Max Verstappen is rightly praised for his phenomenal driving skills, but the Red Bull superstar is also a formidable athlete.
While Verstappen isn’t the most outwardly muscular driver in Formula 1, his largely error-free driving is a testament to his physical and mental endurance.
There are 24 race weekends per year, which translates to 72 days of driving. All of those race weekends include a Grand Prix lasting around 90 minutes, and six of them feature a 30-minute Sprint.
Add testing into the mix, and the schedule between late January and early December becomes almost relentless, aside from the summer break. Verstappen has also started sampling GT cars in his spare time.
While they aren’t as physically demanding as F1 machines, one would expect him to take every opportunity to rest.
Max Verstappen’s body type helps him deal with F1 G-force
In a video on Williams’ official YouTube channel, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon discussed the importance of neck strength.
Drivers need to be ready to withstand up to 6.5 G during the fastest qualifying laps of the year. The neck takes the brunt of the load.
Sainz, who used to be teammates with Verstappen, says a ‘compressed’ body type is advantageous.
Verstappen is around 5ft 11in tall, but his stocky build helps him absorb the G-forces. The same can be said for fellow Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar and 2025 world champion Lando Norris, even though they are among the shortest drivers on the grid.
“Drivers with a short neck struggle less,” Sainz explained. “I don’t think Max struggles much, Lando, Isack, for example. People that are more compressed!”
How do F1 drivers actually train their necks?
Albon says that, no matter how hard drivers train in the winter, they can’t be fully prepared for their first laps back in the car during pre-season testing. There’s ultimately no substitute for driving the car.
“I will train my neck in the off-season three times a week,” he said. “Harness work, the neck planks. We’ll do one rep max, different rotational ones.
“That being said, the first 10 laps you go around Barcelona, you are destroyed! It’s such a niche muscle.
“The science behind it has got better, but actually, the best thing is just driving.
“Sometimes, we can use weighted helmets. You can wear a helmet that has a ton of weight around it, maybe four or five times heavier than a weighted helmet and you go can go karting.”
Williams missed the first test in Barcelona, scheduled for this week, due to production delays. That means Sainz and Albon won’t complete significant mileage until the paddock reconvenes in Bahrain on 11 February.
The two drivers have started over 350 races between them, so they are at least accustomed to the demands. There’s only one rookie on the 2026 grid – 18-year-old Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad, who steps up from Formula 2.
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