Williams operate the same pit crew at every race, with a team of reserves available in case someone is ill, injured or unable to travel. The idea is that repetition will make the task like second nature, maximising every millisecond. So how do you make that happen?Īhead of the 2019 season, Williams – who held the pit stop record before Red Bull snatched it in the summer – completed just over 1,200 practice pit stops on a rig at their Grove base. The 10 fastest stops that weekend, for context, were all within 0.66s – that’s how close it is. Get it right and you might have a world record on your hands, as Red Bull did after their 1.88s stop with Max Verstappen during the German Grand Prix. Then it’s about watching for the green light and hitting the throttle, trusting the system that it’s clear to go. During the stop, drivers need to grip the steering wheel tightly and press hard on the brake pedal to enable a smooth change. It’s lifted up onto the jack and then dropped with a thump – you definitely feel it in your back. From the cockpit, a driver can see very little other than several chaps in helmets engulf the car like a swarm of wasps. Then it's off and away.įor the driver, their main aim is to hit their marks – so the crew don’t have to adjust their position, costing vital seconds, or to prevent injuring the front jack man, who would take the full force if they overran. All four wheels are changed, a tweak may be made to the front wing, a clean of the rear wing and visor and potentially clearing out the sidepods. Then a short call – 'Kubica, option or Russell, prime' – is made, and the team burst into action.Įach has their own role, whether it’s wheel on, wheel off, gunman or front jack. When the strategists decide to bring a driver in, the team manager will put the pit crew – usually a team of around 23 – on standby. The aim isn’t just to get under two seconds, less than the blink of an eye, but to do so consistently – because race results depend on it… That’s roughly how many practice pit stops Formula 1’s 10 teams did between them before the 2019 campaign.
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