A day in the life of Max Verstappen

Published on 13 February 2015 by Stefan Meens

Being a Grand Prix driver is not all about racing and travelling the world; there is a lot of sweat and hard work that goes into getting into shape to race a Formula 1 car. Max Verstappen reveals how a day in his usy life looks, as he prepares for his F1 race debut in Melbourne in March.

"I usually wake up at 7.30 and I'm normally getting to the gym at 8.45. Sometimes I have breakfast before I start and other times I don't; it all depends, because sometimes I am not that hungry. If I have breakfast, it's eggs and yoghurts and of course, I'm always drinking a lot of water."

Max: "My trainer has been with me ever since the beginning of January to take me through the programmes, which makes it much more enjoyable than working on your own. It's quite a disciplined routine, in terms of exercise and watching my diet – I'm not a great lover of cakes and sweets so that's not a problem, but I have to watch that I don't eat too much pasta that I really love. For the last one and a half years, I haven't grown any taller, so it looks as though I will stay 1m80 now! Hopefully!"

"In the gym, in the last month, we focussed a lot on my neck, my upper body and my core stability, which is very important. So it is a lot of endurance training. In the mornings, I concentrate on strength sessions to build up my upper body and neck. For the neck I used weights and bands, which work by pulling against your own weight. At home we have a machine you sit in like a real car, you put on a real helmet and pull weights with your head and neck, which is a really good workout."

"Then in the middle of the day, I have a break for a light lunch before going back to the gym at around 1 o'clock. From then to 3.30 it's endurance training, running, cycling and so on. After that, I go home and have some all-important recovery time. I like to do a lot of my training outdoors, but the weather here hasn't really been good enough for that, but once it improves I will get out to do my cycling and running, rather than use the gym equipment."

"Recuperation time is a very important part of a fitness regime. So, I would do this programme for four days a week, with two days on a more relaxed training schedule and for one day, I relax completely. There's always room to improve on the physical side, but I felt quite okay during the first test in Jerez, so I'm sure I will be ready for whatever the season can throw at me."