As the editor of F1world, an Italian newspaper, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Antti, Sebastian's athletic trainer. Here's what he told me:
Has it always been your dream to become a personal trainer since childhood? What do you consider to be the best and worst aspects of your chosen profession?
Sport has certainly been my passion for my whole life. My sport when I was younger was football and I got to play some games in the Finnish Youth National Team and in the Men’s top league in Finland. However, I struggled with a lot of injuries and at one point realised that my time would probably be better spent outside the pitch. I then researched on what was the highest ranked university in Europe to study sport science and applied. Soon I was on my way to England.
The best aspect about the job is that I get to influence the quality of the daily work because that is where in the end the results come from, in my opinion. Performance in a complex sport such as F1 is very multifaceted and time in the gym does not equal results, but I’m fascinated about the endless challenge of trying to help an athlete find the best balance so that they could be as close to their best as possible on the race day.
The worst aspect is probably the time I have to spend away from home.
You've worked with Buemi, Vergne and Vettel. They are all three very talented drivers, but different in their own way. How difficult is it to change the way you work depending on the athlete?
This is a good question. However, as much as they are different in their own way, they are all three world champions, which means that they also have a lot in common. You must be somehow exceptional to reach this level at any sport. They all of course have enormous driving talent, but what I find more important is their will to improve and their mental drive and energy to keep going when things get difficult.
When athletes share this mentality, there are ultimately more similarities than differences. I, as a coach, must simply be able to offer well rationalised solutions on how a plan can improve their performance and if I’ve done my assessment and plan well, the athlete with this mindset will follow because they know it will help them achieve their goal. Key is always to be able to relate what you do to how it affects the performance and what its relative importance is.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced as an F1 fitness trainer?
The biggest challenge I have faced has been to understand the sport properly. Without this it’s difficult to be able to grasp what really transfers to the track. What should a coach be looking to improve that really makes a difference. There are some physical benchmarks that must be met such as a specific VO2max level or different strength metrics, but do they really improve driving or do they only allow one to start properly expressing their driving skill. How to train the skill of driving when you can’t drive on track with the car. Put in differently, how would a footballer train if he wasn’t allowed to go on the pitch and touch a ball between the matches or would only have three training sessions with his team before the start of the season? These are in my opinion huge challenges in this sport.
There are some tracks on the calendar that are harder than others, where you need more preparation (I'm thinking of Singapore, for example). Is there specific training for these types of circuits?
Singapore is certainly one of the heaviest races of the year and puts the drivers to a real test. This is due to the heat and humidity combined with the street track nature of the circuit with plenty of small bumps and walls close to you all the time allowing no space for mistakes. On top it’s also by far the longest race lasting always the full two hours.
The heat is something you can prepare for in the last two weeks before the race but otherwise I tend not to do much specific physical preparation for individual races.
Cellular level training adaptations take weeks to achieve and therefore a week or two between races simply isn’t enough training time to make a meaningful difference. Therefore, the most important thing is to have a well thought through annual plan where you balance different types of training at different times around the year and keep the athlete racing fit throughout. There are no peaks in this sport like in the Olympic sports and the driver must be in top condition all the time.
In your job you have the task of preparing the driver, in this case Sebastian Vettel, not only physically but also mentally. How important is the psychological component?
The importance of the psychological component is enormous in a complex sport such as F1. However, I think it’s also a very misunderstood and often overcomplicated component. What is often heard is discussion on someone being mentally strong or weak. However, this doesn’t really mean anything in my opinion.
In my eyes, every good or bad event in any sport is made up of the decision to go for a move and the skill to do it.
The decision relates to the way an athlete reads and anticipates the situation and the ability to whether the driver can do the move in that situation. By breaking the event down it’s much easier to pinpoint what led to it. This creates a solution-oriented mindset and brings the control back to the athlete.
Now he knows what he needs to look at to make sure that he can repeat the same fantastic move in the next race if the opportunity arises or avoid making the same mistake again. The alternative option is that the athlete feeds his ego with the good move or destroys it with the mistake and learning never happens.
Time spent reflecting around these matters is in my opinion key for performance in any team willing to succeed.
Covid was a challenge for everyone. It forced us to distance ourselves and put our lives on hold. Even F1 was put on hold. How did you cope with this challenge with Sebastian Vettel?
The effects of Covid worldwide have of course been disastrous and I hope we are able to turn the page sooner rather than later. However, for us living in the countryside in Switzerland, we luckily managed to keep things reasonably stable and keep working.
Since 2014 you have been working with Sebastian Vettel. What is it like working with him?
Sebastian is an absolute professional whom I have great respect to as an athlete and an individual. As much as I have been able to bring him many new things from my areas of expertise, I have also learnt a lot from him. His ability to problem solve complex tasks under pressure in racing but also elsewhere is something extraordinary. He is extremely curious to always understand the logic behind why something works or why it should be done rather than just learning a procedure by heart. A mentality like this combined with his hard work ethic on all fields of life and on top a positive view on life mean that it is in my opinion no surprise that he has been successful in sport and life in general.
What is the memory you cherish most from your career so far?
I love progressing towards a common goal with other passionate people. Sometimes there are days and weeks that you simply just have to do the work and believe in the process but then there are days when you see the result of that work. These are the days when the little things done right get a meaning. In this job I’ve luckily got to experience plenty of them. Some may be small moments at home or others might be race wins or just overall fantastic races like Baku this year.
On the race win side, the best memory is perhaps our first win with Ferrari and hearing all the mechanics sing the national anthem from the bottom of their hearts. This is when you really realize what it means to work with people who love what they do.
Source: F1world (www.f1world.it)
Image: credit to Antti Kontsas on Instagram
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