Calado Reveals Hospital Scare Amid Weight Loss Push

Ferrari driver James Calado has revealed he was hospitalized earlier this season as a result of trying to lose weight to erode what he believes is an unfair disadvantage relative to his FIA World Endurance Championship rivals.

The British driver made the admission ahead of last weekend’s Bahrain season finale, where he and his teammates in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi, lost a second-place finish to a post-race penalty.

It came at the end of a tough campaign for the No. 51 crew, who finished eighth in the championship with a best finish of third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and scored only one point from the final three races.

Ever since stepping up to Hypercar with Ferrari last year, Calado has been vocal in his belief that he faces a disadvantage in terms of his weight compared to lighter drivers in the top class and has called for rule changes to compensate for this.

In his efforts to shed as much weight as possible, he ended up in hospital while he was in the U.K. between the opening two rounds of the season in Qatar and Imola.

“I was sick this year because I lost so much weight,” Calado told reporters in Bahrain. “I went to hospital with malnutrition.

“I was on medication because I was running and not eating, because I was trying so hard to lose weight. I became properly ill.

“So I can’t go down to the weight I want, because it’s too dangerous for me.”

Calado last qualified the No. 51 car back at Spa in May, where he alluded to the deficit he faced to the lightest drivers in the field and suggested that qualifying was best left to his teammates Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi in future.

The 35-year-old wasn’t willing to divulge his exact weight, beyond it being above 70 kg (154lb), but he is estimated to be 10 centimetres – around four inches – taller than Antonio Fuoco, who is routinely entrusted with qualifying the sister No. 50 Ferrari.

Toyota’s Nyck de Vries and Alpine’s Charles Milesi are among the other drivers thought to be at the lighter end of the Hypercar spectrum.

“I would love to be able to qualify, but I’m too heavy,” Calado said. “I’m 10 or 20 kilos heavier than some of the others, which is worth half a second, so what can you do?

“That’s why I don’t do qualifying. It’s a shame. I would love something to make it more equal like in other championships, or even in karting. We are in a world championship and it would be nice to have equal rights.

“I know it’s not easy to manage because it’s endurance racing, three drivers per car, two in others, but let’s try and do something to make it so I can do qualifying.

“I would love to do a qualifying, but I can’t. Am I’m not a fat person, I’m seventy-something kilos. There are people who are at an even worse disadvantage. Antonio [Giovinazzi] is in the seventies as well. I say it all the time.”

Speaking to Sportscar365 at Le Mans earlier this year, Calado suggested that the perceived unfairness regarding driver weight could put off Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen from racing at Le Mans in the future.

Asked in Bahrain if he was surprised at the lack of change since then, he replied: “Whoever does it, they obviously have their reasons, and I can only respect the rules. But at the end of the day it’s not fair.

“I would like to see a rule change that would make it more fair, more equal. When we receive the Balance of Performance, you see plus or minus 1 or 2 kg, but then you have drivers who are 20 kg apart in terms of weight.

“At Le Mans, it’s one-and-a-half seconds per lap. That puts it into perspective.”

In response to Calado’s comments, a statement regarding the possibility of a change to the rules regarding driver weights was provided to Sportscar365.

“The FIA and the ACO are looking into the subject, but as of today nothing has been decided,” read the statement. “Measuring drivers’ weight was done in the past, in the LMP1 days, and had both pros and cons.

“As it stands, it is down to the competitors and their choices when it comes to composing their driver line-ups.”