Expert Advice
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The correct diet to tackle a day of karting on the racetrack
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The comparison could not be more ad-hoc: “Nutrition is for the driver what fuel is for the kart: to put too much fuel ends up weighing the vehicle down while by putting in too little, one risks to not get to the end of the race. But, above all, it is necessary to fuel up with the right gasoline “because a 4T engine cannot possibly work with a gasoline-oil mix…”. An assertion by Doctor Riccardo Ceccarelli, founder of the “Formula Medicine” structure which, from 1989 to today has been providing medical and fitness assistance to a few hundred drivers in various categories of the motorsport, from karting to F1. A super-expert, therefore, one who knows very well how fundamentally nutrition is for a driver’s performance during a day on the track.
Let us start from a simple consideration: in reality there doesn't exist a diet for normal days and one for competition days. For example: if I only have one race at four in the afternoon, I eat normally as I do every day. So... the problem becomes what I eat every day. A little different is if I need to manage my time and intense track sessions.
Pasta or plain rice, seasoned with a drizzle of oil or with a simple tomato sauce, lean meat, grilled and without additional sauces, boiled white fish, fruit and vegetables… These are all simple foods which are always beneficial to one’s health.
In this case too, we can start with some general advice: Eat like monkeys. I know it sounds strange, but it is truly like that: when they are in their natural habitat [like a kart driver on the track - Editor’s note], monkeys eat as soon as they experience the stimulus of hunger or feel their sugar levels dropping. They take what they find at hand, but do not gorge themselves and leave the rest. Simply said, eat little and often, avoiding fasting for too long and being careful not to eat too close to the time when you have to get behind the wheel.
I am convinced that if I were to go to the starting line with an internist and were to perform a gastroscopy to all of the drivers, the majority would have something in their stomach and that is not good, as digestion goes a ‘blood confiscation’ to the rest of the body, leaving less of it for the brain and the other organs involved while working harder during the race.
It depends a lot on the times they need to be on the racetrack. As a general rule, one should have breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner. What is important, as I have said, it is simple to eat plain foods. One needs to learn two or three basic rules, get an idea of the intake of calories that each food provides and the digestion times, then the rest follows accordingly, by simple common sense and listening to the signals given by one’s own body.
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