Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli makes a pit stop during the second free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir on April 11. — AP
IN Formula One, there are several critical junctures during a Grand Prix that influence its outcome.
One of those is what happens during pit stops, which, if done correctly, are a balletic display of engineering.
Regulations dictate that every driver must run two tyre compounds during a Grand Prix, and that makes pit stops – when all four tires must be changed – mandatory.
Teams often must choose from the soft, medium and hard compounds offered by Pirelli, the tyre supplier for the sport, and track conditions and the weather factor into which ones to use.
“You don’t win a race on a pit stop,” said Rich Wolverson, head of race team operations at Red Bull, “but you lose a race by having a bad pit stop.”
Red Bull were the fastest and most consistent pit stop crew last season, with it and McLaren having the fastest individual pit time of 1.9 seconds.
McLaren hold the record in Formula One, at 1.8 seconds in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, but there is a balance to be struck.
“There’s a fine line between reliability and performance, getting that balance,” Wolverson said.
“You don’t want to be pressuring everyone to get a world record every weekend, because that’s where mistakes happen. You just want consistent stops that give the driver confidence that he can maintain his position on the track.”
Red Bull target an average pit stop time of 2.2 seconds, which they regard as the trade-off between pursuing ultimate performance and risking a race-ruining mistake.
McLaren hold the pit stop record in Formula One at 1.8 seconds in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. — AFP
“You’ve got to be consistent,” Chris Gent, the team’s chief mechanic, said in an interview.
“If you have a good one one time and then a bad one the next time, the strategy (team) have certain numbers, and if you’re missing those targets it’ll cost them for race strategy, so you need to be consistent in timings.”
Each team have a designated spot, called a box, in the pit lane. Hence the order to pit over a driver’s radio is “Box, box, box.”
The box is usually slightly angled because it is faster and easier for drivers to brake from the pit lane speed limit of about 80kph at a shallower angle, and then accelerate out at a more acute slant.
The pit stop usually involves around 22 people, with some as backups. Two hold the centre of the car for stability while two more elevate the car on jacks. The front jack swivels sideways, speeding up the lowering process.
There are also three people per wheel, with one to remove the tyre, which weighs around 10 kilos, one to affix the new tyre and another to operate the wheel gun, a device that removes the wheel nut on the first motion and puts the nut back on in the next motion.
A traffic light on a gantry above the driver – controlled by Gent – tells the driver when to go.
“There’s a lot of people,” Wolverson said, and getting each person to do their part perfectly “is very rare.”
Gent must be conscious of not only Red Bull’s pit stop but of other cars entering and exiting the pit lane. If any car is released into the path of another car, it not only risks a collision but will incur a five-second penalty.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown (right) and team principal Andrea Stella watch from the pit wall during the qualifying round for the Saudi Arabia Formula One Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 19. — AFP
There will always be mistakes, including wheel gun failures, stuck wheel nuts, and putting on the tyres meant for a driver’s teammate, as well as loose wheels. Reacting rapidly to these setbacks is fundamental.
“It’s critical, because the next car could be coming in,” Wolverson said.
Early in the morning at Grands Prix, the sound of wheel guns is constant as teams practice pit stops, with the car being pushed slowly into the box for the awaiting mechanics. Teams also practice with older cars at their factories.
“We probably do 30 stops across the race event in terms of practice, and live during the session, with a live car,” Wolverson said.
“That is particularly important at the start of each year to train any new mechanics.
“It’s about building their confidence with a live car,” Wolverson added.
“We can do a lot in the factory, but nothing replicates the adrenaline of a live car coming towards you. We’ve only got a pool of people to choose from. We’ve got a group of mechanics, and we need to see who suits each role best.” — NYT
