F1 Fanatic

…and of course there was that Williams pit fire in Barcelona, which was rumored to be caused by a cigarette….

Its probably Maldonado, and based on where he comes from there might also be some heavier drugs involved! (have you seen his driving this season?)

Just curious but would smoking actually be a hindrance for a F1 driver?

I can see Schumacher smoking, don’t ask me why:-) If it helps keep the person away from performance-enhancing and recreational drugs, then it’s not something that I would not view negatively for someone who undergoes such stress on a daily basis.

Off topic, I am 400% against smoking in general and I’d prefer that no one lights a cigarette within a radius of 5,000 miles from my family or wear perfume or do anything else that may trigger an asthmatic reaction.

@katederby No doubt it would hurt their fitness especially compared to them not smoking, but at the same time they are not sprinting where smoking would obviously prevent them from competing.

Plus we’ve seen a lot of F1 drivers do well with smoking.

According to
this article from howstuffworks, nicotine’s short-term effects are actually not necessarily negative and could actually have positive effects depending on the person and situation which I imagine would be more true of F1 drivers.

@katederby great point;-) nicotine patches would be preferable and would avoid all the other negative effects!

I wonder if drivers have actually raced with and without nicotine to see if they perform better.