I went through testing to discover what it takes to be a Formula One driver and I was left super impressed by just how fit, strong, and fast they have to be

A BATAK is a piece of sports equipment designed to test and improve speed, hand-eye coordination, and stamina.

Essentially, it's a large frame that has red lights positioned in various locations. When a red light comes on, you press it was fast as you can, and repeat. The idea is to get as many as you can within a certain timeframe.

I had two attempts, each lasting one minute. I somehow managed to score 77 both times.

While I was pretty impressed with my effort, Porsche strength and conditioning coach Jack Wilson, who was putting me through my paces on the day, said F1 drivers usually manage a minimum of 120 and sometimes upwards of 160.

In the easiest test of the day, my job here was to simply grip what is known as a dynomometer as hard as I would with both hands and measure the amount of force that each could produce.

I scored just over 50kg with both my left and right hands.

F1 drivers, who typically weigh around 30kg less than me, tend to score closer to 70kg on each hand.

F1 drivers are subject to high levels of G-force when driving. In a normal race, drivers experience between 4 G and 6.5 G while accelerating, braking and cornering. In crashes, the forces can rise above 180 Gs

Moving at such levels of G-force places extreme stress on the neck muscles.

To test the strength of my neck, I pushed my head as hard as possible against a dynomometer strapped around my head in four directions to measure how much weight I could withstand through my neck.

My scores of around 16kg, 20kg, 20kg, and 22kg were, in Jack's words, very impressive, but still a long way off what you would expect from an F1 driver, which is around 35kg in all directions.

After this, I was then strapped into a rather scary looking device, which simulated different levels of G-force through your neck as you would experience them in an F1 car.

Jack put around 3.5 G through my neck, which was very uncomfortable, but still just over half what a driver usually experiences.

A person's VO2 max is a measure of the amount of oxygen your body can use per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (mL/kg/min).

Generally the higher you score, the fitter you are.

To test mine, I rode a stationary bike for as long as possible as the resistance increased. A mask strapped to my face recorded my oxygen consumption, while a heart monitor strapped to my chest recorded my heart rate.

I went for just over eight minutes and was given a score of a little more than 36 mL/kg/min.

F1 drivers typically record minimum VO2 max scores of 60 mL/kg/min, but it's not uncommon for them to be as high as 80.

As if having a truckload of weight pushed and pulled through my neck and cycling to exhaustion with a gas mask strapped to my face wasn't enough, I next moved on to experience the Porsche Human Performance Lab's very own heat chamber.

Though not a test, I went for a jog in the chamber for five minutes with the temperature set at 40°C, or 104°F.

It was enough to make me feel very overheated and sweat a lot.

An intern helping with the day's activities told me that F1 drivers usually train in the chamber for an hour at a time to try to emulate the sorts of conditions they would experience in the cockpit at hotter circuits, such as in Bahrain or Mexico.

Using a machine that maximally stimulates the sweat glands in a small part of your arm, the people from Precision Fuel & Hydration, who work with F1 drivers, triathletes, and Premier League soccer players, were able to measure how much sodium I lose in my sweat.

Sodium is a key electrolyte that helps regulate muscle contraction, nerve function, and blood volume. Losing too much can cause cramps and have a detrimental effect on athletic performance.

The test showed that I lost around 110mg/l of sodium, making me a "moderately salty sweater."

While the result of this isn't comparable to others because it's usually genetically determined, it's a useful figure to know so you, or elite athletes such as F1 drivers, can work out a hydration strategy to ensure performance is not negatively impacted by losing excessive amounts of sodium.