Neck strength, vision stability, and huge G-forces set the stage for why F1 training isn’t just physical. The episode then zooms in on the brain: humans can’t multitask, but drivers run one integrated skill while “a buffer of extra capacity” shrinks as fatigue builds. Dr Tommy Wood explains how teams use sports psychologists, individualized mental prep (including jet lag planning and virtual reality), and continuous embedded coaching to keep drivers consistent—emotionally and cognitively—across race weekends.
It's race week. You've got a flight to catch. You need to score points this weekend or you might lose your seat. Fans want selfies at the airport. Your engineer needs your thoughts on car set-up. A pundit just said something about you on a podcast. Your Team Principal is calling you...
This is the high-pressure life of a Formula 1 driver. To cope, they need to be mentally strong. How do they train their brains to handle the demands of racing at the very top, and who helps keep their minds in shape?
Christian puts your questions on this to an expert on how F1 drivers' brains work. Dr Tommy Wood is Lead Scientist for Motorsport at Hintsa Performance - a company which provides coaches and sports psychologists for many drivers on the grid.
Tommy tells us how F1 drivers block out distractions and focus on their on-track performance and explains the coaching which helps them do it. Does age affect a driver's mental abilities? And do off-track friendships between drivers have an effect when battling wheel-to-wheel?
Expert opinion every race weekend on F1 Nation - find the latest episode here on this podcast feed
This November, F1 takes over Las Vegas The Las Vegas Grand Prix returns November 19 - 21, 2026 — and tickets are on sale now! Be there for the fastest weekend of the year. Click here for tickets
"So an example there is, especially if you're traveling long distance, jet lag plays a huge role. And so thinking about getting your body ready several days in advance, seeing if you can get your biology aligning so that you're more alert at the right times of day."
Jet lag is what happens when you travel across time zones and your sleep/body schedule gets out of sync. The coach is saying drivers plan ahead so they’re more awake and focused when they need to be.
Jet lag is a disruption to your body clock caused by flying across time zones. In F1 driver training, it matters because it can make you less alert at the times you need to be sharp for sessions and race-day decisions.
"And then with the coach and some of the other stuff that we do, we might be thinking about how can we, you know, train the brain to perform under fatigue? And there's lots of different ways that you can do that during training."
This is about helping drivers keep their focus and decision-making sharp even when they’re tired. The idea is to practice mental performance so fatigue doesn’t make them slower or less accurate.
“Training the brain to perform under fatigue” means building mental skills so performance doesn’t drop when you’re tired. In racing, fatigue can affect attention, reaction timing, and decision quality, so the coaching focuses on maintaining control when conditions worsen.
"And there's lots of different ways that you can do that during training. We do some things in virtual reality to try and layer on like an additional cognitive"
Virtual reality is a computer simulation you can experience like a real environment. The coach is using it to help drivers practice thinking and reacting under pressure, not just in the real car.
Virtual reality (VR) uses computer-generated environments you can interact with using special hardware. Here it’s used as a training tool to add extra mental load and practice decision-making in realistic driving-related scenarios.
"So what you see more broadly in the sports performance psychology is that in order to, you know, those people who perform the best most consistently over time, try to avoid big psychological highs and lows."
This is about training the mind, not just the body. The goal is to help athletes stay calm, focused, and consistent—especially when races are stressful.
Sports performance psychology is the practice of using mental training and behavioral strategies to improve how athletes perform under pressure. In F1, it’s about managing emotions and focus so drivers can execute consistently lap after lap and race to race.
"over time, try to avoid big psychological highs and lows. So like those big swings can actually make things, you know, tricky to kind of then get back on it and go again."
“Psychological highs and lows” refers to large swings in confidence, emotion, and mental state. The coach argues that avoiding these extremes helps drivers stay consistent, because big emotional swings can make it harder to reset and perform at the same level afterward.
"So actually the most important thing... try and have systems in place so that you keep everything consistent... So even when you win a race... you're still going to apply the same process where you analyze the data..."
This means having a set routine you follow every time, not just when things are going great. In racing, it helps you stay mentally steady and keep improving even after bad races.
“Systems in place” here means repeatable routines and decision processes that a driver follows regardless of results. The coach connects this to F1 execution: even after a win, the driver still analyzes data and applies the same improvement loop, which supports psychological stability and consistent performance.
"And that makes sure that you can always be consistent and try and maintain some of that psychological stability that we know is important for performance..."
It means keeping your mindset steady even when results change. If you don’t, you can start reacting emotionally and your performance can become less consistent.
Psychological stability is the ability to maintain a steady mental state across changing circumstances. The coach frames it as important for performance because it reduces the risk of overreacting to outcomes, which can otherwise increase variability in how well drivers execute.
"rather than the alternative is that if we change things and we're really reactive anytime something goes well or something goes wrong, you can sort of make things more variable, which can then ultimately impair performance over time."
Reactive means you change your mindset or routine depending on what just happened. The coach says that can make your performance less consistent in the long run.
In this context, “reactive” means changing your approach based on what just happened—either a win or a problem—rather than following a consistent plan. The coach warns that being reactive increases variability and can impair performance over time.
"Something that surprises people who are brand, brand new to Formula One is that Formula One drivers have to be physically fit. And in fact, the first time we had a hint to"
It’s saying that F1 drivers need to be in good physical shape, not only good at driving. Races are physically demanding, so fitness matters for staying sharp and in control.
This highlights that Formula One drivers require physical fitness, not just driving skill. The episode is setting up a “brain training” theme, but it notes that F1 performance depends on the body too—because drivers face sustained physical demands during races.
"...like to stir things up a little bit, it adds some intrigue. But yes, we have examples through history where ..."
The Oldsmobile Intrigue is a regular passenger car (a sedan) made for everyday driving. It was designed to be comfortable and practical, but it also had a name meant to sound more interesting. That’s why it could be mentioned when talking about “intrigue” or stirring things up a bit.
The Oldsmobile Intrigue is a mid-size sedan from the Oldsmobile brand, built for everyday driving with a focus on comfort and mainstream practicality. It’s the kind of car that might come up in a discussion about how manufacturers tried to make their models feel a bit more distinctive over time. The name “Intrigue” also fits the podcast’s theme of adding a little extra interest or personality to the lineup.
Select text to request an explanation
The Trophy Race, the most iconic moment in racing, is something McLaren racing is no
stranger to, and Dell Technologies is right there by their side as their trusted technology
partner. Knowing that long before race day ever happens, it's the testing, tweaking
and discovering that helps turn potential into performance.
Dell Technologies delivers solutions that McLaren racing uses every step of the way,
helping turn new design concepts into new design realities, turning trackside testing
insights into action, and transforming real-time data on race day into split-second decisions.
As partners, Dell Technologies and McLaren racing push boundaries every single day,
because a single victory is only the beginning.
Dell Technologies, built for you. Learn how Dell Technologies can support your business
at dell.com forward slash McLaren.
Formula One drivers have to be mentally strong. They have to cope with pressure, recover from
setbacks, ignore distractions and focus only on what they can control. We've had questions about
how they do this and whether they have coaches to help them. Christina from California, Raquel
and Sophia from South Africa, Sven from Zurich, Tamiko from New Zealand, Quinn from Alberta,
Canada, Cameron from Florida, Kelly from Liverpool, Mariam from Georgia and Monica from,
we don't know where Monica's from, have all told us they want to know more about this topic.
So guess what? We've found an expert to answer them. Welcome to F1 Explains.
Hello, everybody. Welcome along. My name is Christian Hugh Gill. Now, physical fitness
is just so important in F1, isn't it? A Grand Prix, it's an endurance challenge,
like running a marathon. Just look at a driver. You'll see how thick and strong their necks are.
The Formula One cars put so much load into a driver's neck. That's truly unique in sport.
It's so they can keep their head still to focus their vision, keep their vision stable as the car
shakes them about and so they can cope with huge G-forces as they break in corner. I think it was
the second ever episode of F1 Explains. Years ago, we looked at why Formula One drivers are
so physically fit. I know it's a topic that interests you as much as it interests me,
but the mental side, the mental fitness that the drivers need is just as important. They live
busy lives with constant pressures, lots of emotion, highs and lows. How do they block all that out
when they get in the car and focus on driving? We've got such a good example of it this year,
haven't we, with the title battle between Kimmy Antonelli and George Russell? George has had to
cope with the pressure of being labelled the favourite and then the added pressure when so far
it's not worked out like that with his less experienced teammate, this talent to everybody
saying is generational in Kimmy Antonelli winning four races in a row. How does George cope with
that? How does he stay level-headed? How does he bounce back from that? Well, that's just one
example of where Formula One drivers have coaches to help them do just that. Now, Dr Tommy Wood
is lead scientist for motorsports at Hintzer Performance. That's a company which has coaches
working with almost every driver in Formula One. Tommy is an expert on how F1 drivers brains work
and how to get the best out of them. He's the ideal person to answer your questions.
Well, Dr Tommy, firstly, welcome to F1 Explains. It's lovely to have you here.
Thanks so much for having me. It's really exciting to be here with you.
I often don't know what to call doctors. I struggle with this. Do I call you Dr Tommy or
just Tommy? Just Tommy is great. where you prefer good. It's important to clarify.
Tommy, tell us a little bit. Give us a broad brushstroke of your job and how long you've
been involved in Formula One. Sure. I'm here as lead scientist for motorsport for Hintzer
Performance. Hintzer is a company that provides performance and medical support to several
drivers and teams here in Formula One. I am a neuroscientist by day, and then I've spent the
last 10 or 15 years working with a variety of professional athletes in a variety of sports
on all aspects of nutrition, recovery, performance. Just trying to make sure that,
particularly with Formula One and Hintzer, that we're right at the cutting edge of science,
doing the best that we can for our drivers to make sure they've got everything they need to
do what they do out on the track. We're going to talk about brains quite a bit in this chat,
I think. Formula One drivers, they all have them. That's something they've got in common.
That's an excellent start. What are their brains good at? Well, they're obviously very good at
driving cars. Again, it helps. That's not by chance. It's essentially what they've spent
their entire lives up to this point perfecting, going through cutting and the different levels,
and they've just spent so much time honing their ability to understand the car, understand how to
move around the track, keep an eye on everything that's going around them. That's really where
they excel. Being able to handle everything that takes to drive the car, of course, but then
you've got multiple strategies in play, multiple plans depending on how things go. You're obviously
navigating 21 other cars around you. You're speaking to the pit wall. They're actually really good
taking in these multiple streams of information and understanding what to do at any given moment
in time. A lot of it has become sort of automated. They've spent so much time figuring this stuff out
that that gives them a little extra bandwidth to do the thinking that they need to do at the time
because they have such a good understanding of the car and all the different parts of what
it takes to drive it. Stay with me on this, right? Yeah. My fiance, he's very good at,
frustratingly good at, if I'm telling him about my day and he's reading a work email in my head,
I'm like, he's not listening. He's not listening. Annoyingly, he always is. He then, if I say,
have I got you, he'll then recall everything I've said for the previous five minutes.
I'm terrible at that. If someone's talking to me and I'm reading a work email, reading your text,
I'm not listening. I mean, too. Yeah, 100%. So, Formula One drivers have to multitask, right?
And you just said taking in different pieces of information. Can we therefore assume that
F1 drivers' brains are just better at the multitasking elements of it? Driving the car,
picking your braking spot, taking in strategy information, talking on the team radio. Are
they just better? Have they got better multitasking brains? In reality, if we just think more broadly
about the human brain, in reality, humans can't multitask. And what I mean by that is we cannot
fully focus on multiple things at a time that require our full attention, right? So, your
partner being able to do emails and listen to you, neither of those things takes necessarily a
huge amount of bandwidth. But if you were trying to do two things that require a huge amount of
attention, you can't do two at the same time. So, where I'm going with this is that the skills
that it takes to bring in and use all these different pieces of information, they're not
different tasks. They're all directed at the same thing. So, it's become like one bigger,
more complex skill. It's kind of like, you know, people who can play the guitar and sing at the
same time, right? They're not multitasking. They've built one bigger skill doing two things at the
same time, right? Because they directly support each other. So, I think a lot of what the drivers
are doing, they've over time built this bigger skill where all these things are directed in the
same place. If you then, you know, we're asking them to try and speak a different language or,
you know, figure out what they want to have for dinner, right? That's a separate skill that they
haven't sort of built in. So, it's not really multitasking. It's this one bigger complex task
that they've managed to layer all these pieces together. Sure, and that makes a lot of sense.
This is a broad question, I'm aware, but what would you say the main mental challenges are
for Formula One drivers? There's obviously the different tactics and things they have to do,
plus react to what's going on around them. And so, that plays a big part. And then this
particularly makes a big difference as the race goes on. So, as you start to accumulate physical
fatigue, your sort of buffer of extra capacity that you have to think about all these things and
strategy and listen to the pit wall, that starts to diminish a little bit. So, it's often towards
the end of the race, as they're becoming fatigued, that capacity can go down a little bit. And then,
there's the challenge of trying to juggle all these different pieces. So, some of it's automated,
like a lot of driving the car, but that can change as the rules and the different things change in
terms of how you deploy different aspects of the car. So, they have to relearn that. So, maybe
right now, there's a little additional bit of cognitive work they're having to do because
things have changed in Miami compared to earlier in the season. But then, it's really as the race
wears on, where things start to become more of a struggle. And you have to concentrate a little
bit harder just because the fatigue is having an effect. Now, we've spoken so much about the
driver's use of their brains on the track. As a Formula One journalist, I've always been firmly
of the opinion that a huge amount of the battle within the sport is a mental game off the track
as well. And regular listeners to this podcast will be bored of me banging on about this. But I
used to race karts when I was young. I wasn't very good at it. There's a reason I now talk
about Formula One and not do it. But I firmly believe that I couldn't cope with the mental side
of things off track. I got too nervous. hepped up. How much do you guys look to help
drivers with the mental side of Formula One off the track as well as the mental demands on it?
Yeah, so this is a big part of what the team does. And I am one part of a very big team. And
other people within that team include professional sports psychologists who are working with our
drivers one to one on all of these different aspects. So thinking about, yes, performance on
the track, but then also how are they managing these things off the track? And there's multiple
different levels of that. The direct sort of thought processes the drivers have, then there's
the sort of key relationships they have with the performance team, you know, with other people
in their lives. And then the broader team and thinking about how to get everything set up
so they have the right process in place so that, you know, when they need to, they're able to lock
in and get the job done. Can I give what I think might be an example of this, but do tell me if
I'm wrong. I bumped into Ollie Bearman at the airport on the way home from a race at the back
end of last year. We were chatting away and we were talking about his upturn in form. One of the
thing because he had a very good end to last season, a really post summer break, he seemed to
really level up. Ollie said that something he'd been able to do was recognize actually he wasn't
getting to the location of the race early enough in the previous part of the season. Some drivers
will leave it later. They can spend more time at home and that's what works for them. Ollie was
thinking actually I needed to be particularly the flyer where Ace is there a bit early or
climatized. He said that really helped him. Is that an example of getting your surroundings right
to make your brain more relaxed for you to ultimately have success on the track?
Yeah, absolutely. And each driver is going to need something slightly different. So everything
is very tailored to the individual depending on what they need. So an example there is,
especially if you're traveling long distance, jet lag plays a huge role.
And so thinking about getting your body ready several days in advance, seeing if you can get
your biology aligning so that you're more alert at the right times of day. This is a lot of work
that we do with our drivers is making sure they're set up several days in advance. And you can do
stuff before you travel, but then equally if you get there earlier, you feel more comfortable,
you know, you know your surroundings better. You've got time to actually focus on the stuff
that you need to do in the sort of like day or two in the run up to the race. So
a lot of that can make a big difference. It's absolutely fascinating. It is one of the areas
of Formula One I find most interesting. Are there any other techniques that you find yourselves
coming back to a lot, working with drivers a lot with regards to the mental challenges
off the track? It really does depend on the driver. So everything is very much very tailored
to the individual. But you might be thinking about how can you build additional capacity so that,
you know, when they're in the race or things go wrong, you know, do they have what they need to
do to deal with it? So, you know, the psychology team might give them tricks or things to think about.
Like during the race, there's going to be, you know, for each driver, they have specific
keywords or phrases that they might have with their race engineer, depending on whether they
need to reset or think about something different as things go along. And then with the coach and
some of the other stuff that we do, we might be thinking about how can we, you know, train the
brain to perform under fatigue? And there's lots of different ways that you can do that during
training. We do some things in virtual reality to try and layer on like an additional cognitive
challenge. So you're kind of just used to your brain working under fatigue when it's
when it's challenged so that you've got that kind of capacity to deal with it when you have it.
And so we'll sort of tailor a combination of those things, depending on what something might
need. You've given us a little flavor there, but I'm really interested in what that coaching that
you offer the teams and drivers consists of. I know you've just given a flavor. But also,
when that takes place, is it of a race weekend? Is it in between races? Yeah, so
the majority of the drivers that we work with have a hints of coach. So that coach is embedded
in the driver's life. So they're doing day to day nutrition. They're doing all the physical training.
They're organizing work with the psychologist. If they've got a psychologist on their team,
they're organizing work with the medics. We have a doctor at every race. So really,
a lot of this is organized by that coach who is running all of this. So overseeing all these
different parts of performance. And then they'll work with me and other aspects of the team,
other people in the team to think about, well, how are we going to train at this point of the
season? Are we going to change the physical training? Are we going to change the cognitive
training? Are we going to change access to psychology input? So it's really, it's essentially
continuous. So the hints of coaches are really, they travel with the drivers everywhere. They're
training them between races. They're there. They're the guys holding the helmet, holding the
umbrella out on the starting grid. They really are sort of embedded in this whole process.
The trophy race, the most iconic moment in racing is something McLaren racing is no stranger to.
And Dell Technologies is right there by their side as their trusted technology partner.
Knowing that long before race day ever happens, it's the testing, tweaking and discovering that
helps turn potential into performance. Dell Technologies delivers solutions that McLaren
racing uses every step of the way, helping turn new design concepts into new design realities,
turning trackside testing insights into action and transforming real time data on race day into
split second decisions as partners, Dell Technologies and McLaren racing push boundaries
every single day because a single victory is only the beginning. Dell Technologies built for you.
Learn how Dell Technologies can support your business at dell.com forward slash McLaren.
How different is the coaching when one of your drivers is having a good time of it compared
to when they're struggling because I can't think of a single driver on the Formula One grid. Even
your greats like Max and Lewis have at times gone through rough patches. How does that change
when things are going well to not well? So what you see more broadly in the sports performance
psychology is that in order to, you know, those people who perform the best most consistently
over time, try to avoid big psychological highs and lows. So like those big swings can actually
make things, you know, tricky to kind of then get back on it and go again. So actually the most
important thing, and again, this is sort of the purview of our sports psychologists is
try and have systems in place so that you keep everything consistent, right? So even when you
win a race and something goes well, you're still going to apply the same process where you analyze
the data, you figure out what can you learn, do better next time, and then you just
apply that same thing even when things aren't going well. And that makes sure that you can always be
consistent and try and maintain some of that psychological stability that we know is important
for performance, rather than the alternative is that if we change things and we're really reactive
anytime something goes well or something goes wrong, you can sort of make things more variable,
which can then ultimately impair performance over time. So it's really about building in systems
so that things stay consistent, even when things don't go well. And then the driver knows, right,
this is what I do, regardless of something doesn't go well. And then we can have, you know, the
the psychology team might, you know, be there after a race, you know, allow the, you know,
get the, give the driver whatever he needs to sort of get back in the right mindset to then
go back, speak to the engineers, understand the data, come back, take away some learnings and do
better next time. Something that surprises people who are brand, brand new to Formula One is that
Formula One drivers have to be physically fit. And in fact, the first time we had a hint to
coach on the podcast with your colleague, Anthony, in our first season doing this podcast, and we
were explaining why Formula One drivers have to be so physically fit. We know that they do.
Does their physical fitness and how strong that is at any particular point in time,
also impact their, how strong they are mentally at the time as well?
Yes, absolutely. So on two different fronts, one is that we know that physical fitness and
physical strength directly affects cognitive function and cognitive performance. And this is
like relevant to you and me as well as it is to Formula One drivers, right? So we know that
certain types of physical activity, so strength training, you know, high intensity interval
training, which these drivers do a lot of, they support specific functions and aspects of the
brain. And then the other part of it is that if you have greater physical fitness, then particularly,
you know, the end of, you know, challenging races, you're, you're gonna be less fatigued.
So you've got more cognitive capacity to then deal with, you know, whatever's happening on track.
It's really important to, to emphasise that bit that you said there, that it's the same for us,
because it's sort of a bit of a cliched thing that's rolled out when people are struggling with
their own mental health. Yeah. But it's, you've really brilliantly explained the actual science
behind the whole thing of if you're feeling low, if you are struggling with your mental health,
get yourself to the gym, get out for a run if you possibly can, you know,
to get that physical fitness, there's real science to it, isn't there?
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, in some of the other worlds that I work in, I do a lot of work in,
you know, helping people maintain, build and maintain cognitive function and mental health,
you know, throughout their entire lives. And you're right, that one of the best things that
we have evidence for in terms of improving cognitive function and mental health is physical
activity. There was a recent meta-analysis to compare all these different types of physical
activity in terms of how they'll improve depression symptoms in people with depression.
And dancing was by far the best. So, like, resistance training is work, you know,
works, cardio works, walking works. But dancing, because it's got a music component,
a social component, right, it's fun, actually has a really big benefit for your mental health.
We do spoil our listeners. The things you learn on this podcast, they've tuned in,
thinking they're going to learn about Formula One, and they've left the podcast knowing
that a good dance is good for your health. You're welcome, everybody. You're welcome.
Now, we're in a time in Formula One that's unusual, because we've got an older driver.
You know, Fernando Alonso of 44 is now quite comfortably the oldest Formula One driver
in modern times. Compare that to say, Arvid Lindblad, who I believe is the youngest on the
grid at the moment. He's just 18. How much does age impact mental fitness, mental strength?
Because one of his sort of feels like one of the great wonders of modern Formula One,
that how Fernando stays so, well, excellent, how he stays performing at this very top level of sport
at 44 is an age where traditionally, if he was playing soccer, he'd have long retired by now.
We know other sports, you could say the same rugby, basketball, but Fernando is still here,
still performing. So I think there's multiple, there's multiple aspects to this. The first is that
if you want to maintain physical performance over decades as he has, and you see this in other
sports as well, where we've had Tom Brady in football, you've got LeBron de James in basketball,
like people who have maintained really the highest level of performance over really long periods
periods of time, the first thing they've done is they've kept performance and their sport, their
focus. So that's often what happens in other high level athletes. They start to make money,
other opportunities come up, they start working on the next thing, whereas these guys have really
maintained a lot of focus on their sport. And then it's thinking about becoming much more focused
in terms of training. So knowing like each individual training session or everything they do
has a very specific focus. When you're younger, you're just going to get better naturally and you
don't necessarily think about all the different intricacies of training and all these things
that they can have an effect. As you get older, that gets more important. So they get really good
at targeting specific things that they're trying to do. And then when they do that,
they have more time to recover. And like recovery is going to play up more of a role as you get
older. And yeah, we do know that as you get older, you tend to lose some strength on average,
you lose some aspects of cognitive function. So like processing speed in particular declines
a little bit, probably a little bit later, right? Maybe a little bit older than Fernando is right
now. But one thing you gain is wisdom. And I think that's probably what Alonso has more of than
anybody else on the grid is you have so much accumulated experience. He's spent so much time
thinking about this and you're working in this area that if he has lost the step physically,
which there's not really much evidence that he has, but if he has, he can overcome that
by having a better understanding of the environment and racecraft and all those kinds of things.
It's again, applying the science to it, knowing very specifically what does impact the brain
when you were older and targeting that. And which is what Fernando and Lewis as well,
of course, who's an older driver is able to do so well. And speaking of older drivers,
most people listening to this podcast will have heard a Formula One commentary by Martin Bundle
at some stage. Martin's always spoken a lot about how in his era of Formula One, the drivers
weren't friends. The drivers weren't, well, not only not friends, but not necessarily friendly
to each other. Martin speaks about the different mentality now. He says that the drivers are
friendly with each other. They do share planes home sometimes. They do socialize sometimes.
Does that mentality change surprise you? Do you have to not be friends with someone to beat them?
Has that changed at all? Because there are certainly people out there that think that
is a change in mentality, that you can beat someone and be friends with them.
Yeah. I think that, well, we know that that happens because they aren't beating each other
and competing with each other, giving no quarter to people that they are friendly with
off the track on a day-to-day basis. So very much when they're on the track,
I think you can say that they're not considering their relationship with other people. They might
be thinking about the other person in terms of their driving quality or their driving style,
right? They're going to know, have some idea of how to kind of battle an individual on track.
But outside of that, you could think that there is the possibility of some benefit of
knowing and being friendly with people who are going through the same thing as you, right?
It's a very time-intensive, travel-intensive, potentially lonely sport, right? Because you're
by yourself in the car. You have a teammate, but that's maybe your primary rival. So if there's
an opportunity to speak with and spend time with somebody who understands what you're going through,
that could potentially be beneficial in the long term. I don't think that influences what
happens on track, but for your mental health over time, there could potentially be some benefit there.
So you do think that it is possible, for me and you, for example, to be friends, to go out for
dinner, to see each other at the race weekend or even away from the race weekend, but then when
you put the helmet on and the visor goes down, totally change mentality and totally switch up
that mindset. Yeah, I think so. And that's the job you're there to do. And I think that
lots of people have things that they perform at, and that becomes the thing that they focus on. And
then outside of that, they can have good relationships. And you know that both of you are
approaching, so say if you're talking about an relationship with two drivers, right?
Both of them would approach that relationship in the same way. So no hard feelings. You
both have a job to do, and then you can decompress afterwards.
On a similar note to that, one of the things I got asked most in Formula One last year was
about the relationship between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. They were their teammates,
they're fighting for a title, they fought right to the very end. And this also came into the
equation with Lando and Max, who was also in that title fight, because we know they get on well off
track. But there seem to be a lot of people trying to make out that Lando and Oscar hated each other,
in my understanding of the situation, is that that is not the case. They like each other,
they respect each other, they're not best friends, but there is a real mutual respect,
and they like each other. How different and how challenging is that relationship in Formula
One with your teammate, that you know you've got to beat this person and work with this person?
How do you negotiate that within the drivers you coach?
So that's very much going to be an individual thing again with the driver and then whoever's
working with them on the sports psychology side. And I think in reality, a lot of what you hear
on the outside is just, you know, people like to stir things up a little bit, it adds some intrigue.
But yes, we have examples through history where we've had more acrimonious relationships, think
about Rosberg and Hamilton, you know. Hamilton and Lonzo at McLaren and Lewis Hamilton's first
Yeah, absolutely. And I still think it goes back to what we were saying earlier is that,
you know, the vast majority of it is when you're on track, you're getting your job done,
you don't really think about those things because all you can really, this is really what goes
comes down to, you can only control your own performance, or you can only control the processes
that you go through that affect your performance. So any work that might be done with somebody
on that front is just making sure that they're able to do that. So if things do come up,
you're not allowing it to affect you on the track.
I've got two more questions for you, Tommy. Just firstly, finally,
if you could summarize what it is you guys do and why it's so important to be so mentally strong
in Formula One, how would you summarize it in a few bullet points? What's the key here?
There's probably two or three main things that are really important. So one is preparing the
athlete physically, right? So this is something we do through physical training, maybe there's
some aspects of cognitive training. We do blood testing. So we're doing a lot of nutrition
strategies, thinking about supplements, just making sure that everything is like, you have a good
physiological base to perform from. So this is one of the things that we talk about with drivers is
how can we create the base that you can perform from? So that's everything around nutrition,
sleep, recovery, training, like just create some robustness there you could perform from that.
Then the next step really is that psychology piece. So again, this is not the work that I do
because I'm mainly in that kind of first bit. Plus, we might think about supplements and other
things for jet lag and race weekends. But then it's getting those pieces in place so that the
drivers have these mental processes they go through so that they're in the right zone when they need
to be on the track. So there's probably the two things. One is that kind of baseline physiology,
health, physical fitness kind of area. And that comes with the medical piece. We have an amazing
set of doctors who kind of do that. And then that's sort of like that mental piece, just putting
those processes in place. Tom, it's been so interesting talking to you. I've so enjoyed it.
Just finally, I know our listeners will be as curious as I am to know a little bit more about
you personally. We know what Hintzer do, but how did you get involved in this world? And how did
you get to Formula One where you were a fan? Tell us a little bit about your journey.
Yeah, so I've been a Formula One fan my entire life. I trained as a doctor in the UK, worked as
a doctor for a couple of years. Then I went and was doing a PhD in physiology and neuroscience.
And while I was doing that, I helped build up a startup company working with a variety of different
athletes. Kind of doing what I do for Hintzer right now, but doing blood testing, thinking about
physical training, thinking about all these other aspects of health that affect performance.
We had a podcast. The former medical director of Hintzer, Luke Bennett, heard me on a podcast,
sent me an email and said, hey, do you want to maybe want to come and do some work with us in
Formula One? And you know, this was 10 years ago and I've been working with Hintzer ever since.
It's amazing. Well, hey, no wonder you agreed to do this podcast. You know, podcasts have held you
in the past. Absolutely. It's good for the medium. Tommy, I could talk to you about this
stopping all day. I've really enjoyed it. I've really found it interesting. I'm sure our listeners
will have got as much out of it as I have. We really appreciate you taking the time to come on,
if one explains. And hopefully we can get you back on in the future. This has been great.
Sounds great. Thanks so much for having me.
Huge thanks to Dr. Tommy Woods and Hintzer Performance or just Tommy,
as I've been given permission to call him. I feel like I'm important if a doctor gives me
permission to just call them by their first name. So thank you to my close personal friend, Tommy.
Keep your questions coming. F1explained to F1.com. So many of you sent in questions this year,
but we're going to be here right the way through the season. So please do keep them coming.
Anything you want to know about from the world of Formula One, it could be on track stuff where
you don't quite understand something a commentator said or why something's happened on track,
or just something that interests you in the off track side of Formula One,
like we've been talking about this week, although I suppose mental performance
spreads both on and off track, doesn't it? But whatever, F1explained to F1.com. Obviously no
racing this weekend, but we've got plenty to keep you entertained. And while you're on your podcast
app, check out F1 Beyond The Grid. Just search for that. F1 Nation for Race Previews and Debriefs
is on this feed, both of those with Tom Clarkson. Of course, the F1 TV team will be on the ground
Monaco to keep you covered through all of that. You can watch that in selected countries and on
Apple TV in the USA. F1explains has new episodes every Friday. We'd be hugely grateful if you
could rate the show, give us a nice comment, subscribe as well. It really does help us.
We're back next Friday. So until then, enjoy your week. Have a good one. Bye for now.
Request an explanation for:
1 cars
1 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark.
Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
