Many people, since the start of the season, have started to question Michael Schumacher's ability to be competitive. His results are consistently lower than his 24 year-old team mate, leaving Norbert Haug (president of all Mercedes motorsport) defending him after every race. Now, I will grant you that he is still adjusting to a wildly different car to the one he used to drive, and a wildly different set of rules to the ones he last raced under. However, Jaime Alguersuari (who is not racing fit, having spent most of the last season as a test driver) can hold him back in a wheel-to-wheel battle in a slower car, despite being significantly less experienced.
Let's look at this rationally for a second. Racing is hard on a person. The suspension on racing cars is very hard, so every bump in the track is felt with full force in the sit bones. Speaking of sit bones, the chairs are mounted so low that sometimes, if the bottom of the car gets damaged, the drivers get heat burns from their seats rubbing against the tarmac (I refer you to David Coulthard's autobiography). The drivers' heart rates regularly reaches 180 beats per minute (bpm) during strenuous parts of the race. The mental acuity required to think fast enough at 300 km/h to predict braking points for corners and respond to track incidents is fairly high.
Let's start with the skeletal issues. Bones degenerate with age. More importantly, the bits in between the bones degenerate. If an individual is repeatedly exposed to compressional forces on the spine, the risk of back pain (whether that's due to degradation of the intervertebral discs [IVDs. The squishy things that hold your spine bones apart and cushion them], or injury and incomplete recovery of the intervertebral ligaments [tiny little pieces of fibrous tissue - like the ones you break when you rip a chicken drumstick away from the thighs - that hold the vertebrae in position] caused by repetitive exposure to stress) increases. I could go into a lengthy discussion at this point about elasticity thresholds and decreased tolerance, but it's a bit dull and largely tangential. Instead, I'll point out that, after forty, these types of injuries become more common. Schumacher is 41, and thus within range to be susceptible to senescent soft-tissue spinal injuries. If one takes into consideration that he has been exposing his spine to repeated, sharp, compressive forces (the kind most likely to cause injury) for the better part of twenty years, it's possible that one or two minor injuries exist already. One can have them repaired, but back surgery usually causes more problems than it solves.
Moving onto heart rates. Basically, there is a maximum number of beats that your heart can handle in one minute. If you out-do that, you go into cardiac arrest. Likewise, if you stay too close to this for too long, your body limits your performance to preserve your vital organs - brain, heart, etc. Now, maximal heart rate decreases with age. There are various prediction equations, my preferred one is discussed here. If one calculates the maximal heart rate for a 41 year-old, it comes out at 179.3 bpm. That's slightly under the hypothetical max for Schumacher's age. However, two things must be taken into consideration:
1) Schumacher has been a professional athlete for years, so his heart muscle is in better condition than most people his age
2) The equation underestimates maximal heart rate in older age groups (how old the researchers mean by "older" remains to be experimentally determined, but perhaps the forties falls into that category?)
Thus, it is entirely possible that his cardiac tolerance is not a significant issue. However, I did feel like it needed to be raised.
Finally, onto mental acuity. The brain needs oxygen (funny, that). As one ages, the oxygen assimilation rate (how easily oxygen is absorbed into the blood) decreases. This, in turn, decreases the brain's ability to function. Now, imagine that you're exercising hard and most of your oxygen is going to your muscles. Not so easy to think hard then, is it? In addition, memory (which really helps when predicting upcoming corners) and speed-accuracy performance decrease with age. If speed and accuracy are diminished, this would explain his lack of edge. That said, he has been racing for years. He has trained his brain to process in a certain way through years of driving, so certain reactions will have become muscle memory.
So, basically, what I'm saying is this: is it possible that, as motivated and determined as he ever was, Schumi's body isn't up to the challenge. Don't get me wrong, he's still in great shape. However, he's competing against a field of people, most of whom are at least ten years' younger than him. That gives them an edge. Perhaps a comeback wasn't the wisest decision?
Let's look at this rationally for a second. Racing is hard on a person. The suspension on racing cars is very hard, so every bump in the track is felt with full force in the sit bones. Speaking of sit bones, the chairs are mounted so low that sometimes, if the bottom of the car gets damaged, the drivers get heat burns from their seats rubbing against the tarmac (I refer you to David Coulthard's autobiography). The drivers' heart rates regularly reaches 180 beats per minute (bpm) during strenuous parts of the race. The mental acuity required to think fast enough at 300 km/h to predict braking points for corners and respond to track incidents is fairly high.
Let's start with the skeletal issues. Bones degenerate with age. More importantly, the bits in between the bones degenerate. If an individual is repeatedly exposed to compressional forces on the spine, the risk of back pain (whether that's due to degradation of the intervertebral discs [IVDs. The squishy things that hold your spine bones apart and cushion them], or injury and incomplete recovery of the intervertebral ligaments [tiny little pieces of fibrous tissue - like the ones you break when you rip a chicken drumstick away from the thighs - that hold the vertebrae in position] caused by repetitive exposure to stress) increases. I could go into a lengthy discussion at this point about elasticity thresholds and decreased tolerance, but it's a bit dull and largely tangential. Instead, I'll point out that, after forty, these types of injuries become more common. Schumacher is 41, and thus within range to be susceptible to senescent soft-tissue spinal injuries. If one takes into consideration that he has been exposing his spine to repeated, sharp, compressive forces (the kind most likely to cause injury) for the better part of twenty years, it's possible that one or two minor injuries exist already. One can have them repaired, but back surgery usually causes more problems than it solves.
Moving onto heart rates. Basically, there is a maximum number of beats that your heart can handle in one minute. If you out-do that, you go into cardiac arrest. Likewise, if you stay too close to this for too long, your body limits your performance to preserve your vital organs - brain, heart, etc. Now, maximal heart rate decreases with age. There are various prediction equations, my preferred one is discussed here. If one calculates the maximal heart rate for a 41 year-old, it comes out at 179.3 bpm. That's slightly under the hypothetical max for Schumacher's age. However, two things must be taken into consideration:
1) Schumacher has been a professional athlete for years, so his heart muscle is in better condition than most people his age
2) The equation underestimates maximal heart rate in older age groups (how old the researchers mean by "older" remains to be experimentally determined, but perhaps the forties falls into that category?)
Thus, it is entirely possible that his cardiac tolerance is not a significant issue. However, I did feel like it needed to be raised.
Finally, onto mental acuity. The brain needs oxygen (funny, that). As one ages, the oxygen assimilation rate (how easily oxygen is absorbed into the blood) decreases. This, in turn, decreases the brain's ability to function. Now, imagine that you're exercising hard and most of your oxygen is going to your muscles. Not so easy to think hard then, is it? In addition, memory (which really helps when predicting upcoming corners) and speed-accuracy performance decrease with age. If speed and accuracy are diminished, this would explain his lack of edge. That said, he has been racing for years. He has trained his brain to process in a certain way through years of driving, so certain reactions will have become muscle memory.
So, basically, what I'm saying is this: is it possible that, as motivated and determined as he ever was, Schumi's body isn't up to the challenge. Don't get me wrong, he's still in great shape. However, he's competing against a field of people, most of whom are at least ten years' younger than him. That gives them an edge. Perhaps a comeback wasn't the wisest decision?
