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More
than ever before, during the Italian Grand Prix on
Sunday, Formula 1 really proved to be a team sport.
Fernando Alonso’s win was not just down to his abilities
as a driver and the fact his car was competitive. It was
also, or more accurately, especially, down to the work
of the team during his pit stop.
Fernando himself acknowledged the fact immediately after
the race, when he commented that he was surprised at how
quickly the guys changed the wheels. 3.4 seconds was the
time it took for the sixteen personnel involved in the
operation – two on the jacks, front and rear, one on the
lights, one watching the traffic in pit lane, three men
per wheel – to send Fernando back on track. That’s a
great time, under the average so far for the Ferrari
crew (3”7) but not as good as their best in a race,
which happened at the Canadian Grand Prix, when the pit
stop was completed in 3”3, which at the time, allowed
Fernando to get ahead of Hamilton, who had stopped on
the same lap.
“We have worked very hard this year to improve the wheel
changing procedure as much as possible,” explains Diego
Ioverno, the head of Race Operations, car assembly and
gearbox. “Up until the end of last season, it was the
length of the refuelling time that determined the
duration of a stop and the mechanics working on changing
wheels had a reasonably comfortable safety margin,
although even here we are only talking seconds. Today,
the slightest error is heavily penalised: you could say
it is much easier to lose a race in the pit stop than it
is to win one.”
All well and good, but what the fans will remember is
the images of what the mechanics in the red suits did
yesterday afternoon in the Monza pit lane. Let’s take a
closer look at the detail of the procedure, tenth by
tenth, starting from the moment Fernando stopped his F10
in the pit lane, millimetre perfect on the specified
mark: +0”35: car lifted up by the two jack men; +0.70:
wheels with the soft tyres come off; +1.40: wheels with
the hard tyres in position; +2”30: first wheel locked on
and arm up to confirm; +2”60: second wheel locked on;
+2”70: third wheel locked on; +2”90: fourth wheel locked
on; and +3”40: car on the ground and green light.
What makes this sort of performance possible? “There are
two secrets, if we can call them that: training and
constant practice,” adds Ioverno. “From the start of
this year, we have done over 1300 pit stop practices, at
the track and at the factory. In the weeks when there
are no Grands Prix, we train three times, carrying out
around thirty simulations per day. At the track, we work
from Thursday to Saturday, tackling the weekend as
though we were a football team: the day before, some
fine tuning and on Sunday, relax before the match. It is
important that the guys receive the instructions in a
calm manner, without getting agitated: they are
perfectly aware of what a big responsibility lies in
their hands, especially in races like yesterday’s. There
is no point in rushing them as this only leads to
mistakes.”
Apart from the sixteen personnel involved in a standard
pit stop, there are eight other people ready for action
when the car comes into the pits: one man on a side
jack, in case the nose needs to be changed, two ready to
change the angle of the flap on the front wing, one on
the starter, in case the engine stalls and four on
another set of wheels, in case of a “double” stop, when
the two drivers pit one after the other. The crew is
chosen from a pool of around thirty, who all have other
duties both at the factory and when they are at the
track: it’s a real football squad. In order to gain
tenths of a second, much thought goes into the equipment
used in this delicate operation. Particular attention is
paid to the jacks – halfway through the season, a front
one was introduced that could be released at the side of
the car, so the jack man can move out of the way before
dropping the car to the ground for a faster release.
Also important are the wheel nuts and their design and
thread is optimised for speed. During the car’s design
phase, Ioverno and his team work in conjunction with the
engineers to look at the details that could make the job
of carrying out a pit stop easier, thus gaining valuable
tenths in the context of the race as a whole. One of the
most significant new ideas introduced by Ferrari in
recent years has been the traffic light system: today
the average three tenths advantage this device affords
is a serious asset compared to many of the team’s main
rivals.
However, the human aspect remains at the core of the
operation. “A pit stop is like a ballet, played to a
soundtrack of an engine, in which a group of people has
to operate in perfect harmony with themselves and with
the star dancer, namely the driver in the cockpit,”
continues Ioverno. “The success of the operation also
depends a lot on him: it is crucial that he always stops
at the exact same preordained spot, otherwise you lose
valuable tenths, because twenty centimetres more or less
means the whole crew has to move. Each role requires its
own physical and mental characteristics. For example,
the guys on the jacks must be pretty strong, given that
every time, they have to lift a car that weighs around
seven hundred kilos. Agility, staying cool and quick
reflexes are the key requirements for those doing the
wheel changing, especially the wheel gun men, as their
job requires technical skills that are far from simple.
In training, we have actually managed to get near the
three second mark, but what counts is the race and that
is why yesterday’s performance was amazing: when I gave
the lads the call to come out of the garage, they were
well aware that the win could hang on their actions.
They did it and you could see the pride and satisfaction
on their faces, even if there was still a long way to go
to the chequered flag. When Fernando crossed the line,
then they could express their delight and that of the
whole team.”
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