Tom Brady is considered the pinnacle of what it means to be a high-performance athlete, not only in his sport of American Football but across the various sporting disciplines.
One of the reasons why he is considered the GOAT is because not only did he win an unprecedented seven Super Bowls, but he was consistently winning the biggest prize in NFL well into his 40s—with a career spanning a whopping 23 seasons.
That said, with all the success that he enjoyed, his prolonged stay in a relatively brutal contact sport has left him with many battle scars. Concussions and brain injuries are very common in NFL and Brady has suffered a fair share of these gremlins, too.
In a conversation with Williams’ Carlos Sainz, on the eve of the 2025 Miami GP, last weekend, the 47-year-old opened up about his career and how his time in the NFL means that he tries to avoid activities that involve a high level of g-forces.
“The only thing I don’t love is the roller coasters or the g-forces. [I think it] would be hard for me. I did a lot of like… I played a long time, I feel like 23 years of getting hit [has taken a toll],” he explained.
Naturally, given the very nature of Formula 1, and the immense g-forces a driver needs to pull means that Brady will never be able to experience the thrill of getting behind the wheel of an F1 car owing to his career in the NFL.
Having said that, though, there are other ways that normal people can experience, at least partly, how it feels to be in an F1 car. The performance road cars today are tuned to go fast on race tracks. And while they aren’t F1 exactly, it’s the closest someone can get to experience the speed and the thrill at the pinnacle of motorsport.
tom brady: “i got my boy carlos sainz coming over…” pic.twitter.com/ovnQfFZVKa
— yoyo (@williamssainz) May 2, 2025
In fact, Brady’s counterpart, Ryan Clark—who played as a Safety and Free Safety in the NFL was invited for a hot lap at the Miami International Autodrome, last weekend. Even then, he chose to take a few tips from Lando Norris who dropped an appearance on his podcast—The Pivot Podcast.
Concurring with Brady, Norris also warned Clark about the immense g-forces he would have to endure and to particularly take care of his neck.
“You have to be able to brace against something because your neck will want to go forward,” the #4 driver warned the 45-year-old.
So, even though NFL athletes have been facing some massive physical challenges in their careers, handling the forces in F1 machinery would be a whole different game for them.
