Healthy the breakfast of champions

A couple of decades ago, this article would not of have needed to have been written. You would have a story like this in a copy of Woman's Own then in a Formula One blog. 

Today I'm talking about diets. Well really more about being slim. Too slim. In fact just being unhealthy.

When I first got into Formula One. I used to always buy the F1 Racing magazine's season preview, which had all the drivers vital statistics. Mainly weight and height. Now me being a very geeky math loving child. I used to work out the BMI of all the drivers to see if they were in the healthy range. Most of them were in the healthy range and only the odd one were on the low range of normal BMI. Even though BMI isn't the best way of working out health, it is a good indictator. 

But now a story has come out about Adrian Sutil starving himself for two days to test his limit. Although Sutil admits that he did this of his accord and I know the Sauber team couldn't do anything about that. It turns out that Sutil did drive the Malaysian GP without a water bottle in the car in 50 degree heat and in a race where you can lose upto 3kg even with fluids on board. I find that absurd that the Sauber team didn't take matters into their own hands and protect the safety and health of their driver. 

But the Sutil malnutrition thing sadly isn't something new in Formula One. In the last few years the taller drivers have had a massive disadvantage when it comes to weight and because they can carry more weight they have to be even more careful in a career where weight can cost time. 

We've seen this with Mark Webber in the past and even now with Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenburg where they look incredibly skinny (and in my opinion ill) at the start of the season. Something which doesn't sit right with me. 

To combat this problem this year the car's weight was increased by nearly 50 kg, which should of worked out better for the drivers. Unfortunately though roughly 45kg of this was the brand new hybrid system leaving only a narrow margin for drivers weights.

Meaning that in even in 2014 with the amount of information we have on fitness and nutrition. A driver's health could be suffering just for the sake of a few tenths. It's completely dangerous. 

A driver at the end of the day should be healthy because a healthy driver will have a higher level of concentration then a driver who is weak from dehydration/malnutrition and that is surely worth more in time then in the mistakes that could occur. 

A story like this shouldn't be anywhere in today's society. Not even in Woman's Own.

If you want to you can follow my ramblings on Twitter at @squiffany.