Waiting to start the 2022 preseason, the F1 drivers continue to prepare physically for the new course, and although they maintain activity between one championship and another, these last few weeks after some pause are key to arriving 100% ready at the start.
On February 23, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will host the start of the tests, although the drivers are already returning to the fray in the simulator and in private tests like the ones Ferrari did at the end of January at Fiorano.
In them, Carlos Sainz together with Charles Leclerc and test driver Robert Shwartzman completed their first kilometers on the real track in 2022, and the Spaniard wanted to reveal to his fans what his training sessions are like.
In a question and answer session, Sainz was solving the doubts that arose about his training routine, revealing what he does, how many sessions he completes and more.
How many times does Carlos Sainz train a week and how long does each session last?
The Ferrari man defined it as the easiest answer to give, although he clarified that he was referring to weeks in which there is no Formula 1 and therefore there are no Grand Prix sessions. “Basically I try to do two sessions a day. I like to do one very early in the morning, before breakfast. Usually it’s cardio, fasted, I just drink coffee, and I like to swim or go for a run, an easy session. That helps me to start the day with a good attitude and obviously I’m getting cardio off my back, which is the hardest thing for me, so I just get down to it and that’s it”.
“And then in the afternoon I usually do strength training, it doesn’t matter if it’s Formula 1 strength, as I call it, or basic strength. But in the afternoon I feel more active, ready to lift more weight and I perform better.”
And the breaks? “I rest at most one or two days a week, so I have quite a few sessions a week.”
Carlos Sainz between more cardio or more strength with weight?
“I go through times. It’s funny, Formula 1 is a very particular sport: there is the cardio effect, and then having a strong neck, core, shoulders. When I got to F1 I had a more cardio profile, I did a lot of triathlon I signed up for a half ironman, and then all of a sudden in 2018 or 2019 I completely changed and got more into weightlifting.”
“Both are important but there is always one that you like more or you specialize more, I used to be cardio, but I noticed that I was a little skinny or lacked some strength for the big cars in today’s F1 and I changed to do more weight without giving up cardio. And now I like going to the gym to lift weights more, because it’s where it’s easier to progress and the numbers are clearer than in cardio, where you depend on a good day.”
Does Sainz train to have strength and endurance or hypertrophy and muscle growth?
“It depends. Now in January [before the preseason], my main goal is hypertrophy, that is, doing more repetitions with little weight to get used to the muscle and warn it that the time will come to do a lot of strength. Let’s say that I do a month of lighter weight, because I haven’t trained for a long time, many repetitions, tire the muscle, try to gain muscle mass, and when the season approaches, in February and March, I put in three weeks of maximum strength, I load much more weight and helps me create testosterone peaks, feel better and gain the strength that I will need for the season. There I go down to three or five repetitions at most, and I even test myself and try to compare myself to other years, to see how much I’ve improved from last year, and that’s when I have the most fun because I see the gains.
What is the strangest exercise that Carlos Sainz has done?
“It would be the neck exercise, which I have come to do some very rare. People in the gym looked at me like ‘what does this guy do’, especially when not so many people knew me, they didn’t know I was a Formula 1 driver. Suddenly they saw me lying down in the gym with a 15kg weight on my head and they freaked out. Now they know who I am, they understand it a little better”.
“Now I have a device with which I do contractions with my neck, it pulls me on some strings and it is much more natural or normal than it was before.
What is Carlos Sainz’s diet like during weeks of training?
“My diet basically consists of trying to exceed 100 grams of protein a day, I usually try to get to 130 or 140 grams, that is, twice as many grams as my weight. If I weigh 70 kg, double the protein would be 140.”
“If I get it I know I won’t go hungry training because protein is very satiating, and then my body won’t have that craving for carbs or fat that it always does.”
“When I’m bulking, I usually try to eat between 2,500 and 3,000 calories, but when I’m cutting, I’m going to eat less than that. I know that I usually eat 2,500 calories a day and I know that if I want to lose some weight, some fat, I have to stay below it, and if I want to win it, I go over that amount. But protein is a key factor in achieving that difference, at least in my diet.”
Does Carlos Sainz eat fast food? Is there ‘fast food in your diet’?
Carlos Sainz declares himself a big fan of fast food, and celebrates having a constitution that allows him not to gain too much weight. He loves pizza, hamburgers… “and carbohydrates, which are good but make you gain some weight.”
“Avoiding it is something that costs me, I’m not going to lie.” And so? In weeks without Formula 1, he sets a rule for himself: one or at most two meals that he really enjoys, and they are usually pizzas or hamburgers. However, he admits that resisting temptation is a tough challenge, because he is a big fan of that type of food.
Carlos Sainz, better with a coach or him as his own coach?
“My coach demands the basics from me, what he knows perfectly well that I have to do and that I am capable of doing. He demands a minimum of me, but the one that really demands another little point, that competitive point of an athlete, of wanting to improve himself, it’s me.”
“I like to go to the gym and come back the next day in better shape, lifting more and surprising him. If one day I’ve benched 100kg, if the next day he tells me to add a rep, I tell him I’d better get 102 or 105 kg, although he sometimes tells me no. I’m always the one who tries to go one step further, that’s in the DNA of the athlete and someone competitive.”
How do F1 drivers make up the weight lost in one race before the next?
The question asks when there are two races in a row in consecutive weeks. However, Sainz qualifies the weight that a driver loses in a race: “Three or four kilos? Well, I know they say that in F1 the drivers lose a lot of weight, but I don’t lose much, because I don’t sweat too much, I have a lot of lucky”.
Carlos Sainz assures that he loses between 1 kg and 2 kg per race. “And almost all of that is liquid, and liquid is very easy to recover, to put back into the body. You lose a lot of energy and you end up mentally very tired, so on Sunday night I usually have a good binge and it’s usually my favorite food, I always have a good feast on Sunday night. And by Tuesday or so I’ve regained all my weight and feel 100%.”
“On Monday after the race I dedicate it to rest, physiotherapy, massages… I recover my body, stretch, move around, drink a lot, eat healthy… and on Tuesday I’m back at 100% and ready to prepare the next race”.
Does an F1 driver do leg training?
In addition to the hands, the most important part of the body for an F1 driver are the feet, responsible for accelerating and braking. As Sainz explains, the brakes of a Formula 1 car are very stiff, they have very little travel from when they are stepped on until maximum pressure is achieved.
“If there are big braking zones on a circuit, like for example Monza, I apply between 130 and 150 bar on the brake pedal. That means between 130 and 150 kg of pressure on the brake pedal. I weigh 70 kg, and there is You have to repeat that braking many times for an hour and a half and your leg, your gluteus, your lower back… everything gets very tired. So there is no secret: you have to train your legs”.
“I do squats, I’m starting to do deadlifts , which my back allows. I do a lot of glute work, posture, a lot of core, to make sure that during the race I don’t get tired.
Is there endurance training equivalent to racing a Formula 1 car?
Sainz makes it clear, motorsport is so specific that no other discipline or sport can match it. “The first day of the test of the year you will get tired, because the body is not used to that. No matter how much you run, if one day you play football the next day you die of stiffness. No matter how much you run, if one day you play tennis or paddle tennis, you’re going to have stiffness. The same thing happens to us F1 drivers: we run, swim, do weights, karting… but then you get into F1 and the first day your neck and shoulders always hurt. .. all”.
“There isn’t a specific sport, that’s why I keep changing: one year I get into triathlon, another boxing, another through strength in the gym, another through squash. I don’t stop, the point is being a sports guy, being always fit, keep the specifics of the car -neck, core, buttocks and shoulders- and from there let the car beat you up, the body adapts, and you adapt quickly because you are fit”.
