October see's the annual "World Mental Health Day," and it's inspired me to explore the state of mental health within the world of motorsport, specifically Formula One.
There has always been some kind of negative stigma surrounding mental health and in motorsport it's fair to say that the subject isn't discussed enough, or at all. Motorsport is an extremely demanding sport for everyone involved. For the drivers, the teams, the organisers, the list goes on. Is it time things were looked at with a more serious approach?
Research in the past has revealed that sportspeople are more susceptible or vulnerable to mental health issues, such as depression, due to the level of pressure or stress one may experience. (formulanerds.com) But, when you see racing drivers in the zone, they are calm and collected. It's hard to believe that mental health could be an issue.
The pressures of motorsport begins at a young age. There are plenty of young children with aspirations of becoming a top-tier race driver, but with it comes plenty of sacrifices. From school to childhood experiences to moving away from family and friends, it's a lot for a young person to comprehend. And, it only get's worse. Climbing the motorsport ladder is a ruthless experience. It's all about being the best and getting the right results and sponsors. The pressure is endless.
It doesn't end at the top, however. Let's start by looking at Daniil Kvyat. Racing for Red Bull in the 2016 Formula One season, the Russian driver had an unlucky start to the season. After an incident with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel at the start of that year's Russian GP, Kvyat looked somber and forlorn in his interviews. He was later demoted from Red Bull back to Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri). The state of Daniil's mental health became a concern after he changed his Instagram bio to "just a human."
Then there's Romain Grosjean with his infamous and disastrous 2012 season that led to a one race ban after the Belgian GP. The Frenchman, himself, admitted that "I was all over the place, mentally, for a few days. I couldn’t think straight - I couldn’t think about getting in the car again." (crash.net) Also, it was during this season that Grosjean started to see a sports psychologist, saying, "it was about prioritizing my life and getting myself - my mind - right, before I could figure out how to be the quickest again.” (crash.net) We'll discuss sport psychologists in more detail further on.
Also, what we, as motorsport fans, tend to forget quite easily are the dangers that coincide with motorsport. Another reason for the drivers to experience an insane amount of pressure. Every time they step foot into a race car they know they are risking it all. It can be a matter of life or death.
Focusing on another Red Bull driver, this time Pierre Gasly. He lost his good friend Anthoine Hubert during a Formula Two race in Spa-Francorchamps in 2019. This unfortunate and incredibly sad event happened the same weekend Gasly returned to Toro Rosso after being demoted from Red Bull due to a string of bad results. Despite both of these events, the Frenchman stepped into his car and raced the Belgian Grand Prix. It really can be very difficult for us to understand the mental capacity of race drivers. They are something else.
And, then there's the subject of money and fame. Motorsport isn't cheap and the burden of financial issues looms over every aspiring racer. For most, the odds really are against them. And what if they achieve their dream of reaching the pinnacle of motorsport and have to accept the fame that comes with it? That's not plain sailing either. Due to the ever increasing popularity of social media and motorsport docu-series such as Netflix's "Drive to Survive," Formula One drivers, for example, are as famous as they've ever been. And, social media users, aka keyboard warriors, tend not to hold back on what they have to say. Williams driver Nicholas Latifi experienced that at the end of the very infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after his crash near the end of the race which controversially handed that years World Drivers Championsip to Max Verstappen. It's forgotten that race drivers are humans with feelings. Unfortunately, the toxicity that comes with social media seems to be getting worse and I fear that that's how it's always going to be.
But it's not all bad. Things are changing.
One thing that's been around for some years now is the presence of "sport psychologists." As mentioned before, Romain Grosjean has worked with one since 2012. Although they're not necessarily there to help with mental health, some drivers have sought help from these professionals to improve their performance when it comes to racing and it's shown it does help. Grosjean went from crashing every weekend to standing on numerous podiums and continuing in Formula One until the end of 2020. Felipe Massa also, at one point, saved his Ferrari career after seeking help.
Sport psychologists are all well and good but their not mental health councillors, so to speak. So, what are teams really doing about their driver's and team member's mental health exactly?
Let's use McLaren as an example. The Formula One team from Woking, UK has been partnering with mental health charity "Mind" since 2020 and have raised over £400,000 for the charity. They employ eight trained mental health first aiders that form a part of their team on race weekends.
Then there's Mercedes F1 team who have an internal wellbeing programme which includes focus on mental health and encourages their team members and employees to discuss their mental health.
"We want team members to support team members, knowing they can turn to each other and have a difficult conversation, and say, 'I'm not feeling great'. Having that is so powerful" Chris Armstrong - Mercedes Wellbeing manager.
One thing that has changed drastically in recent times is how vocal racing drivers are becoming on the subject of mental health. From Lewis Hamilton, to Daniel Ricciardo, to Lando Norris, etc. This is extremely important as they are the face of motorsport.
In 2021, McLaren's Lando Norris made an appearance on UK TV show "This Morning" where he discussed in detail his mental health struggles.
"(...) Coming into Formula 1 at 19, there's a lot of eyes of you. So dealing with all these kind of things, that took its toll on me. [I was] feeling like, I don't know what's next, if this goes wrong, if I don't go out in the next session and perform, what's the outcome of all of this? Am I going to be in Formula 1 next year? If I'm not, what am I going to do? Because I'm not really good at many other things in life. So just all of that, and then feeling a depressed a lot of time that if I have a bad weekend I just think, I'm not good enough and things like that. When they start adding up over a season, and the social media side of it all, that can just really start to hurt you." - Lando Norris, This Morning 2021
F1 also recently released a video about mental health on the sport's official Youtube channel. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2c3LEX5MEY
With each driver giving their take on mental health, this is a massive step forward for mental health and motorsport. Some stand out quotes include:
"For us drivers, it's as much of our mental health as it is physical health." - George Russell, Mercedes
"There's this weird threshold that we are not able to overcome to talk about our feelings, because we think it's a sign of weakness." - Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
"Mental health is not a joke, or something to be laughed at, or overlooked. There's a lot of darkness surrounding us all, and it's very easy to be pulled down by those things." - Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
"We put on our body armours, put on our race suits and our helmets, but we're just as vulnerable as everyone else." - Alex Albon, Williams
"We live in a world of social media and other things that are toxic sometimes, it's easier to have more problems now than maybe 20 years ago, so it's important to keep an eye." - Fernando Alonso, Alpine
Mental illness affects 1 in 4 people across the globe and it's just as prevalent in motorsport as it is in everyday life. Little by little, bit by bit, the negative stigma surrounding mental health in motorsport is being broken down. However, we're not there just yet. We still have a very long way to go.
Just remember, it's ok not to be ok.
Comments