A four-second pit stop

January 26, 2016 • 11:30 am

When I was a kid, I loved the Indianapolis 500 race, and before it was televised I’d listen to it on the radio and write down what happened in every lap. I was particularly fascinated by pit stops: when cars pull in for new tires, a gas refill, and so on. The crews who do this are amazingly fast and well orchestrated, but this one, a pit stop at the Formula 1 Melbourne Grand Prix in 2013, is only FOUR SECONDS LONG (I timed it). I watched it twice, and, sure enough, they did everything in just a few seconds. And it’s a Ferrari.

I haven’t seen anything near this quick before.

49 thoughts on “A four-second pit stop”

    1. I agree. Four seconds is a very slow stop. Still Melbourne was at the beginning of last year so they were probably a bit rusty.

      1. If you go by the seconds count at the bottom of the Youtube video, it lasts from 0.35 to 0.38, i.e. 3 seconds (or maybe just under) from the car coming to a halt to when it starts again.

        I’ve had this saved on my hard drive for ages.

        Viewing it in extreme slow motion on VLC it seems to take just over two seconds from when the car actually stops, to when it starts moving again.

        Incredibly quick, anyway.

        cr

        1. Oh, and there’s three guys to a wheel – one guy with the air wrench (and there’s a spare wrench lying close to hand on the ground just in case), one guy to pull the old wheel off, one guy holding the new wheel to put it on.

          This is a bit quicker than rally crews who have been known to take five minutes to change a gearbox. 😉

          cr

  3. Sorry if duplicate post…

    I can offer some perspective as in my previous life, I worked for an racing team that participated in the Indianpolis 500. The season of 2001, I was actually on the pitstop crew during the 500 race.

    If you notice with F1, compared to Indycar, there are almost 4x the amount of crew members (21) over the wall ready to service the vehicle. In Indycar, there are only 6 crew members allowed over the wall.

    Also, the biggest difference in dropping times in the last few years in F1 is the fact that refueling does not take place, only tires and sometimes minor wing adjustments.

    1. That’s really interesting. To watch the Indy 500 in person is on my sports bucket list so I can imagine that it must have been a thrill to be on a pit crew for the race.
      I recently saw a piece about the pit crew for Michael Waltrip’s Sprint Cup car. Apparently, they recruit heavily among former NCAA football players and wrestlers as they have the strength and agilty to get over the wall and wield tires or a fuel can and execute a clean stop in time. I somtimes wonder if the casual sports fan understands the extent to which racing is a team sport, and the importance of the pit crew on that team.

      1. Years ago, 1986 if I remember correctly, I was lucky enough to hang out in the pits at the Grand Prix of West Palm Beach. GTP class, not F1.

        I miss the GTP cars, they were awesome. For a while I stood right in the center of the main straight watching, 1/4 mile (.42 km) long with a hairpin turn on both ends of it. The cars would enter the straight at about 30 mph (48 kph), accelerate up to about 186 mph (300 kph) and then brake back down to about 30 mph (48 kph) again, all in about 1/4 of a mile (.42 km).

        One car that stood out in the GTP class in that race / era was the Jaguar. It was the only car in the class that was normally aspirated. It’s scream was so outrageously loud you could here it clearly over all the other cars even when it was all the way over on the far side of the course and other cars were going right by you.

  4. I hate to tell ya but four seconds is considered a bit slow now. Most of the top teams like to keep it under 3 seconds, usually around 2.5 to 2.8 as an average. That is just to change tires only of course – no fueling or any additional work.

  5. I can offer some perspective as in my previous life, I worked for an racing team that participated in the Indianpolis 500. The season of 2001, I was actually on the pitstop crew during the 500 race.

    If you notice with F1, compared to Indycar, there are almost 4x the amount of crew members (21) over the wall ready to service the vehicle. In Indycar, there are only 6 crew members allowed over the wall.

    Also, the biggest difference in dropping times in the last few years in F1 is the fact that refueling does not take place, only tires and sometimes minor wing adjustments.

    1. Yes, no limit in F1 on the number of people in the pit. However, the same crew does both cars.

      I think they have 3 on each tire, two to lift the car (front and back) one or two are probably back up in case of need. Looks like two guys, one on each side that maybe steady to car so no movement while up on the jacks.

      In Indy I think you have automatic jacking?

  6. what affixes the tires to the axles? My dad was a mechanic and ran a tire shop so I’ve put auto tires on with a pneumatic wrench and it certainly takes longer than a few seconds. Is it just one big bolt?

  7. Sorry, F1 is good, but I am more impressed with Indy and NASCAR. It takes longer but a lot more is done by fewer people putting a lot more effort into it.

    1. Spoken like the true American. I don’t think anyone is trying to impress but F1 is a different culture and has always been a technology competition as much as a racing competition. NASCAR is no such thing and really neither is Indy. I also don’t think anyone doubts that F1 are the best drivers in the world.

      Both Indy and NASCAR build and race cookie cutter cars. So everyone is driving essentially the same thing. F1 does no such thing and each team builds their own cars new each year. Right now F1 is driving a hybrid car and getting approx. 160 horsepower from electricity. The rest from a very small turbo charged V6 engine. I could go on and on about how much more tech is in F1 but you get the idea.

      1. And the F1 drive on a road track or simulated road track, with, you know, proper turns, etc.

        Nascar and Indy on the other hand … just keep turning to the left …

          1. Yes and actually the Indy cars do have what we would call a few street circuits where they turn both ways but they are really poor race tracks because they are simply city streets. The only ones like that in F1 are Monaco and Singapore. The rest are all tracks made specifically for the cars.

            I guess NASCAR does a couple of road courses each season but it is not a thing of beauty.

      2. Hmmm…160 horsepower? Really? I always imagined these cars were supper powered like 400 horsepower. (Say it ain’t so, Joe).

        As a complete racing culture neophyte, I accept how irrational this may sound.

        1. That’s 160HP from the electric motor, in addition to the several hundred from the internal combustion engine.

          1. Actually they recover the energy from two places and turn it into electricity. From braking and from the turbo charger area. This is stored in battery form and then released adding to the HP. So it is regenerative as the car runs. This plus the engine gives the cars something like 750 hp. Some refer to these cars as horizontal rocket ships.

          3. I once saw a demonstration of an F1 car compared to three other cars on a documentary that I can’t remember the name of. 4 cars lined up at the start line on a race course. They started off in succession with a certain delay between starts. 1st a high end production sports car, then two different classes of race cars, and last the F1 car.

            It seemed like the F1 didn’t take off until the previous car was nearly half way around the track. The F1 car was 1st past the finish of course, while the production sports car was last. Though F1 class cars may have better acceleration and higher top speed, though other types can be comparable there, the most significant advantage they have, particularly given the types of road courses they race on, is cornering speed.

          4. Although I’ve never been a racing fan, your description provokes an appreciation for all the technical elements involved in the sport.

            I remember the father of a guy I knew in 7th grade died racing stock cars. I think that was a factor in my lack of enthusiasm.

        1. F1 is in fact a highly artificial formula. Originally Grand Prix was ‘build the fastest* car you can’ (* fastest round the track, not necessarily top speed) but in the 30’s, I think, as a result of the cars getting scarily and lethally fast, (think rear-engined 4.4-litre Auto Unions) they started introducing limits on design. Initially, I think, on engine capacity, then on supercharging, then on ‘wings’, and doubtless many other developments since. One of the biggest factors in their lap times is just tyres.

          F1’s are not the fastest car that could be built (obviously a 3-litre version of the current F1’s should be quicker, all else being equal). But they are shatteringly fast.

          Though none of them look as good (to my mind) as a Lotus 72.

          cr

    2. Indy and Nascar are both pretty “blue collar” compared to F1, which is more bleeding-edge automotive tech than anything else. A slight difference in mechanical performance can kill a team’s chances for the year, and often the team that comes out on top is simply better at adapting to rule changes between seasons.

      Which is better? Well you’ll need to define what “better” is! One thing to note is that a lot of the technology that will be in your car in a few years will have trickled down from F1, if only because where Mercedes goes most other manufacturers follow.

      It’s also interesting that Haas are getting into the F1 game (although there’s been a lot of wrangling on the F1 side as they’re partnered with Ferrari and there’s chat about Ferrari using this to get around testing/wind tunnel restrictions) so I’m definitely keeping my eye on that. F1 does need a kick up the backside, to be honest.

  8. As I have know knowledge of these car races, I just cringe to think of what happens to the guy who bobbles something and costs them an extra few seconds. Maybe that’s what that extra heavy looking dude watching them is for.
    Also, I can see the crew would have to be a select and talented bunch. I’m curious to know if any had been athletes in previous lives. Short distance runners? Ping pong?

    2. The pit crew are made up of team mechanics, so they’d be working on the cars over the race weekend and get into their fireproofs on race day.

      I think that the whole F1 environment is very competitive & fitness-oriented now.

  11. F1 does only tires during pit stops, no fuel.
    INDY does tires, gas (ethanol, actually), car wash, and what not else more.
    Still, 4 seconds is unreally slow for F1. They do 2.5 to 3 secs.

    1. Some might find it interesting – since F1 went back to no refueling, so the car has to carry all the fuel required to make it from start to finish. They put 100 Kilos of fuel in the car which almost doubles the weight of the car. Therefore, the lap times go down as the race goes on. They did this to make it safer as we know, refueling adds danger and time to a pit stop.

      1. That’s not right…100 kilograms, so 220 lbs.
        Not double. The cars weigh something like 1400 pounds, maybe 635 kilograms.

      2. I remember a video from a few years ago where the fuel nozzle wasn’t properly inserted, doused the car and then ignited. Not pretty.

        1. There have been a few of those!

          Pit-lane fires are spectacular but generally less risky than elsewhere as everyone’s been in fireproof suits for a couple of decades, and are ready for problems like that.

  12. Impressive. Reminds me of the way my kids would work on my wallet and money-clip while I was heading out the door to work in the mornings.

  14. When I first glanced at the title of this post I thought of someone racing in and out of the gas station toilet. No respectable racing fan would have, right?

  15. I love the efficiency of pit crews. I love efficiency in general. I think it’s the German coming out in me.

        1. I know. I was just commenting on the famous stereotypical tendency of Italians to be disorganised.

          (And of course I know the nationality of the Ferrari pit crew members is not necessarily Italian).

  17. F1 also has fuel consumption limits that help drive hybrid innovation–the race must be run on 100kg of gasoline or less. NASCAR “stock car”* engines use carburetors which haven’t been used on road cars for 25 years so are throwbacks using obsolete technology as compared to F1 cutting edge technology

    *these “stock cars” are purpose built race cars that only resemble your car in having four wheels

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