THE DEMANDS OF F1 are unlike many traditional sports. Not only do the teams and drivers have to traverse the world from week-to-week, with race weekends lasting for four days, they also have to contend with extreme climates, jet lag and intense physical and mental pressure.
Henry Howe is an osteopath and long-time performance coach to Lance Stroll of the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team. He understands just how important it is for F1 drivers to maintain a consistently high level of fitness throughout the season, rather than peaking for specific races or moments. That’s a challenge in itself, before factoring in the extensive travel and media commitments.
‘It’s obviously a very unique sport,’ Howe tells MH at the Miami Grand Prix. ‘In most sports, like football for example, there are certain fixtures that you would like to be at your absolute best for. If Liverpool are playing Manchester City, they know it’s an important game. Whereas for us, it’s the same points every week. You have 24 events. But you can’t really peak at 24 events across nine or 10 months. You just can’t do it. So it’s more about staying ready as best you can, being sympathetic to the travel schedule.’
Stroll’s training schedule remains consistent, but that doesn’t always mean it’s regimented. ‘It’s a mix really of lots of cardio,’ Howe adds. ‘With Lance we run. It’s the easiest thing to be consistent with because you can run everywhere. Anywhere between three to five days a week, just depending on whether or not we’re in a race week or not.
‘Weight training is anywhere from one to four a week as well. The weight training, I’m not going to say it’s massively performance in the car — it’s more overall health, supporting the joints, etc, and good muscle mass. We’re a little bit limited because of the driver weight limit. If we go over 78 kilos with all the kit, then it’s a penalty — it’s a time penalty on the track. So we can’t lift loads of weight.’
Specific Pit Crew Training
Formula 1 drivers aren’t the only athletes training to perform to their optimum at the track every weekend – pit crews also need to remain strong and fit throughout the season. Exceptionally executed pit stops are over in less than two seconds, while anything over three seconds is deemed too long and could prove the difference between gaining, maintaining, or losing a position on track. Training is tailored to each of the 22 pit crew members, with Rahul Chotai overseeing their preparation to help optimise performance.
‘A lot of the training that the pit crew do starts pre-season and we try to encourage them to also train in between races,’ Chotai says. ‘For every position we try to prescribe sport-specific exercises. So the front jackman will be a lot more upper-body arm work, whereas the wheel guys will be a lot more front rotation. We start off generically with compounds and then target individually based on their particular position.
‘With pit stops, it’s about 22 people coordinating at the same time and you want to be on the same page and you want to be of a similar fitness and build level. So we try to put them in their optimal positions and then train them accordingly so, when it comes down to it, it’s just rinse and repeat.’
Dealing With High Temperatures and Jet Lag
When it comes to races such as the Miami Grand Prix, where temperatures can reach up to 30 degrees outside the car and considerably warmer in it, Howe prefers Stroll to get to the destination early for some heat acclimation. ‘This week in Miami, heat acclimation is really important. So, he ran Monday and Wednesday, and then he played padel Tuesday,’ he says.
‘He loves the sauna. We love the sauna. It’s nice for jet lag, it’s good for overall health, cardiovascular health and skin. But Formula 1 drivers are already insanely tuned to heat. They’ve got an engine behind them. They’ve got a track underneath them. Hungary, for example, can get to around 60, 62-degree track temperature.’
But, while the rest of the team doesn’t quite have that same luxury, with their responsibilities often requiring work at the factory back at Silverstone in the week of the race, Chotai implements other changes in order for people to get acclimated and accustomed to the destination.
‘One of the ways that we try to manage that is I send out a little document – which has now moved into an app – to try and adjust people’s sleep patterns three to four days prior to us flying out,’ Chotai says. ‘So whether we go east or west, we try to bring everyone’s sleep pattern forward by an hour every day or delay it by an hour every day. And we also try to delay or bring forward their nutrition, their training – all in all just to try and put everyone into the time zone that we’re going into.’
Injury Prevention
For both Rahul Chotai and Howe, addressing niggles and potential injuries early is paramount. With more triple-headers being added to the calendar and seasons growing increasingly demanding, simply keeping drivers and pit crew fully fit year-round has become a challenge in itself.
‘I’m an osteopath as well as a trainer, so we’re managing exercise rehabilitation as well with niggles that maybe you pick up throughout the sport,’ Howe adds. ‘Formula 1 cars are notoriously unforgiving. They’re a carbon shell without any padding, so if you have a niggle it can be quite difficult to get through a season with. They get general niggles that anyone will get. But they’re amplified when you’re on a different bed every week, different pillows, different time zones.’
Interviews were conducted courtesy of the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix.
