Fuente : Renault F1 Team
http://www.renaultf1.com/

FORMULA 1 - RENAULT: RDD: A new-look fitness training course

The Renault Driver Development members met up in Biarritz mid-August for a three-day fitness training course. Before tackling the final part of their respective racing programmes, all five profited from the summer break to hone their physical shape.

/noticias.info/ Tailored to recharge the batteries
The season is long and sometimes extremely tiring, both physically and mentally. As with all top-flight athletes, racing drivers need to keep as fit as possible all year long if they are to go into each race weekend fully relaxed. This is why the Renault Driver Development's young protégés are required to follow a strict physical fitness programme.
Every year, the RDD runs two or three specially organised courses for its drivers of the moment. They are aimed at introducing new workout programmes as well as fostering good, healthy competition between the five drivers to encourage them to surpass their personal limits. "When we are all together, we are naturally competitive," recognises Jose Maria. "Beating the others is part of our DNA!" "It's really great to get together. I find it stimulating and it gives us a chance to recharge our batteries," adds Pastor.
The menu of last August's course featured a combination of surfing, pelote Basque (a local squash-like sport), weight training, running in sand and the traditional karting contest…

Team spirit: a key to success
By definition, motor racing is an individualistic sport; when the lights go out to indicate the start of a race, the driver is completely alone in his car. Yet without a team of mechanics and engineers behind him, the driver is nothing. The RDD Programme management consequently believe it is primordial for their budding champions to develop a sense of team spirit. This is vital to optimising the way they bond and communicate with their respective teams. The fitness training programmes are a chance for the RDD drivers to discuss their individual experiences on and off the track and learn to form part of a community. "We don't see each other very often during the year and, when we do get together, we like to talk about our latest races," notes Loïc. And although four of this year's quintet have known each other since 2004, Pastor had no problem fitting in with the group, which speaks volumes for the excellent team spirit that reigns in the RDD.

Surfing: a different approach
Ideas come no stranger than putting drivers on surfboards. "Maybe,” says Daryl Coombes, the RDD's physical fitness trainer. “But it's important to work on the torso because it is the part of the body on which the most demands are made during a race. Surfing calls for similar physical strengths and is not as much of a mismatch as it may first appear. On top of that, surfing demands a range of other skills such as balance, coordination, agility and an ability to take snap decisions. For example, in surfing you need to be able to spot the right wave; in racing you need to choose the ideal moment to overtake another car, you need to find the car's limits and brake as late as possible." On hand to provide tips was French expert Micky Picon – a surfer with Quiksilver, an RDD partner – who took time to reveal some of his secrets to the RDD squad.

For the record…
The surfing part of the course was dominated by the programme's South American threesome (Lucas DiGrassi, Jose Maria Lopez and Pastor Maldonado) but Frenchman Loïc Duval won the kart competition, while Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, who is always up for a challenge, suggested a pull-ups contest which was narrowly won by Jose, leaving Heikki to finish first in the sand running race. The atmosphere was good humoured from start to finish. "We always have fun together," concludes Jose. "It's at the end of the day that you realise that you've really been put through a tough workout!" notas_de_prensa_archivo