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Sports 189
cycles 10,000 times a minute, which means that the vibration
he feels is at that rate.
His neck and shoulder muscles are under immense strain,
trying to keep his eyes level as the g-force pushes his head
from side to side in the corners. The strong acceleration
makes blood pool in his legs so that less is delivered to the
heart, which means that there's less cardiac output, forcing
the pulse rate up. Formula One drivers' pulses are often up to
180, even 200, and they stay at 85 percent of that maximum
for almost the entire length of a two-hour race.
Breathing quickens as the muscles call for more blood—
speed literally takes your breath away—and the whole body
goes into emergency stance. A two-hour emergency. The
mouth goes dry, the eyes dilate as the car travels the length
of a football field for every normal heartbeat. The brain processes
information at an astonishingly rapid rate, since the
higher the speed, the less the reaction time. Reactions have
to be not only quick but also extraordinarily precise, no matter
how great the physical strain. Split seconds may be mere
slivers of time, but they are also the difference between winning
and losing a race, or between entering and avoiding a
crash.
In short, a Formula One driver has to be almost preternaturally
alert under conditions of maximum physical pressure.
Obviously, the adrenaline is pumping. . .. But in addition to
the physical fitness of top athletes, he needs that chess
player s mind as he assimilates telemetry data, calculates overtaking
points, and executes a racing strategy. All of which is
why speed is so dangerous for most of us: we simply have neither
the physical nor the mental stamina to handle it.
Psychologically, what happens in a race is still more complex.
The muscles, the brain chemicals, the laws of physics,
the vibration, the conditions of the race—all these combine to
generate a high level of excitement and tension in the body,