The vital ally to F1 drivers behind key performance gains

Wrapping up the 2022 F1 season with smoother action on track was encouraging after the early season challenge for drivers. The new technical regulations and heavier cars with ground-effect aerodynamics were always going to provide a different feel in the cockpit, yet the aspect that leapt up was the porpoising: cars being sucked down to the track surface then released, a pattern repeated at rapid intervals when flat out in a straight line.

It was tough physical challenge. Mark Arnall is a performance coach who began his career with McLaren in 1997 and went on to spend 20 years training and assisting Kimi Raikkonen before connecting with Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin this year. Like most people in the business, he had to deal with the new factor.

“I think the extent of it was the big surprise,” Arnall relates. “There’s a lot of compression-related stress that goes through the spine in an F1 car and bouncing up and down obviously increases this. We had the same porpoising issues but Seb didn’t actually suffer physically from it. His main problem was vision; when the car was bouncing so much he actually couldn’t really see where he was going.”

It was tougher for Vettel’s great rival Lewis Hamilton, who reported a lot more bruising in his body and headaches in the opening months of the season. The Baku event was particularly demanding and encouraged the FIA to investigate means of mitigating the phenomenon – but the teams were already getting on top of it.

“I think the engineers started to become aware of how much they could push the set-up before any porpoising occurred and the drivers gave clear feedback as to when that started to happen,” Arnall confirms. “F1 teams are great at coming up with design solutions and while the issue can still crop up it’s certainly now well controlled.”

Arnall worked with Vettel in his final F1 season this year

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Technical changes often affect the interaction between driver and car; a key point for Arnall was the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in 2009. Extra weight from a battery or an electric flywheel to store energy created through braking did cause a headache for the teams as they targeted the minimum weight allowance.

“They were going to crazy lengths to reduce the weight of the car but there was also a lot of pressure on the drivers to lose weight,” he remembers. “The more muscle mass you take off the drivers means more of a loss in terms of strength and stability; muscle weighs four times as much as fat and drivers don’t have much fat anyway. Lighter, smaller drivers definitely had an advantage as many drivers were losing lap time just being by a few kilos heavier.”

Ferrari added over 25kg to the 2009 car with the KERS system and, since fuel loads were still part of the strategic picture, the demand on drivers was intense.

"Planning the travel well is also really important. I used to book all of Kimi’s flights and hotels a year in advance. I could then reduce the effects of jet lag as much as possible" Mark Arnall

“It was definitely more challenging in every sense when there was refuelling,” Arnall confirms. “Every racing lap was effectively a qualifying lap, with lower fuel loads. As soon as refuelling was abandoned [in 2010] and cars had to start the race on a full tank, Kimi described it more like just driving around, especially when they were told to lift-and-coast to save fuel.”

While that intensity of lapping may have eased, the shift from a calendar of 17 grands prix in 2009 to a planned 24-event schedule next year [now 23 after the Chinese Grand Prix was cancelled] with a total of 29 races including extra sprints means the performance coaches are having to readjust their schedules.

“The recovery post-race is super-important and there are treatment protocols to get rid of built-up tension in the body. The first two and a half months of the year are when we look to make physical gains if, for example, we’re expecting more downforce and higher cornering speeds. As soon as the season starts, the emphasis shifts to maintaining the training and keeping the body in one piece and working on reducing the fatigue elements as much as possible.”

The combination of KERS and refuelling in 2009 made it an especially intense season where drivers were under pressure to lose weight

Photo by: Vor/Motorsport Images

Technical scrutiny has become as important for the driver as it is for the car.

“In the past with Kimi we did very detailed blood/urine/stool analysis and measured everything that was going on inside the body,” says Arnall. “We addressed issues with food and supplements that covered all areas from reducing stress markers to improving sleep, focus and concentration.

“We could then see that these were working when we re-tested. Planning the travel well is also really important. I used to book all of Kimi’s flights and hotels a year in advance. I could then reduce the effects of jet lag as much as possible and make sure the driver avoided the chances of getting sick while travelling.”

Indeed, Arnall is now working directly with some hotels in order to encourage the support they can give, not only to drivers but also to many other people who are travelling relentlessly and coping with continual jet lag. It’s another element to the knowledge he has gained through interaction with some of the best drivers in the business, even if the most recent partnership with Vettel ended sooner than expected.

PLUS: How Sebastian Vettel signed out of Formula 1 on a high

For the drivers who are still competing, relaxation over Christmas will be welcome. But the interaction with their performance coaches over the next 12 months will be crucial throughout an even tougher season.

The gruelling 2023 schedule is likely to make the role of human performance coaches such as Angela Cullen even greater

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images