Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo is looking forward to being pushed to the limits by the new technical regulations being introduced for the 2017 Formula 1 season, which should mean the physical challenge of driving a F1 car will be much greater.
With the increased downforce and much quicker lap times predicted, drivers will need to be stronger and at peak fitness to endure the new demands they will face at every race.
The Australian has always enjoyed working hard in training, so the extra effort required is right up his street, as he explained to motorsport.com recently.
“For me it’s going to be more fun personally because we’re doing a bit more strength training, I kind of enjoy it.
“Last year and the past few years you do training to keep your weight down, a lot of long endurance but not high intensity to put muscle on.
“So it’s in a way, the training we’ve done is a little bit more boring where I think now we can push harder in training, afford to put on muscle and things like this. It’ll be challenging but a bit more rewarding.”
The long campaign of twenty-one races in 2016 took its toll on Riccardo, who feels the extra training they can squeeze in this year, due to the later pre-season testing schedule, is a real bonus.
“In a way it’s quite nice the testing is late. That gives us a good chance to physically get a bit more time for ourselves to train.
“That’s one thing with such a long season, a lot of races during the year, you don’t get a whole lot of time to train physically as well as you’d like. You get a day here or there. You don’t really get a week of proper training, very rarely.
“I’m actually excited to get nearly two months of real training outside the car before we test, so I think that uninterrupted period will be quite nice.
Ricciardo finished third in the drivers’ standings in 2016, and will be hoping the regulation changes, coupled with a boost in performance from Renault’s revolutionary new engine concept, will allow him to challenge for the title this year. Being in the form of his life therefore, will be crucial.
