Daniel Ricciardo has explained the physical impact after putting in an extensive amount of laps in the 2022 F1 car in Barcelona. The Australian racked up the fourth highest amount of laps amongst all of the drivers during the final day of the recent pre-season test, and had previously been busy behind the wheel on day two of the three-day event. McLaren put in a total of 367 laps throughout the test, with only Ferrari and Mercedes achieving a higher amount.
First laps a "shock to the body"
With this being the drivers' first opportunity to properly get behind the wheel of the new cars after the winter break, Ricciardo admits that this can have quite an impact physically on the body, despite the intense training regimes that they all embark on. "[With] the body, it's funny, [because] probably the first 10 laps of the day are the hardest," Ricciardo told media including RacingNews365.com after his first full day in the MCL36. "Because they're the ones that are like a shock to the body. We train, obviously, in the off-season. We go through a programme, but you can't simulate 5Gs. "We can't simulate that through our training, so we can build our muscles to get strong, but nothing kind of pushes our body like an F1 car. So I think no matter how much we train, there is always that shock factor, especially after not driving for a few months."
Ricciardo pleased with testing
Whilst the opening laps posed a physical challenge, Ricciardo says that he soon adapted again, and was left feeling pleased - in not a little tired - following his full day of running in the car. "After that [initial 10 laps], I felt like I kind of got into it and felt pretty good," the McLaren driver said. "Definitely tired now, I think I'll sleep well tonight, but pretty good. Pretty good so far for day one, and we did plenty of laps. The car was solid, so [it was a] pretty smooth day." Ricciardo and McLaren will be back in action again at the second pre-season test in Bahrain on 10-12 March.
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