Austrian F1 team Red Bull is a distant third in this year’s Formula One standings after Ferrari and Mercedes. With the introduction of new aerodynamic rules for this year, Red Bull was widely expected to challenge Mercedes. Instead, it is Ferrari that has taken the fight to Mercedes, with Ferrari leading the driver’s world championship after three races. Red Bull hopes to join the lead battle with a new chassis from the Spanish Grand Prix.

Details are a little thin on the new chassis, but the change is expected to be significant enough to require new crash tests. The FIA only requires fresh crash tests when there is a big change in the chassis and aerodynamics. The current Red Bull chassis is said to favor a low-drag configuration.

Red Bull did not expect both Mercedes and Ferrari to produce such finely detailed aerodynamics. The Ferrari side pod is so complicated that Red Bull aero chief Adrian Newey was unsure of what it did when he first saw the design.

What makes the situation worse is that the Renault engine is still down on power compared to the leading teams. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner estimates the power gap to result in a deficit of about half a second per lap.

In addition to the new aero package for Spain, Renault will bring an engine upgrade for the Canadian GP. Red Bull believes that those two changes should propel them to the front of the field where they can battle it out with Ferrari and Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel won the opening round of the Formula One World Championship in Melbourne, Australia. The prancing horse beat favorites and 2016 world champions Mercedes to the line, with Lewis Hamilton finishing second and team-mate Valterri Bottas following in third place.

Ferrari showed good form in the pre-season tests, often setting the pace. However, between the different compounds of tires and fuel loads, it was anyone’s guess who held the advantage going into the first round of the season. Ferrari’s unusual silence on their prospects added to the fan frenzy.

During the practice sessions, Mercedes held the upper hand, as Ferrari struggled with set up and the lower than usual track temperature. Qualifying showed the ultimate pace of the Mercedes over a single lap with Lewis Hamilton comfortably taking pole position. It was all down to race pace on Sunday.

The new rules for this year saw aggressive looking cars with wider tires. Unfortunately, this meant that overtaking became harder than it already was. Even with DRS system to enhance overtaking, the nature of the Melbourne circuit along with the new aerodynamic meant that track position took on additional importance.

Ultimately, Ferrari was easier on its tires then Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton came out behind Max Verstappens Red Bull after his pitstop. Hamilton was unable to overtake the Red Bull, giving Vettel a chance to build a gap big enough to come ahead. Once Vettel came out ahead, he was able to pull out a 10 second gap on his way to victory.

The next round is in China.

Testing for the new season of Formula One kicked off at Barcelona this week. This test was the first time the public saw the new cars in action.

This year, F1 cars will sport larger tires and much more aggressive aerodynamics. The new rules had two clear goals: To make the cars faster (as much as five seconds faster) than 2016 cars and to make the cars look more aggressive.

The clear winner of the test was Mercedes. Usually, rule changes cause an upset of the order as one team figures out an advantage over the others. Unfortunately for those expecting a change, this time around, it looks like Mercedes came to the first test with a car that looks as solid and as fast (if not faster) than its predecessor.

Ferrari consistently topped the time sheets. It is clear that the new Ferrari is much faster and more stable than last years. However, journalists and F1 watchers believe that the majority of those laps were on low fuel.  Regardless, Ferrari has made a step forward and the second test will show if they can match Mercedes.

Red Bull started the test badly, with some reliability issues. By the end of the test, they had completed a decent amount mileage on the new car. They did not do any flying laps and did not appear to be in a position to challenge Mercedes domination just yet.

McLaren, the last of the big four, had a horrendous test. They will be hoping for a much better showing at the final test before the season opener in Melbourne.

Valtteri Bottas with lineup alongside Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Formula 1 season in March. The announcement from Mercedes capped a long saga after 2016 Champion Nico Rosberg announced his shock retirement from the sport.

“It’s mega to be driving a Silver Arrow this year,” said Bottas in an address to the workforce at Mercedes’ UK factory in Brackley. “I can’t wait to get working properly.

The second Mercedes seat alongside triple champion Lewis Hamilton is probably the most coveted seat in the sport. Mercedes have been the team to beat for the last three years, taking both the drivers and constructors championships. Even with the extensive rule changes in 2017, their domination of the sport is expected to continue.

Bottas was signed to the Williams F1 team for the 2017 season. His release was conditional on locating an experienced driver. This was made possible by Felipe Massa coming out of retirement to mentor 19-year-old teammate Lance Stroll.

Stroll is the son of a Canadian billionaire and has won every the championship in every category he has competed in thus far. Observers describe him as an exceptional talent. It was important for Williams to have an experience lead driver to temper the young charger.

Speaking of the moves, Claire Williams, Williams’ deputy team principal, said: “I’m delighted that Felipe has agreed to come out of retirement to be a part of our 2017 campaign. With Valtteri having a unique opportunity to join the current constructors’ champions, we have been working hard to ensure that an agreement could be made with Mercedes to give Valtteri this fantastic opportunity.

Williams is also a customer of Mercedes engines and is rumored to have negotiated a significant discount in order to release the highly rated Bottas.

At the end of a somewhat tense Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg was crowned the 2016 Formula One world champion. He beat his teammate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton who although having won the race, was too many points behind to take the championship.

The race itself was a relatively uneventful one. The start saw Max Verstappen spin and go all the way down to last place. In what was the only entertainment in the race, he clawed his way back all the way to third. Thanks to a change in strategy he was able to pit once and leapfrog both Ferrari drivers and his teammate. He was eventually overtaken for third place by Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel who stopped late and was on fresh tires.

It was this late charge by Vettel that caused the only bit of tension in the championship battle. Until then Hamilton was comfortably leading the race and Rosberg was following not far behind. The only way Hamilton would be able to win the championship is to take the victory and for Rosberg to finish fourth or below.

Hearing of the charge by the Ferrari driver, Hamilton ignored calls from his team and backed his teammate towards the Vettel and Verstappen. Ultimately, Rosberg was able to hold off Vettel for the final two laps and took the championship with his second place finish. His championship comes exactly 34 years since his father took the crown.

What does it take to make it in professional sports? We all know that it takes talent and skill to make it up the ladder in sports, but there is also the physical side of it. What we don’t see is the sheer commitment it takes in terms of physical preparation. Here is a breakdown of what a typical professional sport requires:

Training

A typical training regime for such an athlete will involve training almost every day. In some sports, they train at least twice a day. The training will be a balance between sports specific training (like swimming) and other methodologies such as strength training. They are typically intense and grueling. In order to improve, they are pushed constantly to hit new targets.

Diet

The other side of this is diet. In order to repair the body and help recovery, the athletes need to eat the right food at the right time. Even actors that need specific physiques for movies will carry around bags of food given to them by their trainers. This level of eating is painful and is only done to ensure growth. Zac Effron is known to carry a bag with premixed protein shakes to drink every couple of hours.

Recovery

The final part is recovery. The human body can only recover so quickly from all that exercise. Even eating at a surplus and with supplements, we cannot support working out every day, let alone twice a day at those intensities. This is where techniques such as deep tissue massage and ice baths are thrown in between all the working out, eating and sleeping.