Coronavirus: Quarantine Is Perfect Training Camp, Says Formula 1 Driver

 

Amid the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic, Australian racing driver who is currently competing in Formula One for the Renault F1 Team, Daniel Ricciardo, has asserted that quarantine is the ‘perfect training camp’.

Allnews reports that eight Grand Prix races have been called off and Formula E season suspended as a result of the threat posed by covid-19.

Ricciardo and his fellow F1 drivers’ enforced winter prolongation because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking from his farm near Perth, Australia via an Instagram Live Q&A with his Renault F1 team, Ricciardo revealed how he’d been keeping busy during his self-isolation period, with the coronavirus pandemic.

“Keeping fit really. I know it's probably going to be a while till we race again, but I'm not allowing myself to go back into holiday mode,” he said.

“Training's definitely the thing that's keeping me with that competitive mindset. You get a bit of anger out when you train, so that's been my medicine for now.

“I feel like now it's kind of perfect to get in shape,” he added.

“Because we're forced to stay in, so there's no jet lag, there's no airports, we can really create a real training camp, which we don't always have.

"So it's been nice knowing that we've got time, we don't have to rush it. I think you're going to see a lot of drivers, and probably just people in general, whenever this is over looking pretty fit.”

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Ricciardo joked that, when racing does finally start, he was "thinking of qualifying last [at the first race], because I think Turn 1 is just going to be mayhem.

"I'm just going to watch it all unfold and I'll probably lead the first lap" – before revealing that activities from buggy racing to sheep shearing to rapping had been keeping him occupied on the farm...

“I've got some buggies here and I have made some tracks for those, so I'm getting a little bit of a racing fix – they're releasing some of that speed and adrenaline,” he said on the Instagram Live, which was watched by the likes of fellow racer Lando Norris, MotoGP legend Randy Mamola and the Mercedes, Racing Point and McLaren teams.

“I was messing around the other day just writing lyrics. I might try and rap them out at some point, I don't know… you've just got all this spare time, so I'm kind of like 'why not?'

“Then building things, there was some sheep shearing the other day – although I didn't do it; it looked a little difficult, but I watched.”

As of 26 March, more than 472,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 190 countries and territories, resulting in approximately 21,300 deaths and more than 114,000 recoveries.