Bulls, Stars and Horses: The Pitstop
1.82 seconds. Standalone, this number makes little sense. But when you compare it to some fast times, you realise how quick it actually is. For reference — a Bugatti Veyron has a 0–100kph time of 2.8 seconds, a fighter jet has a 0–60mph time of 2.15 seconds. Now what if I told you, this time is actually the time taken for a group of 20 people to change 4 tyres of a car? Suddenly the speed comes into perspective. Hell, even a Formula One car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds. So how exactly does a pitstop take place? Let’s find out…
What is a Pitstop?
To put it simply, pitstop is the servicing of the vehicle that takes place during the course of a race. It is a fairly common sight in almost all motorsport categories, ranging from short sprint races to longer endurance races.
Formula One also has a mandatory pitstop rule, where each driver has to pit atleast once for a change of tyres during the course of a race. During a pitstop, all the tyres of the car are changed, changes made to the front wing to suit the driver and repairs made in case of non-terminal damage. In the past, cars were also refuelled during pitstops. But after a few horrifying accidents (Click here to know more), for overall safety, refuelling was banned in F1.
How has the Pitstop evolved over the years?
The pitstop has evolved from a servicing event in a race to a highly tactical tool for the teams. This has driven a relentless pursuit in technology to reduce the time it takes for cars in the pits. Just for reference, in 1950 when Formula One officially started, a pitstop only had 4 people working on the car and would take close to 67 seconds to complete. In contrast, today more than 20 people work on a car, with the average time down to about 2.5 seconds.
This has been achieved through a combination of both advancements in personnel and technology. In the past, the pitcrew (term for people deployed in a pitstop) used to use wrenches to remove tyres. Today the pitcrew uses pneumatic wheel guns, which can rotate upto a speed of >10,000 rpm, having a rotational power of >3,000 Nm. This loosens and tightens the wheel nut in fraction of seconds.
But you must be wondering, what is the need to employ 20 people in a pitstop. So let us look at what are the roles of the various people on the pit-crew.
The Pit-crew
The pit-crew are the unsung heroes of Formula One. Their performance is almost equally as important as that of the drivers. So let us understand what the role of each member of the pit-crew is.
Starting with the tyres, there are 3 members allocated to each wheel — one to operate the wheel gun, one to remove the old tyres and one to put on the new tyre once the older one is off. But to remove the tyres, you need to jack up the car. A pitcrew hence has 2 members (one operating the main jack and one as a backup) each on the front and back jack to ensure that the car jacks up perfectly. Totaling so far, the number of members is already 16.
2 people are also required to ensure that the car remains stable when up on the jacks, so that the car does not wobble when the wheel guns apply the pressure on the four wheels. 1–2 members (depending on the situation) are also employed to make changes to the front wing angle, to suit the driver’s preference. Due to the violent pit incidents in the past, a member of the crew is always on standby with a fire extinguisher to quell any fires that take place.
Lastly, to organize this operational ballet, a chief engineer oversees the operation with a stopwatch in hand, bringing the total up to 21–22 people for a normal pitstop. Relentless practice takes place over the weekend and at the factory as well to ensure a perfect pitstop.
Poetry in motion
I will let the following video of the world record pitstop conclude this article. We will visit the impact of tyre choices and pitstops in the next article.
PS: Recently the world record for the longest pitstop was also set, when Valtteri Bottas’s wheel nut just wouldn’t come off at the Monaco GP 2021, and it was finally removed 43 hours after the car came into the pits!
