There’s no denying the fact that motor racing is an inherently dangerous sport. And for Nicole Piastri, the stress of watching his son, Oscar, go through the ranks of Formula Racing made her lose weight drastically during his race weekends.
In a recent appearance on ‘The Red Flags Podcast,’ Nicole revealed how she would lose up to 3 kilos of weight during Oscar’s race weekends in the junior categories because of all the nerves and adrenaline and lack of sleep. She said;
“You know, in all the other categories I used to lose two or three kilos a weekend when he’d race… I would put the weight back on within a week and then they were only racing every 3 or 4 weeks in those categories so it was fine.”
But when Oscar signed his Formula 1 contract, Nicole thought that the situation would become much worse for her because the F1 calendar is longer and there are more races more frequently. However, she also admitted that she has become accustomed to it and now it doesn’t stress her out as much as before.
But there is still one element of Formula 1 that she still doesn’t like.
Nicole Piastri is still stressed by the start of the race
When asked what’s the most nerve-wracking part of watching Oscar going into a Grand Prix on Sunday, Nicole mentioned that she still hates watching the start of the race.
“The start, it’s the start, yeah,” Nicole said. “I hate the start and then the rest I’m actually much better watching F1.” And there is a good reason for her to be stressed when the lights go out. Some of the worst crashes in the sport’s history like Guanyu Zhou’s crash at Silverstone have happened during the race starts.
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(via ted_meagher98/TikTok) pic.twitter.com/XeQDhOb2cs
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 7, 2023
At the start, all 20 cars are bunched together, and that increases the risk of unpredictable collisions. This risk increases even further if the first corner is a short distance away from the start line.
But that’s not it, the drivers are also eager to gain positions early in the race which leads to aggressive maneuvers which is compounded by the fact that the tires and brakes aren’t at optimal operating temperatures, reducing grip and braking efficiency.
