Charles Leclerc does not often give in-depth interviews outside race weekends, but he made an exception for the British podcast On Purpose, dedicated to a healthy lifestyle.
In particular, the Ferrari driver was asked to explain how he manages to maintain good physical condition during the long season, which in Formula 1 lasts from March to December.
“My priority is sleep,” Charles emphasized. – It’s incredibly important to get proper rest and recovery, so I keep my sleep schedule extremely strict. I am a real sleeper, I sleep 10-12 hours a day, and I can fall asleep well, and for this I do not need any special techniques. My only problem is that for some reason I can’t sleep on planes, even though we spend a lot of time flying.
I try to choose flights during the day so I can stay awake during the flight, but this is one of the challenges we solve when planning my schedule.
Now about the diet: my diet is created by a nutritionist living in Milan, and he monitors my diet and develops nutritional recommendations for me. It used to be very monotonous and I was bored, but now it has become more diverse.
It is difficult to talk about it in detail, but as the race weekend approaches, you should, for example, eat more carbohydrates, because during such a week the rider’s weight changes significantly. Before training, the weight is quite heavy, because you need to eat more carbohydrates and drink a lot to avoid dehydration.
But when we work on the track, it is very hot in the cockpit of the car and the body loses a lot of water, so at the end of some races your weight becomes 3.5-4 kg less. In addition, the first two days afterwards it is quite difficult to restore normal balance, and here it is also important to take the correct approach.
We can say that Formula 1 is a very strange sport in terms of physical activity, because the load here is on muscles that work much less in other sports. First of all, these are the neck muscles: these are probably the most difficult to train. It is best to do this on the track, although we try to reproduce such loads using various types of elastic expanders.
But it is still very difficult: you can talk to the drivers after the off-season period during winter testing – at the end of the first day of testing everyone is incredibly tired.
We also pay serious attention to cardio training, but there is another very important aspect: the correct breathing technique. The effects of overexertion can make it quite difficult to breathe normally, but over the years of competing in Formula 1 you get used to it.
Moreover, adrenaline helps a lot in our sport, because we don’t have time to think when we drive cars. You go turn after turn, and if you think about whether the previous turn was good, you will certainly make a mistake in the next one.
You have to be able to adapt psychologically immediately, and even if you make a mistake, you have to be in the right frame of mind within a second to conquer the next corner. And this is where adrenaline helps you, although after the finish of the race difficulties can begin for me: I begin to remember how it went, and get upset when I remember mistakes that should not have been made.
But even in the most difficult moments, I always remind myself that I am very lucky in life because I am doing what I love: competing in Formula 1 for the Ferrari team, which I have always dreamed of. And then I immediately remember how much I love this sport, no matter how the situation develops.
I’m also lucky in the sense that I work with a lot of incredibly talented people, because all the engineers, mechanics, in general all the people involved in our team, tried really hard to get a job at Ferrari. It is always very interesting for me to communicate with them, but above all, of course, I love racing. Every time I put on my helmet I smile, because when I accelerate and drive out of the pits onto the track, I experience a very special feeling…”
Source: F1 News

I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.