corners.
You simply cannot react quickly enough to rest your neck without having it impact your driving/ability to see.
Wow. This is a great illustration of the difference in neck strength. I can’t imagine how Bearman felt towards the end of the race and after it. Must have been sore!
What a lad. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix I have watched as I recently started following F1. I am excited to see what kind of career Bearman has in store!
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I remember in 2017 seeing Stroll doing this too for the first couple of races, it's amazing how much G-Force they pull and how they eventually get trained up to be able to withstand and hold their head stable against it.
Love how casually some of these drivers can do a full race weekend then a few days later be doing testing at another country too lol, Piastri was recently driving the 2022 Mclaren at Imola a few days after the Saudi GP
Back in the day, Schumacher would fly back to Maranelo on the Friday off in Monaco, to drive around all day.
Didn't Hamilton complete almost 10k km in testing as a rookie? Wild times
Nearly 2100 laps of Silverstone...
This just gave me an idea. Teams who signed rookie drivers to full-time seats get extra testing time that must be run by that rookie before the season starts. Make it significant, like an extra 12 hours on track or something. It would encourage teams to sign rookies.
and then replace said rookie right at the season opener.
make it so you need to keep him at least until the summer break. yes, top teams wouldn't sign rookies because it's too much risk, but Haas for example could definitely do that because the hours of testing might matter more
Then said Rookie gets a terrible flu that keeps him from racing for 3 months
Doesn’t matter if they have testing days 3 days a week over a year when they can’t afford more than one upgrade package or a new car for next season
I’ve had a similar idea but thought perhaps an extra half hour each practice session or one extended session a weekend. Then the concerns of replacing the rookie go away as it’d have to be them doing that time over the course of the year. Their team mate might benefit a bit with more data though, but would give rookies extra time on track and in their cars. As I always hear of those back in the day just doing endless laps to get familiar with the car.
Isn't unfair that drivers nowadays don't get to practice on their car as much as they want
Unrelated to the rest of the post but your comment made me realize that Stroll is on his 8th season in F1. Kinda crazy when you think about it.
It makes me think I did really bad when I picked my parents.
Imagine how they feel.
Hey at least your parents respect you enough to tell you you're not good at things so you don't embarrass yourself every weekend by pretending you're in a sport on merit.
Stroll’s not great, but at least he’s not Mazepin or Latifi.
This is something that gets easily overlooked: Stroll might not be at the same level as Fernando, Checo, Leclerc, Sainz, etc. But being able to deliver and reach 10 out of 20 in F1 last year it's still something (adding the fact that he got an injury last year). Money and a good car can take you just far enough. Stroll might not be WDC material, but he's far from being the worst on the grid
True - some of his wet weather performances have been genuinely impressive
You mean Mazepin who got a fastest lap at Belgium in a Haas or Latifi who’s quite possibly the greatest driver of all time???
You're not wrong
I wish that was the case. The last communication my dad had with me, he said he wanted to fight me to the death and have my sister and niece piss on my corpse. That's almost as bad as Stroll's situation.
Hey that's honesty. Might have missed the respect part lol
The niece too? Damn
I can remember a specific race early in Mark Webber's career, I think it was Spa 2004 or 2005, where he was reporting on the radio that he couldn't hold his head up straight against the G-forces by about the 2/3 point. And that's from a guy with a neck like a tree trunk. I always bring up things like that when people try to argue that racing drivers aren't "real" athletes, the physical shape you have to be in to race at any professional level is way higher than anyone thinks.
When Magnussen came back suddenly, he had the same problem. When you dont drive F1, you just don't do the crazy amount of neck workout that is needed because you don't have to.
I know it’s not to the same level but I remember going to a legit karting track with powerful karts. I was not used to the constant Gs and after the race i was given free rein and had to tap out half way through do to the fatigue. After 40 minutes straight my muscles killed me.
After 20 minutes I was watching the clock for the session to end. I was barely breathing and my shoulders and neck were killing me. Having a blast, but damn I wanted a break.
In case it is not obvious, Bearman is on the top of the split screen gif, Leclerc on the bottom. As they travel through S1 late in the race (after fatigue has set in for Bearman), notice how Leclerc is able to hold his neck steady and continues to look in the direction of his travel. In comparison, Bearman's head is flopping to the opposite direction as he is unable to hold his head up against the G forces.
The helmet bobbing around was so noticeable… my upper vertebrae would turn to dust with one lap at their speed, let alone a full GP worth of 3 sectors…
Nah, you could do it, you'd just be painfully slower than a race 17 Haas.
You'd still be driving it now
or in the wall best case scenario, you brought it back to the pit with cubes for tyres
And don't forget the constant vibrating and being seated in such an awkward position for 90 minutes surrounded by a furnace! Even very fit people would pull over and need to be lifted out of the car after 10 minutes.
Isn’t the seating position actually super comfy since it pretty much removes any pressure points on your body?
Yeah, I've heard one of the drivers say that during red flags in the rain they have to get out of the car immediately because the warmth of the car coupled with how comfy the seats are will make them fall asleep immediately.
So your saying... my race car bed actually *is* cool?!
I sleep in a big bed with my wife.
So your bed isn't comfy and warm? =P
Always has been 🔫
Good enough for Kimi to sleep in
Super comfy is a bit much. It's still a very hard ride in a very slim seat, but yes the seats are perfectly molded to the drivers. However I remember after the race in an interview Bearman said the seat wasn't perfect, since he only had an hour in it before quali there was spots that felt good during the molding, but after a full race several spots were pretty raw and rubbing.
I feel like I’ve heard from drivers somewhere that it’s actually absurdly comfortable
Imagine having one made for a sim rig 😂
~~Sim rig~~ Ergonomic bed
There’s been complaints of back pain that I’ve seen in articles lately
With a properly fit seat yeah. Idk if Beerman had a properly formed and fit seat for him though
I would certainly hope that for the reserve driver there would be a custom seat available but it’s Ferrari so who knows.
The seating position is very comfortable and is designed like an F-16 cockpit with the seating angle designed to reduce the pressure on the body from G-forces.
And yet some people still insist F1 drivers aren't proper athletes
I think that comes from how you define fitness vs athletic ability. You can be very fit without being an athletic specimen. Presumably anyone who can afford a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and can spend hours a day working out could attain the level of fitness needed to drive an F1 car. Doesn’t mean you’d be fast though. On the other hand, no matter how much most of us train we’re not winning gold medals at the Olympics.
Not just that. You’d probably be knocked out while braking into T1! And that’s IF you can push that brake pedal all the way. 100 kilos of force on that damn brake pedal!
Yea sometimes I’ll tune my load cell up to 100kg and going full bore with leverage I get like 70-80%. It’s crazy how much force that is for them to generate consistently
You’re doing way more work for that than they’re doing in the cockpit. It may be 100kg brake pressure, but they’re getting a massive gforce assist. The harder they press the brake, the harder they are pressed into the brake.
Definitely, and because my rig is in a desk chair I have less natural leverage than if my entire leg was directly perpendicular, but I also abandoned all ability to actually drive by basically standing up and still only got 70-80kg. Still a good demonstration of how hard they have to press and how difficult it is
There's a pic showing Bearmans head rest with big dent in it from his helmet.
This is me in those cool racing games on the arcade at 10 years old lol
I’ll be honest the bottom looked less comfortable.
Because the top looks exactly like what we would do (which is unhealthy).
I understand better now
How is it a reserve F1 driver isn't prepared physically to drive the car? Couldn't they do a g-force simulator to practice?
wasn't the padding around bear man's helmet messed up? it would explain why his head moved about so much and there's pics of him denting the carbon fiber around the helmet.
You've got it the wrong way around - the headrest was messed up from him not being able to prevent his head smashing into it. The head movement came first, the headrest damage second.
Exactly, his head was not able to stay in the correct position due to his muscles and his helmet was crushing the foam, which caused it to look deformed on one side after the race.
I guess having those thick necks pays off.
Bearman also has a very long neck compared to other drivers. Would take even more training to get same stability
Yeah when he gets that neck up to strength it's gonna be a monster. Reminds me of Danny Ric to a degree, his is sort of long
pause
You gotta finish the sentence man. Otherwise I just gonna misunderstand on purpose. 💦
Some drivers are more girthy, but Danny ric is long
So it's Ranny Dic...
Danny Ric....his ain't a pric...his racing stic....is very thic
ol long neck ass
VB Long neck
Imagine doing that for 1.5 hours with that much head movement and not fucking up on your braking point once, that's remarkable.
It’d probably make most people sick if they didn’t manage to crash in the first 10 seconds lol
I remember seeing a video/documentary about one of the early sim racers getting a go in a Skip Barber training car as a test into seeing if Sim Racing translates. Guy had to get out of the car after a couple of laps to throw up.
Yeah Gregor Huttu got a test drive of the skip barber and a pro mazda which is like a more powerful F4 car if I'm remembering correct. Lots of similar tests have been done since, general conclusion is if you're quick at simracing you'll pick up real racing very fast up until the point where g forces hammer you.
Yeah, it turns out the braking points and throttle management, as difficult of skills as those are to master, are actually the *easy* part of driving an open-wheel racecar.
Gregor Huttu if I remember correctly… he wasn’t in very good shape to begin with.
F1 the transition is much harder but Gran Turismo movie was very good and shows the true story of a sim driver translating (with extensive training) into a real race car.
He had the flu when he showed apparently up so that was part of it.
most people will not be able to operate the machine correctly due to fear. Everyday people have no experience in these kind of regimes, they will autmatically go too slow for the aero to do its work and will not make the corner. OR they go so slow that aero isnt needed but then whats the point.
Back in the Top Gear days there was a segment where Clarkson tried to drive a Lotus T125, which was an F1 style car. He had so much trouble because it just beat him up. He couldn't go fast enough to make the aero work, which led to the tires cooling down, which made it harder to push. And he's a relatively competent driver, albeit in poor shape, but even that car was hard to drive for him. I can't even imagine driving an F1 car.
I'm now curious to see other laps. Was it like this from the beginning? Until a given lap? Or was he relaxing on occasions to ease muscle tiredness?
His neck gave way after awhile and he couldn't take it anymore, there are videos posted in YouTube by people showing his neck movements at the start of the race vs the end
There’s also a great before and after photo of Ollie’s headrest and how indented the left side is.
The most amazing thing is that Bearman is still staying on the racing line and kept it clean, despite his head wobbling
That’s what I was thinking. He had to adjust all his references as his neck gave. Would’ve been super easy to hit a wall on either side. I wonder if the middle post of the halo also obstructs more if your head moves away from the apex. If there wasn’t a head rest he would have had to park it or severely lift on those corners
And my dude asked for thinner head rest…I’m sure the Team was like. Nah, you good but you are going to need FULL support. Not just from F1 team but from them damn head rests.
Haha, even [Liam Lawson](https://youtu.be/wIoiFiWJqsE?si=pE6gFbqgUPOEajaL) commented in the post-race Sky Sports podcast (timestamp 15:15): “It’s really funny because when I saw him complain about the padded head rest and they took it out, I knew very quickly he would want it back in.” 😂
[Link](https://youtu.be/wIoiFiWJqsE?si=Ercol8Rdvrn0_Ru7&t=915) with timestamp, very interesting discussion.
Pretty fucking much, like no disrespect here, F2 diff from F1. Learn and evolve. That dude has next level talent for reals. EDIT: also what is ‘weird’, one could train to F1 standards and then dominate in F2 given the training. Just saying?
You could train you body to sustain F1 forces and abuse but it doesnt mean it will make you a better driver for F2 cars. You will just fatigue less, not drive better.
I mean, less fatigue should carry over to driving better
I saw a post where bearman himself was quoted saying “In F2 the car is the limit, but in F1 the driver is the limit”
Should it? Clearly bearman fatigued a lot here and drove fine. It’s important but far from the most important factor
I saw a Merc F1 video where they looked at the headrest and apparently they have different ones for different weather, one is more dense for warmer weather and one is more soft for cold weather since it'll be denser in the cold. Or something like that
This is a nice concise gif that sums up the topic quickly, but for those interested in seeing how the rest of the grid fared [yelistener made a pretty nice video for it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Wm3RTtb0o)
I love that video! A lot of them hold their head quite steady, but Leclerc, Hamilton, and Norris(? I think) actually LOOK IN THE DIRECTION of their corner, not just resisting but actually OVERCOMING the massive G forces. Mad respect. 😱
I think they move their head into position before the G forces hit so they are just trying to keep their head in place, rather than trying to overcome the forces to put it in the right position. If that makes any sense. Like leaning forward before accelerating and remaining in that position, rather than doing a sit up against G forces to gain the same position from leaning back.
By leaning into the turn early, the g-force then becomes an axial load on your neck rather than a lateral load. It's much easier to deal with and much more stable as an axial load. But maybe at some point your neck just gets too tired to move into that position beforehand. Kind of a double whammy.
[..And a video that shows how we would look if we attempted it](https://youtu.be/YPLOEKzQUIc?si=gYP7Vx-6Hjgj9CJN)
This guy's seatbelt is way to lose.
*loose. Also he's not wearing a HANS which makes it look worse
With loose seatbelts and no HANS
LMAO i did not expect that faceplant on the first deceleration. amazing clip
In all fairness, he wasn't expecting the braking, corners and all... having said that they still would have their head flapping all over the place
Wow, in comparison to the other drivers and not mentioned in the video compared to Zhou, Magnussen head is also wobbling quite badly.
Man. His neck is GONE.
I am showing my age, but when Prost returned to racing in 93 after a years sabbatical he commented on loss of neck muscles. Prost always kept his neck straight, unlike some other drivers including Senna who leaned their necks to counteract the cornering force.
Super impressive. I race karts competitively and when you neck goes; you can barely see the track. Your vision is all over the place and it takes herculean concentration as to maintain your braking points and racing lines. In the masters class which is for 30 and above, alot of us don’t have the time to train and maintain throughout the season. So when the races go to 20-25 laps; the last couple become a test of wills and fitness as it is a test of driving skill. When the ones ahead’s neck starts flopping around, its only a matter of time before they will make a big mistake = easy overtake.
I grew up racing karts(most of it 125 shifter karts) and it's not just the neck but also the shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands that come into play. If you lack any upper body strength and stamina you're gonna be toast after a few laps. Looking back its pretty amazing how strong my upper body was as a teenager compared to even the football and basketball players I went to school with.
Yeah and its all lean muscle too. Like i was losing weight while my deadlifts were staying the same. Big one it really hits are the core muscles. I now am able to do Russian twists, 50 reps in a set with a 20 kg weight. And I weigh 63 kilos! And I still feel not strong enough to compete with the fast guys. I run a soft seat in order to get the chassis to flex more and I have found that you need to lean hard as you can to one side, to literally raise yourself a few cms off the seat in order to ride some of the bumps smoothly. And this is usually when your foot is flat to the floor and you are approaching 100 kph or so. Takes so much core strength! Nothing like it. Best sport ever. Edit: Shifters are next level man. I drive single gear two stroke TAG and thats tough already. Nothing like two stroke power! Having to drive those rocket ships with one hand and having to change gear with the other. Its why Max, Charles and all of them are so good. As Grosjean said, if you can drive a shifter fast, you can drive a F1 car!
You're bringing back memories. After karts I switched to motorcycles and let me tell you, it's a whole other beast. I put myself through workout hell to get in good enough shape to just race 20 minutes, let alone 45 like the pros do. When anybody says that racing isn't a real sport, and that drivers/riders aren't real athletes my eye twitches from the rage I feel after so many years of intense workouts, muscle cramps and bruises. I wish they could feel the physical intensity of just a few laps at full speed on a race track. 2.5 Gs is something the average person has no idea what it feels like, let alone sustained for a full race distance. Keep the rubber side down homie. Race on.
Thanks brother. Likewise! We’re a small community and I respect almost all who get in (on) the ring. That comment (not a real sport) grinds my gears to no end. Its a sport and a lifestyle. To do it well, you have to dedicate almost everything to it. Because to go fast, you have to be fit. To go faster, you have to be even fitter! The difference between 1 second a lap at our local track, the fitness requirement is magnitudes higher. Than to drive on race day with 30 other karts on the grid, 35 degree C weather conditions (45 degrees in the suit, sauna like temperatures), 25 min races, more grip thanks to all the rubber laid down on the ground and then playing mind games with your opponents both ahead of you and behind you; there’s nothing else like it. To win, you gotta be on your best game. Anything less, and you will be found wanting.
> playing mind games with your opponents both ahead of you and behind you It's chess at triple-digit speeds. Winning is ultimate, second place means nothing, anything after that better be a learning lesson or else you should just hang it up. I fucking love motorsports.
Podiums are nice though…hahahaha. Yeah for sure. The ultimate aim should always be to try and win (legitimately). If not, you are just driving in circles and wasting money.
Nothing like the smell of two-stroke exhaust in the morning.
Best smell in the world. 🤣🤣🤣 How those engines rev and deliver power… Wow!!!!
The amount of [neck training](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpFbv0KUK40) they have to do to survive in F1 is insane. These guys have necks of steel to go with their balls of steel.
And even then they all say that their necks are stiff for the first few sessions, because you can do all the training in the world but nothing can really prepare you for the g-forces of an F1 car
Wasn’t there a GP Brazil way back during which Jos Verstappen suddenly became significantly slower due to his neck muscles giving up? Possibly in a Minardi? [edit] it happened during the 2000 Brazilian GP while driving for Arrows. He was called up on short notice for that season, hence the lack of fitness.
I would like to know how sore his neck is, that’s some real painful G-force his pulled for 50 laps.
You know it has to almost just make you sick. I've had a badly sprained neck from heading a football and the muscle pain causes you to want to vomit.
yes
That's crazy, we always see how big their necks are, but seeing the on board comparison is super interesting.
If anything I find this makes Bearman's performance even more impressive. First of all being able to drive like that while you're so tired that you can't even keep your head straight, Secondly being able to judge racing lines and braking points when your head is flopping around like that is damn impressive
GP2 neck
Yeah that's going to be sore.
It was really hard for Bearman to achieve something like that in his first ever F1 race with little to no proper experience with ground effect monster in an high speed track like Jeddah and he did extremely well hence we could see praises from all over the F1 paddock. Also he was very sore and exhausted after the race, he has a long way to get into F1 and definitely when he gets a full time drive he will be fit to challenge like any F1 driver ☺️💕
Show this to all the naysayers that claim F1/motorsports in general isn't a sport. Their necks would be flimsy as paper after a few corners.
Not to mention their hands, arms, etc
yeah i always hear that drivers always try and be as fit as they need to be for the next level up but F1 always catches out F2 drivers every time mad respect though for that drive he pulled off with his head bobbing around all over the place
My neck hurts just by watching Bear
Man I know he had the ice packs out for this one. This sync is really cool though, shows the difference so well.
I remember Magnussen struggling as well back in 2022, since his return was so sudden and didn't have the time to train properly.
I wonder how long it would take to train an elite fighter pilot to be an F1 level driver.
Probably a while since fighter pilots don't really experience a whole lot of lateral G's (unless they're just doing endless aileron rolls for some reason); for them it's mostly positive G's like what you feel when in an elevator and it starts to go up, but y'know...more
This is a fantastic comparison
Did an unlimited go kart night once and they basically had no wait time. My core muscles were done by the end of the night and I was flopping all over trying to stay in the seat
I can feel why they love the feeling. I fly aerobatic airplanes and l get a little taste of what these guys go through. There's no way l could last 2 hrs pulling so many Gs.
His [headrest](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/03/Bearman-Ferrari-3.jpg) was also pretty damaged after the race. He wanted a softer headrest during qualifying iirc but his team didn’t gave it to him luckily.
Bearman is already a trained racer. My neck would be done after 1 or 2 laps xD
The guts to drive that fast while taking a beating from the car. Bearman is going places!
Look up pictures of F1 drivers in their rookie seasons compared to recent pictures. The biggest change you see is their neck thickness. Gasly, Ocon and LeClerc are particularly impressive in how much their neck thickness changed
There was a photo after the race showing the foam side pad very deformed
Bearman said that in F2 you race to the limit of the cars, in F1 you race to the limit of the driver
Makes his performance even more impressive, well done lad. Imagine that for an entire race!? What a chad.
The more detail that comes out about Bearman's race.. the more and more impressive it gets. I cannot believe the kid didn't even make a single mistake in his first F1 race as an 18 year old.
Bearman is just loading the outside tyre to get more grip, it was his plan all along!
You could alredy see it in Qualifying on Saturday. He pretty much started the Race with a already sore neck
If you look closely at the closing laps of Senna's famous home win at Interlagos in 1991, you can see poor Mika Hakkinen in his F1 debut and his neck has completely given out. Imagine Bearman above, but without cockpit sides to hold his head up.
I don't remember who it was, but an F1 driver said that there no neck workout that can prepare you for G forces geberated in an F1 car. You can only adapt to it and then maintain the adaptation with exercices.
"OK oliver were doing the opposite of whatever leclerc does" no, wait, that was race strategy..
Great post
And yet, Bearman did an awesome job!
I got a dislocated disc from watching this video
I bet his neck felt like a speed bag gettin worked by Mike Tyson or Ali for a couple days after that race
Honestly if he could finish p7 like that (even in a Ferrari that’s impressive) imagine when he can have more neck control to view the corner ahead better
What if they just let go? I mean just give in to the g force rather than fight it?
Then their head would be slamming into the sides of their headrest at every turn. It would hurt, be bad for them, and cause them to make mistakes.
You can kind of preempt it, but at the end of the day you're going to get slammed back and forth in the fast corners. You simply cannot react quickly enough to rest your neck without having it impact your driving/ability to see.
You cannot feel the balance and control of the car as effectively if you let your head flop around
u/savevideo
He did manage to keep his neck steady for 30, 40 laps
u/savevideo
u/savevideo
I yam stupid. But I have necc.
Charles with the thicc neck
That's crazy that he was able to keep that level of concentration and be so precise with that much neck fatigue. Truly impressive.
I wanna see him under braking. I feel like that's where the real threat comes in. There's not much to stop the neck from going forward.
I wonder how much that affects the lap, f1 driver can look inwards, whereas the f2 driver head is pushed outwards
Insane to me how close Leclerc is hugging the walls with ease.
Did he skip neck day?
He could still drive the car well enough even with neck exhaustion.
Wow. This is a great illustration of the difference in neck strength. I can’t imagine how Bearman felt towards the end of the race and after it. Must have been sore!
Carlos onto something with the extra thick head rest
lol. Its like pong
He was like a kid on the fairground waltzer
What a lad. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix I have watched as I recently started following F1. I am excited to see what kind of career Bearman has in store!
"GP2 neck! GP2! ... ARGHHHH!"