It takes longer to read this sentence than it does for the average Formula One team to complete a pit stop.
At this season’s Malaysian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing jacked up Mark Webber’s car, changed all four tyres and safely released him in a time of 2.05 seconds, a record at the time.
Mercedes-GP went even quicker and did a pit stop in 2.02 seconds for Nico Rosberg in Japan earlier this month, while Ferrari managed to do a stop in 1.95 at the same race.
Such feats, however, came close to being ruled impossible in July following an accident in Germany when Webber’s tyre broke loose from the car as he pulled away after a stop and struck a cameraman.
Paul Allen was left with a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and concussion; the sport was left discussing the possible introduction of a minimum pit-stop time.
The proposal was given short shrift by paddock personnel, who dismissed the idea and stressed the importance of them.
Webber called blink-and-you-miss-it stops “a sensational talking point” and “a great advert for the sport”, while Heikki Kovalainen, the former Renault, McLaren-Mercedes and Caterham driver, insisted “there is no need to made radical changes”.
Pit stops have quickened exponentially since the prohibition of refueling in 2010.
Sam Michaels, the sporting director at McLaren, told the Associated Press earlier this year that his team have almost halved their stop time in the past two seasons, from 4.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds. The explanation is two-fold: evolutions in technology and increased emphasis on the pit crews.
With Pirelli’s quick-wearing tyres forcing teams to change their rubbers more frequently, greater stress has been placed on the shoulders of the mechanics.
As teams fight to shave valuable fractions of a second off their times, the choreographed square-dance that occurs in the garage each time a car pulls into the pits is now viewed as a key area in which to gain some advantage. A half-second quicker in the pits could equate to a 1.5-second advantage by the end of a three-stop race.
Pit stops have long been not only one of the most pivotal parts of a grand prix race, but also one of the most popular elements with the spectators who fill the stands.
Philip Verbeke, a Ferrari fan attending this year’s Belgian Grand Prix, explained it thus: “The stops are guaranteed drama. You watch the car come down the pit-lane and you know the driver’s entire race depends on it.
“It’s probably the only point of a race where fans can truly appreciate F1 as a team sport.”
Depending on the team, between 17 and 20 pit crew members take part in any one stop. As the car approaches the team garage, the mechanics ready themselves in their respective positions, resulting in the first necessity for a flawless stop being the sole responsibility of the driver.
“To stop in the exact, correct position is actually quite time-consuming,” said Kovalainen, who has competed in more than 100 grands prix.
“The pit stop is only 2-3 seconds, so if you fail to stop at the right spot and lose two or three tenths, it’s quite a big chunk. You have to nail that so the guys can get on with the job.
“To stop at the right place and then, of course, to react to the lights are the only two responsibilities for a driver, but they are very tricky.”
Once in position, two men with jacks raise the car off the ground and each wheel requires three tyre changers: one to remove the old wheel, one to fit the new wheel and one to loosen and tighten the wheel nuts. The chief mechanic operates the lights system that informs the driver when it is safe to leave the pit box.
Teams will carry out around 60 pit stops during the course of a race weekend, including a designated slot for pre-race practice.
Such is the battle for supremacy in the pit lane these days that every effort is made to try to be the quickest.
The Williams team last season partnered with Michael Johnson Performance (MJP), a fitness company founded by the US gold-medal-winning sprinter, in a bid to “turn mechanics into supreme athletes for those few seconds on a Sunday afternoon”. David Wells, the strength and conditioning coach at Williams, appreciates the task at hand and is heavily involved in improving the crew’s speed of movement, as well as nutrition and anaerobic fitness. Along with MJP, Wells studies the stops in an analytical way, looking at biomechanics, weight distribution, footwork and trying to increase speed of movement by increasing power.
“The pit crew doesn’t change much from one season to the next, but we are looking for the best people in the best positions,” he told Williams’ Ignition magazine.
“All our pit stops are filmed using overhead cameras, so when we split the crew up into their four corners, we are able to review the actual footage. There is healthy competition between the four groups, as befits the nature of F1.”
That same competitive nature will be sure to translate to Red Bull’s record time being tested in the weeks, months and years ahead.
With 29 stops at last year’s race in Abu Dhabi, the pit stops are sure to be as critical –and confounding – as ever in this year’s race as the teams strive to beat Ferrari’s new mark of 1.95 seconds.
