Dynamic ECG analysis in drivers during a F1 championship

This work reports, to our knowledge, the first systematic analysis of Formula One drivers dynamic ECG during races for a whole F1 world championship. The investigation engaged the research group both from the technical and the medical point of view. The ECG signal has been collected by a miniaturised and ad hoc developed electrocardiograph; digitally converted data are stored on the on-board delta logger, on-line and/or off-line transmitted through standard telemetry together with all the environmental and car parameters, such as velocity, accelerations, position, etc. The analysis, performed by a modified version of the standard telemetry programme (up to now referring only to the rhythm analysis, namely the heart rate, HR), showed that a sizeable physical stress is present, which was of more relevance than the psychological one. Other interesting correlations have been observed between HR and accelerations. A further study, concerning research on meaningful parameters of the driver training level, has been set up from a methodological point of view; only preliminary results have been obtained on the basis of a joint analysis of the HR and the time performance of the driver during the race. Consolidated results of the present investigation, obtained by means of comparison with data collected in other motor sport races and during international marathons, demonstrated, from the sport medicine point of view, that Formula One can be considered as a true "endurance" sport.