How F1 teams fight jet lag

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The nine-month long season of F1 requires teams to travel to multiple locations spanning countries such as Italy, Singapore, and Japan. This causes Europe based teams to consistently battle jet lag throughout the season. With impaired attention and drowsiness, the effects of jet lag on a player’s performance can be game changing.
Moreover, for next year’s races, additional venues include races in the USA, China, and Qatar, which will all entail long trips, and are typically undertaken on commercial airlines.

According to McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, drivers must ultimately learn to deal with the effects of jet lag, with no one strategy that is guaranteed to work for all, and while one can prepare from a few days ahead, luck also plays a role in how well a driver acclimatizes. Rupert Manwaring, who is physio to Carlos Sainz of Ferrari also believes there is no unique methodology to adjust to jetlag, with approximately a day needed to adapt for every hour of difference.
However, this can be tricky as it can cause drivers to be away from home for more extended periods of time, to arrive at their venues sufficiently ahead of race day. Other practices that can help drivers is to set their clocks to the destination time and ensure proper sleep on longer flights.
This is required to beat the long-term effects of jet lag, which last longer than the overt symptoms. Caffeine intake too needs to be moderated past the afternoon, due to its ability to persist in the body for 10 hours.

McLaren physio Jonn Malvern also advocates for light physical exercise before going to bed, or more intense exercise upon waking to retrain the body’s rhythms. Carlos Sainz,for example, is known to prefer playing golf which also exposes him to moderate amounts of light.