Ferrari say they are still trying to improve their pit stop procedure after a slow stop cost them points in the German Grand Prix.
Felipe Massa slipped from fourth place to fifth on the last lap as Ferrari were beaten by Red Bull in the pits.
But a new system introduced two races ago has made Ferrari’s pit stops faster: Fernando Alonso enjoyed the second and third-quickest pit stops of the race in Germany.
Ferrari’s head of track operations Diego Ioverno said: “Since the beginning of the year we have had various issues with pit stops, which we are currently fixing step by step, knowing that this year, with so many stops, anything can happen and indeed we have seen other teams also experience difficulties in this area.
“Our issues concerned the car itself and the jig of the tools we use and especially the wheel nuts, where we have had several problems.
“Silverstone was the first race we ran with a completely new specification of wheel nut, which has been very interesting, because in the British Grand Prix, our pit stops were the quickest in the race.
“Then, in Germany we were again using this new wheel nut, which does work better, but the system is still not perfect and, at Felipe’s last tyre change, we lost the connection between the wheel nut and wheel nut gun, which cost us around one and a half seconds. So we have more work to do on perfecting it.”
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Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
Icthyes (@icthyes)
26th July 2011, 18:23
Formula One is of course the pursuit of perfection but I have to say I’m a little worried about Ferrari’s paranoia over mistakes. The Abu Dhabi strategy call last year resulted in Chris Dyer losing his job, after all.
geo132 (@geo132)
26th July 2011, 18:50
Suggesting they might fire the whole pit crew?
Icthyes (@icthyes)
26th July 2011, 19:25
I recall one mechanic was fired many years ago after a repeat error, but it might not have been Ferrari. But anyway, I was talking more about a sensitivity to criticism following the bad press after Abu Dhabi, as politically motivated as some of it was.
RIISE (@riise)
26th July 2011, 19:24
I think it’s the pressure of the situation sometimes. Especially in Felipe’s case. When you look at the when Massa and Vettel both came in they weren’t “that” close. But Felipe braked far too early which allowed Sebastien to get right on the back of him. Suddenly a 1.5 second cushion turned into less than half a second.
I doubt the pit crew were expecting such a small gap from when they were watching the battle on the screen. The whole situation turned into a bit of a panic and yet again Ferrari failed when it came to Felipe’s stop.
The Chris Dyer situation has been covered so much but I do believe Ferrari would sack a wheel gun man that is a bit sloppy a couple of times, and to be fair, rightly so. Maybe that’s a bit harsh…but still, F1 is perfection.
Aldo
26th July 2011, 20:27
I surely can’t see what you mention, of Massa breaking early. In ay case, it doesn’t matter: if your car enters the pit ahead, it should leave the pits ahead. Is that simple.
Alexi
26th July 2011, 23:23
Not quite. Remind that sometimes cars can’t be released due to safety and end up losing a place even if they entered before and pits were about the same time.
Wallbreaker
26th July 2011, 19:29
But if they want to beat Vettel and Red Bull, every mistake in the pits (as seen at the ring) hurts them a lot because they give away positions and important points they need to catch up. So I don´t blame them at all, I wouldn´t even call it a paranoia, you´ll only be the world champion if you´re the driver or the team that doesn´t make (m)any mistakes.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th July 2011, 19:42
But admittedly, aversion of risk is what made them stay conservative with the car lately and forced them to have to fight an uphill battle to claw back on Red Bull in the first place.
To get the best out of individuals one needs to make them feel save enough to take calculated risks and gain a good advantage from it.
Kiril Varbanov
27th July 2011, 7:31
Frankly, I don’t remember a single pit crew that hasn’t done any mistakes, it’s part of the sport, I guess.
It’s good, however, that Ferrari, as well as the rest of the teams, are aiming at perfection – as we saw, this could cost you a victory (Vettel @UK) or valuable and deserved place (Massa @Germany). That has always been the case.
daykind
26th July 2011, 18:24
Ferrari’s stops this year have been fine though. far better than McLaren, who have made even more mistakes.
geo132 (@geo132)
26th July 2011, 18:49
Felipe have lost many places due to pit issues. You might say Alonso’s stops were fine, but not Ferraris.
Anyway, McLaren’s pit problem with Button couple of races ago wasn’t as decisive as Felipe’s stop this weekend! The pit crew knew he is coming in in the last lap and they couldn’t get hold of themselves properly. Shame really.. He gave such a good fight to Vettel.
daykind
26th July 2011, 18:53
Still think that this year, Ferrari have been better than Mclaren. Hamilton’s in Monaco, Button in Britain spring immediately to mind.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th July 2011, 19:34
Not too sure about that. I tend to agree with Geo here, seems Massa had a botched one in just about every race.
Its just that those were never for the lead or a podium and Alonso’s have been very good this year so it doesn’t change the top 3 results and gets a bit less coverage.
But its nice to see Ferrari actually did something about it and it seems to work pretty good, even if not perfect yet.
Q85
26th July 2011, 20:39
alonso had some some shockers in the early rounds. it was very rare a stop was less that 4.5 seconds in the first 6 races.
But massa has had more disaster stops.
Fixy (@)
27th July 2011, 17:14
Red Bull’s stops in Monaco were bad, but they were perfect in all the other races.
spankythewondermonkey (@spankythewondermonkey)
27th July 2011, 10:45
really? felipe’s resulted in a loss of 1 place. jenson’s resulted in a dnf. a dnf is a bit more decisive than a 1 place drop ;-)
rob
28th July 2011, 13:51
Felipe lost a position in almost every GP due to a (or even 2) bad stops or Alonso getting the first choice to pit.
TED BELL
26th July 2011, 19:05
It is ridiculus to even have this conversation. If you are the best and in particular at this level of motorsport there is absoluetly no excuse to ever have a problem during a pitstop. These mistakes ruin championship bids. The key is having the right people at the right position and repeating the exercise of the pitstop until it becomes second nature.Fire anyone who makes a mistake, simple as that. Success through intimidation.
daykind
26th July 2011, 19:17
Yeah, becuase world class drivers like Alonso, Vettel, hamilton, button, Schumacher etc. never make mistakes on track do they?
TommyB (@tommyb89)
26th July 2011, 19:22
Red Bull practice pitstops time after time after time. They pride themselves on it and they still made an error at Silverstone.
Mistakes happen.
RIISE (@riise)
26th July 2011, 19:26
Intimidation would probably cause more mistakes.
Robbie
26th July 2011, 19:40
The beatings shall continue until morale improves…
RIISE (@riise)
26th July 2011, 19:50
Double negatives and all that.
MVEilenstein
26th July 2011, 19:38
Ted wins Horrible Boss of the Year Award for 2011.
TED BELL
27th July 2011, 0:02
The bottom line is be mistake free.
Every part of a team from those in the factory to those who run a race weekend all have to find a way to be fault free. The astronomical amount of money being spent to win both championships is beyond sanity. Sure there moments where equipment fails or something else happens that gives advantage to the competition. When it happens to your team you probably will have given away P1.
Remember that in the end it is the team that does it just a bit better than the rest ends up winning and to win is the name of the game.
And for those who care I have won Horrible Boss of the Year twice.
Ashley
27th July 2011, 0:07
Why don’t you change the tires in under 4 seconds Ted and make no mistakes.
daykind
27th July 2011, 11:08
I refer to my previous comment, you can’t say that Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Button, Schumacher, Massa, Webber or any other top class driver doesn’t make mistakes.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th July 2011, 19:38
Great Idea. Fire everyone and in Abu Dhabi Fry and Stefano can do one side of the car, Monti does the Lollipop and Alonso and Massa take turns on the other side, as the rest of the team will have been fired by that time!
Mistakes happen all the time, we are all human after all. A good team or operation builds its procedures to minimize the risk of that happening and lower the impact of the rare cases where it does by having backup procedures.
But it would hardly be good watching if nobody ever made mistakes, we would just have both Red Bulls leading from start to finish this year.
John H
26th July 2011, 20:01
Who have been the best at pit stops this season – Red Bull. Why? Because they don’t change wheel nuts mid-season, don’t have traffic lights and practice like mad at the start of the season to get the correct bond and stick to it.
Keep it simple. Ferrari and McLaren are always trying to overthink these problems but when it comes down to flesh and bones, keeping things as consistent as possible (until next season) is usually the best path to perfection.
Cacarella (@cacarella)
26th July 2011, 20:10
Keeping things simple and consistent is fine and dandy when you’re methods make you the best at pit-stops, but if you’re Ferrari or Mclaren and you’re losing time then you need to think of a better way of doing things so that you can take the No.1 spot away from your competition.
John H
26th July 2011, 22:58
Agreed. But a faster wheel nut that looks better on paper does not always translate to being quicker in reality under pressure. What they end up doing is trying too hard and forget the simple human things that can make a team work more efficiently as a unit.
Ral
26th July 2011, 23:11
A new wheel nut does not change the procedure though. The physical movements the pit crew make are still the same. The only way the wheel nut affects that is by (presumably) making it easier on the guys to fit the gun to the wheel nut.
That’s not making knee-jerk reaction changes. That’s common sense. If your pitstops are on average about 1.5s slower than RBR and Mercedes, than you look at why that might be. The wheelnut and gun fitting are prime suspects. Or do you honestly think Ferrari and McLaren don’t practice their pitstops until they’re as fast as they can make them?
Quin1010 (@quin1010)
27th July 2011, 2:50
Agree Ral. Teams are always going to try to find fractions of a second in the pits the same as they to on the track, through new procedures or new equipment. Sometimes equipment fails, like RBR’s jack failure at Silverstone. Overall Ferrari’s pitstops have improved and and are now quite competitive. Also,I don’t see why some are saying the crewman or team made a “mistake”. A failed gun is no more a mistake by the crew than a broken suspension is a mistake by the driver, assuming of course he didn’t hit someone or something!
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
26th July 2011, 20:19
It would awful if Vettel wins the WDC by two points from Alonso. Two points being the difference between fourth and fifth.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
27th July 2011, 23:22
Good spot ;)
james_mc
26th July 2011, 21:33
Actually I don’t think there was anything that the crew could have done.
With the cushion Massa had, there might have just been enough time to return in the lead. However if Vettel had been released into the pit-lane before Massa then there is a good chance that Massa would have had to have been kept in his box while Vettel went past. Admittedly, there have been situations (Massa-Sutil, Valencia 08, Hamilton-Vettel last year on a couple of occasions), the latter of which were very dangerous. Especially as the pitlane at the Nurburgring looked fairly tight.
Whether Massa could have got out before Vettel was always going to be tight, but when he slammed on the brakes just before the pit speed limit line and allowed Vettel to be up his exhaust effectively sealed the position for Vettel.
rob
28th July 2011, 14:01
Lol.
Ferrari just wasn’t quick enough because they had a problem with a wheel nut (4th time this season with Massa)
With a similar pit stop time he would have been in front of Vettel.
shadow13 (@shadow13)
26th July 2011, 21:59
I think that anything Ferrari can do to improve their pit-stops is good. Speaking as a Ferrari fan I have cringed many times over the years as Ferrari have messed up pitstops. I agree Daykind – this year Ferrari have been reasonably good in pit-stops – they haven’t made many mistakes but they are also not that quick compared to the Red Bulls. I think they mainly need to practice though as John H said, not come up with a new gimmick for every race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th July 2011, 0:33
By the way, the post-race analysis for Germany now includes pit stop times:
2011 German Grand Prix pit stops and tyres used
Ferrari’s pit stops ranked 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 10th, 14th and 37th fastest. No prizes for guessing what that last one was…
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
27th July 2011, 2:37
They were the best crew during the time of Schumacher, Todt, Brawn,Stephany,sad to see fatigue in them.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th July 2011, 6:23
At the start of the year they really had some slow stops, often losing a second and more to Red Bull.
But they do seem to get this settled now, but one makes the odd mistake during the process, it seesm.
Eggry (@eggry)
27th July 2011, 6:47
of course they should. Massas have been suffered from poor strategy and slow pit stop also Alonso have been lost at least a couple of position due to pit stop.
themagicofspeed (@)
27th July 2011, 11:07
sigh….we see this time and time again now, silly mistakes from ferrari when there really should be no exscuse. they are ferrari, they ought to be the best there is. after all, you dont win 5 WDC/WCC titles on the trot without a decent pit crew – what happened to the slick stops of those days?
i’m a ferrari fan, but after events like abu dhabi last year, and massa on sunday, i find myself regularly despairing of them. indeed, abu dhabi last year made me seriously question why i follow ferrari, or F1 in general, to the extent that i didnt follow it over the winter and didnt watch the first race. i just didnt care anymore.
JimN (@jimn)
27th July 2011, 16:43
Given the high importance of pitstops in f1 over the last decade I’m rather surprised that all teams are still using wheel nuts and wheel guns. That, after all, is ancient technology and cross threading , losing the nuts, badly tightened nuts etc have always been problems. I would have thought that at least one team would have come up with an alternative wheel securing system to eliminate these issues by now.
electrolite (@electrolite)
27th July 2011, 22:12
Whenever this happens to a big team, it’s always about finding the problem and ‘solving’ an error in some sort of system and ultimately playing the blame game. But it doesn’t take a genius to realise, that in a moment like Sunday with Massa v Vettel, Massa should have been brought in. It’s not rocket science honestly!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
27th July 2011, 23:25
The last team you want to pit against is Red Bull, especially given the situation we had on lap 60 at the weekend.
They’re not going to win the championship from the pits though, a bit late for that.