Many special relationships form in the F1 paddock, but maybe none more so than that between a driver and his trainer. Unique, intriguing and some even a little weird – I recently got an eye-opening insight into some of these wicked bromances.
They say behind every powerful man there is a strong woman. Well, in F1, behind every great driver stands an excellent (and usually very muscly) trainer. They are the men behind the men, both inflicting pain and soothing it. When the storm comes, they bring the calm and there are no lengths they won’t go to, to prepare their drivers for every looming battle. They are the trainers of F1!
Alex Elgh \ Trainer to Marcus Ericsson
From Motocross and Supercross racer to F1 trainer, Alex has possibly the tightest friendship with Marcus of any of the trainers-driver duos. He has been with Marcus since day one of his F1 career. The pair could easily be mistaken for Calvin Klein models as they enter the circuit but don’t let their perfect hair deceive you. When it comes to racing it’s serious business and extremely hard work, no blue steel in sight.
Upon completing his studies and a career change, Alex was offered his role as he picked his father, Eje Elgh, and a young Marcus up from the airport three years ago. For those who don’t know, Eje was the one who discovered Ericsson in karts.
“We became pretty good friends straight away,” Alex shares. “I think he understand the importance of having close people around him.”
The tall, tanned, buff Alex can always be found in the vicinity of Sauber within the paddock, sometimes basking in the sun when he has a break or checking up on Marcus, but always smiling. It’s no wonder the young Swedish driver enjoys having his calming energy around.
But it’s not just training that Alex takes care of, this muscle man proudly wears many hats – assistant, travel booker, pit board guy, confidant and mate to go out with. That’s quite a job.
“I know him so well now I know when to talk to him, I know when to push him, I know when to hold him back, that’s with everything,” he reveals. “In the gym I can see when he’s tired and it’s better to take it easy or when he wants to push. When he’s had a bad race I don’t talk to him, I stay away and later at night we talk about it and try to reload and recharge.
“It’s a weird relationship really because we do so much travelling all the time. Compared to other trainers I think me and Marcus spend a lot of time together.”
Outside of a race weekend they can be spotted heading to concerts together or just hanging out with mutual friends.
Marcus’s Training
26-year-old Marcus trains for two hours a day during in-season to maintain the winter gains. Pre-season is much more intensive with the aim of building a good base for the year.
“Marcus is getting more and more into training,” explains Alex. “He enjoys it more than he has done before.” Outside of the gym Alex tries to keep Marcus active with things like swimming, learning to surf or paddle-boarding if they’re at the beach or tennis.
Also the owner of a Crossfit gym Alex sometimes incorporates the training style into his workouts. “With Crossfit, what I do like is that he can come to my workout in the morning and have no idea what’s going to happen. He really needs to adapt, to understand what the exercises are and figure things out and I think that’s something that’s good when you’re in the car also. Things happen and you have to react and adapt, and that’s what I like with it.
As with most other drivers, this year the bar has been raised in the gym to accommodate for the new cars. “This year we’ve done quite a lot to get him stronger, it’s been a bit different. He’s able to put on a bit of weight, muscles, they’ve never been able to do that before.”
The trainer attributes Marcus’ ability to quickly adapt to time differences and jet lag to their Swedish upbringing of long days of summer and constant darkness in winter.
Diet
With the challenges of constant travel, Elgh just tries to educate Ericsson on what’s good and what’s not, rather than follow a strict meal plan. “When we first started I could see that he didn’t really know what he could eat and couldn’t eat,” says Alex. “If you want the perfect diet then you need to make your own food and weigh it, and it’s difficult when you’re always on the fly, in the hotel, different places, different kinds of food. It’s really difficult.”
Marcus Says….
“I think I’m the closest one in the paddock to my trainer. For me Alex is pretty much with me all the time. He’s not just a trainer for me. It’s quite a special relationship. It’s very, very important that we get along because we spend so much time together and we trust each other as well. It’s not rocket science to put together a good training program, I think it’s more on the personal side which is important, especially for Formula 1 trainers. It’s more getting the driver to be focused, relaxed and not stressed (on a race weekend), like a support. Making sure everything is there for you, and a moral support in all different areas. That’s more important for me than the training… even though he is a trainer.”
Tips for trainers wanting to work in F1:
“I think it good to know some stuff about racing before. From my first year I wanted to do so much with Marcus like really get him into super good shape and perfect warm up and stretches and massage after the race. But then you find out there’s no time. You need to know what racing’s all about and you have to go to these meetings and stay late at night, you can’t just go home and rest and prepare.”
