Training for life in 'a hostile environment'.

Formula One may be perceived as a glamorous occupation, with the added trappings of a jet-set lifestyle and all the rewards that participation brings - but things are not always a bed of roses for the drivers.

Whilst it is true that they enjoy luxury away from their working environment, for eight hours every couple of weeks - plus countless testing hours in between - they are strapped into an area no bigger than a coffin to propel a carbon-fibre missile at speeds of up to and over 200mph.

''Sports science has become a business these days and almost every university in the country offers a course in it,'' says West McLaren Mercedes' fitness expert Jerry Powell, ''We have tried to take that science and apply it to Formula One, which has never been done before. The physical demands on the driver start as soon as they get in the car. The actual driving position is optimised with aerodynamics in mind, rather than the comfort of the driver, so that the driver is almost lying on his back. This means they have to drive the car with their feet on the same level as their hips and their arms are squashed in by their sides. They are crammed into this tiny little position and on top of that you have the heat in the cockpit. Every time they go down the straight, the car is bashing on the ground and there are the G-forces acting on them, which all goes to create a very hostile environment. While they are driving they also have to maintain mental concentration, focus on the job and drive a 300 kilometre race.''

Powell and his crew probably spend more time with David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen than any other team member or even the drivers' families, such is the desire to get the best out of the men charged with bringing the team success.

''The role of our trainers is ongoing and developing every year,'' continues Powell, ''It's not so much nine-to-five as twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. It can sound glamorous as we get to fly on private jets with the drivers and stay in Monaco and do glamorous things, but you are still working and you are away from home a lot of the time.

''While we are with the drivers we try and work as hard as possible, always trying to do the best for them. We have three full time staff now. I stay back at the factory, having done three years on the circuits, so I am doing the assessment on the drivers, doing the R&D, researching any other area that we think might help, such as looking at diet, physiology, psychology and brainwave patterns.

''Mark Arnall and Andy Matthews are on the circuits full time with the drivers. David and Andy are very close now. There is a social and emotional bond as they live in each others' pockets. When Andy started, he was probably a little bit fitter than David, and that produced a rivalry with the driver trying to catch up. When I was working with him, he was probably a few percent fitter than I was and we try and make that fun, injecting a spirit of competition into the training.''

''Working with David is quite an easy job,'' reckons Matthews, ''He is one of the best people I have worked with, because he is so highly motivated that it makes my job easy.''

''It's a very important relationship, because it goes beyond just training,'' agrees Coulthard, ''There are hundreds of good trainers out there, but what you need is someone who understands your mentality, who understands just exactly where you are on any particular day.

''While we have set exercises, some of which follow a normal gym routine, but we also try programmes that are a bit more explosive and a bit more like the real thing and have more relevance to the job and everyday life. One of the key things is that Andy has competed before in triathlons, and he still rows competitively today. He knows what it's like to put yourself into the pain of competition and what it's like to have that feeling of not wanting to be beaten, and I think that is a key element of the way we train together.''

''This team is probably unusual in that we have had the same drivers together for six years, and the trainers with them for the same length of time,'' explains Powell, ''So, we have probably got them as fit as they are going to be so the only time we make a difference is in providing the emotional or moral support and in helping them recover quickly after a race or a test, getting them back up and onto the track as quickly as possible. I am sure some of the stuff we do looks so unusual that it doesn't even come across as a normal exercise. There is normally a gym- based version of everything we do, but we take each exercise and try and make it more fun and intense.''

''These guys have to be like marathon runners in terms of having an ability to keep going for several hours, but they also have to have the reactions and co-ordination of a racket player,'' says Matthews of working with grand prix drivers, ''That, plus the demands of F1, which can be like those of a chess game, as well as the G-forces and dehydration they experience, means that the demands it puts on the competitor are unique and it's a great sport to be involved in.''

According to Powell, the benefits of training are not just physical.

''The research tells us that the fitter you become aerobically, the better you can cope with stress,'' he points out, ''Your blood pressure and heart rate do not go up so high. All this means you can then focus on the other areas.

A new area in which Powell and his team have started working this year is the fitness of the mechanics, especially those involved in the pit-stops during a grand prix, and the pit crews now also come under the sports medicine team.

They have got a maximum of eleven seconds to do their job during a pit-stop, often less than that, and will do a pit-stop around four times a race, as the same crew work on both cars. What people don't realise, however, is that the same people have been working very long hours every day over the race weekend, leading up to the grand prix itself, which means they are fatigued. By making sure they are as fit as possible, the fatigue level is less and hopefully that will contribute to them doing a great job during the four to five seconds it takes to change the wheels on the car.

''Their training session is a bit like the old-fashioned circuit training with various stations,'' Powell says, ''But it is very structured and we have brought in additional exercises to ensure that their back and abdominal muscles are strong, which could be a problem area working on such a low car. It's a fun programme at the moment, as we have only just started it. Our aim, when we move into the new Paragon facility with its gym, pool and physiotherapy unit, is to look at a full programme for them, just as we do for the drivers. That way, I will be able to look at every individual's job during the pit stop. I probably won't be able to make him do it faster, but I might be able to make it safer for him. Their reaction to the programme was fantastic and everyone seems to love it and we will be fitting in more sessions per week from now on.''