Although the 2024 Formula 1 season is simply across the nook, F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó takes a glance again on the final 12 months’s championship, choosing up some key details relating to the pit stops.
A Formula 1 pit cease revolves round a perfectly-placed stopping, altering tyres and seamless accelerating away.
The historical past of F1 pit stops is nearly as outdated as the game itself. It dates again to the Nineteen Fifties once they have been primarily used for refueling. In the Nineteen Sixties, pit stops started to embrace tyre adjustments and minor repairs. By the Nineteen Eighties, pit stops had change into an important a part of F1 racing when advanced methods additionally began to emerge.
While refuelling was permitted from the 1994 season to the 2009 season, pit stops usually lasted for six to twelve seconds. It meant that mechanics had greater than sufficient time to match new tyres on vehicles.
However, mid-race refuelling was banned in 2010 which prompted groups to revise their pit cease procedures. The major objective of pit stops have been altering tyres with minor crashes typically additionally forcing mechanics to substitute the nostril and entrance wing meeting throughout pit stops.
Teams have consistently labored on their pit cease efficiency, updating not solely their {hardware} but additionally fine-tuning the positioning and concord between the mechanics. A pit cease sometimes takes 2 to 3 seconds to full.
Today’s pit stops contain a big group of individuals. The quantity of people that instantly work on or across the automotive is nineteen. There are mechanics answerable for wheel-off, wheel-on, and gunners, entrance and rear jack, two wing alter, two stabilisers and site visitors mild controller.
Furthermore, there are folks standing in entrance of the storage, poised with facet jacks and with fireplace extinguishers. However, there are additional staff members who play a pivotal half in an ideal pit cease. Strategists decide the timing of the cease; the race engineer delivers tyre and wing alter data and the staff supervisor calling the crew out into the field.
There are alternates for each spot who practice for the day when the first is sick or injured.
We proudly current: A brand new world report for @McLarenF1 and a resurgence for @ScuderiaFerrari, but the @redbullracing crew have been once more invincible. For the sixth time in a row, the raging bulls reigned supreme within the pitlane and gained the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award.#F1 #DHLF1 pic.twitter.com/BpfVQCo3RL
— DHL_Motorsports (@DHL_Motorsports) December 3, 2023
The DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award was established in 2015 to “recognize outstanding teamwork and performance from the unsung heroes who make a vital contribution to the drivers’ success on the track.”
The scoring system is similar because the race itself with the constructor behind the quickest pit cease of a Grand Prix awarded 25 factors whereas the second will get 18 and so forth.
Having taken glory within the DHL standings yearly since 2018, Red Bull as soon as once more stand tall above everybody else to wrap up that specific title for 2023 as properly. The Milton Keynes-based outfit scored a complete of 543 factors, beating Ferrari within the standings, with the Italian outfit having taken 468 factors.
McLaren began the 2023 F1 season off the tempo, however their upgrades lifted up the Woking-based outfit within the pecking order, enabling Oscar Piastri to take his maiden F1 victory within the Qatar Sprint race. The British staff delivered extraordinarily robust performances within the pit lane as properly. Their constant and fast tyre adjustments noticed McLaren seal third place within the DHL Pit Stop Award.
AlphaTauri took fourth, adopted by Alpine and Aston Martin. Mercedes prevented severe errors throughout their pit stops, however they have been often unable to sustain with the quickest stops, which means that they completed down in P7 within the DHL Pit Stop Award.
Williams scored 50 factors which was sufficient to beat Alfa Romeo with Haas rounding out the standings.
While the DHL Pit Stop Award not solely the short, however the constantly quick tyre adjustments, absolutely the quickest pit cease belonged to McLaren. The papaya-coloured staff serviced Lando Norris’ MCL60 on the Qatar Grand Prix in simply 1.80s with which McLaren achieved a brand new world report, surpassing Red Bull’s earlier greatest time of 1.82s.
Ferrari and Red Bull additionally managed to crack the 2-second barrier because the Italian outfit modified the Pirelli tyres on Charles Leclerc’s automotive in Qatar in simply 1.98s. The identical time was required for Red Bull to service Sergio Perez’s automotive in Hungary. McLaren had one other sub 2s pit cease change, achieved with Piastri on the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
