9 replies to this topic

[Sphinx]

How do drivers handle the issue of wearing glasses/contacts during racing? Do/can they wear??

[Ricardo F1]

Jacques wears contacts without too much trouble, not sure about anyone else on the grid.

[_Hink]

These days the big thing is laser eye surgery, many drivers have had it. In the 'old' days drivers could/did wear glasses.

[Williams]

If I remember correctly, Jaques, in CART used to wear glasses under his helmet. He chose the little round style because those are the only ones which would fit. Now I guess he wears contacts.

[Ivan]

Nelson Piquet wore contacts all the time.

[LB]

didn't Ivan Capelli have specs on under his helmet too?

[confucius]

I think Kenny Brack from CART wears these big goggle-type things under his helmet. Kinda like the ones basketball players like Abdul-Jabbar wore.

[Gary Grant]

In the past Andrea de Adamich and the ill-fated Ricardo Paletti both wore glasses while racing.
Nowadays there is absolutely no reason why contact lenses couldn't be worn, especially soft ones which don't fall out if inserted correctly. Not so sure about laser surgery - there is still a (small) risk of permanent blindness with that procedure, so I'm not sure that full-time racing drivers would risk it.

[Ivan]

Originally posted by DrGrant

Nowadays there is absolutely no reason why contact lenses couldn't be worn, especially soft ones which don't fall out if inserted correctly.

That's not true. I wear them and mine fall out sometimes. You can't use rewetting drops at 200+ MPH!! I always wondered about drivers that use contacts.

[_Hink]

I had seen a list of CART drivers that had eye surgery and there were about 8 including the late Greg Moore. I'm not sure about F1 or sports car drivers.