F1 drivers starving to get beanpole position

FORMULA One's drivers met for their annual gala dinner this week, but calories were off the menu.

Mark Webber

FORMULA One's drivers met for their annual gala dinner this week, but calories were off the menu.

Jenson Button has confessed that he effectively starves himself as F1 hurtles into an era of jockey-sized drivers. Weight is an unspoken issue in the paddock, a talking point usually restricted to the catwalks and parade rings of racecourses.

Eating disorders are rife in the world of horse racing where jockeys drive down their weights to guarantee rides on the best horses. Frankie Dettori, one of the tiniest of sportsmen at just 54.8kg, has admitted taking diuretic drugs in his quest to meet the riding weights demanded by racehorse owners.

Now F1 is changing steeds and the onus is on drivers to shave kilos off already lean frames because teams are deciding not to hire those whose extra pounds could be a critical factor in finding speed.

The Grand Prix Drivers' Association, the F1 drivers' union, is so concerned that it was due to meet overnight to demand that regulation minimum weights are raised next season to give them some belt room.

Mark Webber, a fraction over 183cm and 75kg, warns that the ideal driver weight is now between 60 and 65kg, because every 5kg of extra weight means a loss of 0.2 seconds a lap -- a huge drag in F1 terms, in which lap times are measured in fractions.

In a Twitter message, Webber, who retires at the end of the season, added: "Haven't eaten for last 5 years! Minimum weight has been too low for ages."

In rugby union, the mission is to bulk up, with even the shortest of forwards built like tanks; Tom Youngs, the England hooker, is short enough to be a racing driver but almost twice the weight at 101kg.

Bradley Wiggins, Britain's Olympic champion cyclist, has to carry his own weight on his bike, though, and is an incredible beanpole of a sportsman at less than 70kg, even though he is over 183cm.

There are no suggestions that eating disorders are rife in F1, although David Coulthard, one of the tallest drivers during his time in the sport, said he was bulimic as a teenager heading for F1 and the McLaren team, regularly vomiting his food to keep his weight to a minimum.

Yesterday, in the quiet Mokpo paddock before the Korean Grand Prix this weekend, Button spoke frankly of his struggle to make the ideal weight for his McLaren car, even though he is acknowledged to be one of the fittest drivers on the grid. A seriously competitive triathlete, Button weighs in at 70kg and has only 6 per cent body fat, which makes him one of the leanest athletes in sport, but he, too, is 183cm, 8cm taller than Sebastian Vettel, the jockey-sized world champion who weighs in at just 64kg. "I am on the limit in our car now," Button said. "I couldn't be heavier than I am, so I fast. I don't eat carbohydrates at all.

"I eat limited amounts of food and it is always high in protein and no carbs, which puts weight on. And this is all of the time -- all year. I love food, but I love the food I don't eat. The problem is that (teams) will stop looking at taller drivers.

"You could have a very talented driver who could be missed for his height and weight, even if he is the fittest and skinniest driver there has ever been in a racing car. If he is over the weight by 5kg, that is 0.2sec a lap and it is the end of your career basically.

"It sounds small, but in qualifying that could be a position or two and in the race it could be five or six seconds. It is a big deal, he said."

Nico Hulkenberg, another six-footer weighing in at 74kg, is said to have been rejected by McLaren because he is too heavy for the new era of 2014 cars that will be powered by a combination of a conventional petrol-powered 1.6-litre, turbo-charged engine and electrical systems.

The minimum weight of car and driver combined has been raised from the regulation 642kg at the Korean Grand Prix this weekend to 690kg for 2014 to cater for the heavier power packs.

However, F1 teams attempt to build cars underweight so that they can use ballast to trim and balance their cars and the heavier the driver, the less room for manoeuvre for the engineers.

The new weight limit will even affect small but muscular drivers, such as Lewis Hamilton, who has been working out so much he has put on muscle to weigh in at 68kg. Add another 3kg for his helmet and overalls and Hamilton says he, too, is at the limit. His answer to weight loss was dramatic, novel -- and slightly cheeky, though.

"I am not going to be 65 kilos unless I cut my nuts off," he said with a grin.