Every racing fan knows a person amongst their friends or family who firmly believes that motorsport isn’t a “real” sport. To them, a sport involves a large amount of physical effort which leads them to conclude that archery, shooting and god forbid, football are also not real sports, despite the fact that they will be played at the Olympics. Usually, the problem is that they compare the physical demands of auto racing to their own experience of driving to the supermarket in a regular road car, which indeed requires no physical exertion whatsoever, but these two things have about as much in common as fishing by the lakeside and wrestling with an alligator in the lake. I was appalled to find that a large percentage of people believe auto racing isn’t a sport because in their eyes, racing drivers simply sit in a seat and drive a car. They are rooted in the perception that an individual is only considered an athlete when they physically move. Then there are people who claim that the six time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson wasn’t an athlete because “he sits in a car and he drives… what is he athletically doing?” Unfortunately, people like these are not well informed. Motor racing is one of the most extreme sports on the planet. Sitting in a racing car is unlike any other car ride a person may have ever experienced. As part of the engineers’ effort to strip as much weight from race cars as possible and only keep the necessary parts, a racing car features very few creature comforts. The seat is functional enough to ensure drivers stay in place while maneuvering around corners and the absence of air conditioning means enduring the heat and humidity for hours on end, especially at races like the Malaysian Grand Prix, with humidity up to 80% and temperatures exceeding 104° F or 40° C. In addition to the difficult conditions, a racing driver is expected to wear five-layer fireproof race overalls which add to the discomfort for long durations. It can be even worse for drivers racing in closed cockpit cars, inside of which temperatures frequently surpass 120° F or 49° C. The heat causes more than mere discomfort, as the average F1 driver sweats upto 8.8lb/ 4 kg of his own body weight throughout a Grand Prix. The loss of such a significant amount of body weight also results in a drop in mental focus and reflexes, attributes that are key for any racing driver. To remedy this, drivers are expected to drink up to 2 gallons or 7.6 liters of water before hot races to ensure hydration. As compared to the ordeals of auto racing, these are the easier parts. Let me leave this article here for now.. Shall talk more on why auto racing is a ‘real sport’ in the upcoming articles. About the author Sahil Sanjay Shelar is a professional motor racing driver with over 17+ years of motor racing seasons under his belt and 100+ races in India and Asia. He is also a motorsports mentor and is associated with various automobile magazines and publications to review all things cars and motorsports.