Is it true that Formula 1 drivers train their eyes so that they won't blink as often while racing?

Question

Is it true that Formula 1 drivers train their eyes so that they won't blink as often while racing?

Answer 1

During a race they should blink at a normal rate. How often they blink is more dependant on temperature and if there is a high air speed entering the helmet than anything else. Yes, through a technical section they may blink less often than normally, but this will be subconsciously - in the same way we all blink less when we concentrate intensely, but we don't think about it.



I have never heard of a racing driver training to blink less often, in fact reducing blinking may be a hindrance if it reduces the drivers visibility by getting sore eyes! A lot of top level drivers do try to train their eyes by using machines such as batak in dark rooms to improve peripheral vision and reactions.

BATAK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyy4lqRERJM



A few top drivers I know do train their eyes specifically, but only where they are looking! They use special goggles that track eye movements during competition, and then analyse the results afterwards. ie. the driver should normally go through a cycle of looking where the car is exiting the corner, outside wheel, looking for the next apex, exit and maybe the apex after that before turning in - and avoiding looking at spectators or the car in front if it is a distraction. Ideally the tracker should show several eye movements every second back and forth through the next couple of corners at least.



Hope that answers it!

Answer 2

I'm not sure it applies to the larger teams who can easily afford to pay the drivers wages but smaller teams, some years ago I might add, such as Minardi and even Jordan towards the end of their time in F1, did basically have rules which stated you needed to bring in a certain amount of revenue to race. Drivers who have complied with such rules include Justin Wilson whose manager encouraged the British public to buy shares in him to raise the money for an F1 drive.....it worked. Alex Yoong, the Malaysian driver was brought in to replace Tarso Marques simply because Yoong had better financial backing. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Fernando Alonso was required to pay towards his season with Minardi. I'm not sure If I've got the right person here, but if memory serves me correctly Pedro de La Rosa's father is a multi millionaire in his own right. I think he own a major Spanish supermarket chain. So, you can easily imagine how he got his entry into F1. I'm not sure if the practice of paying for a drive exists anymore due to the lack of any small privateer entries into F1 now. All the teams are owned by huge corporations who can easily afford to hire their talent on merit.

Answer 3

Yeah because if you blink, you might think about it and start to get nervous and blink even more witch can lead up to a crash.

Answer 4

1

Answer 5

nonsense, you can´t train your eyes. blinking is the keep them moist. you don´t see much with dry eyes, so i´d think they would blink even more than 'normal' people.

Answer 6

I dunno how true that is but I definitely remember last year the BBC showed a full one of Vettel's laps with a camera outside his helmet so you could see his eyes and he didn't blink once.

Answer 7

Yeah they probably would



They train every part of there body

Answer 8

Doubt it - why would they need to?

Answer 9

No