re: Are F1 drivers athletes?

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To be just decent they have to have extreme levels of fitness, laser mental focus that can't go interrupted for 2 hours, world-class reaction times and hand/eye/foot coordination.

They basically strap into a ground bound jet and enter a 2 hour dog fight. They have to handle up to 6.5G braking and up to 5G cornering hundreds of times an hour while maneuvering a car with pinpoint accuracy.

The term athlete is a tortured moniker that people love to argue about. Being an F1 driver requires elite if not world-class athleticism to do well along with the level of mental focus that some of the most difficult sports require. One thing that really raises the bar is they have to do it for ~2 hours straight, no time-outs, no substitutions just the corners coming up relentlessly.

IMO anything that requires elite level of athletism to do means you are an athlete if you are one of the best on the world at it.

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Riding the lightning for that long you had better had your stuff together physically and mentally or you are NGMI

They are athletes