Red Bull’s mechanics are as fast in the pits as the RB7 is on the track.
They’ve been the quickest team in the pits in six of the eleven races so far this year.
Pit stops were a weakness in Ferrari’s game earlier this year but they’ve made major gains in recent races.
Fastest pit stop times at each race
This chart shows the fastest pit stop time (in seconds) for each team in every race so far. Use the controls below to show or hide different teams:
Australia | Malaysia | China | Turkey | Spain | Monaco | Canada | Europe | Britain | Germany | Hungary | |
Red Bull | 22.52 | 21.893 | 21.091 | 20.112 | 19.887 | 26.269 | 22.402 | 20.319 | 23.137 | 20.11 | 19.664 |
McLaren | 22.681 | 22.4 | 20.533 | 20.833 | 19.761 | 24.67 | 23.589 | 20.212 | 23.292 | 20.403 | 20.046 |
Ferrari | 23.251 | 22.541 | 21.168 | 21.308 | 20.238 | 25.352 | 22.56 | 20.136 | 23.238 | 19.975 | 19.936 |
Mercedes | 23.716 | 22.227 | 20.522 | 20.308 | 19.534 | 25.116 | 22.702 | 20.896 | 24.399 | 19.93 | 19.939 |
Renault | 22.994 | 22.602 | 21.821 | 20.872 | 20.796 | 25.851 | 23.113 | 21.105 | 24.172 | 20.572 | 21.353 |
Williams | 23.643 | 24.502 | 21.481 | 21.687 | 20.637 | 25.675 | 23.059 | 21.163 | 23.869 | 21.057 | 20.58 |
Force India | 23.871 | 22.046 | 20.989 | 20.775 | 20.07 | 24.97 | 22.479 | 20.286 | 24.077 | 20.839 | 20.589 |
Sauber | 23.438 | 23.28 | 21.473 | 21.715 | 20.5 | 28.642 | 23.687 | 20.545 | 25.386 | 20.882 | 20.57 |
Toro Rosso | 23.1 | 22.888 | 21.928 | 21.769 | 20.741 | 25.045 | 23.338 | 20.46 | 24.095 | 20.954 | 20.36 |
Lotus | 24.848 | 23.336 | 21.89 | 21.633 | 20.807 | 25.595 | 23.332 | 21.126 | 21.175 | 20.99 | |
HRT | 26.554 | 23.499 | 24.474 | 23.157 | 28.298 | 27.202 | 22.235 | 25.505 | 22.048 | 22.458 | |
Virgin | 23.792 | 24.416 | 21.908 | 22.779 | 21.17 | 26.464 | 24.143 | 21.9 | 24.959 | 20.762 | 20.613 |
Red Bull were the quickest team in the pits in the first race of the year and in the last race at Hungary – as well as four of the races in between.
As last year’s world championship leaders they have the advantage of being situated at either end of their pits, which often gives their drivers a straighter run into or out of their pit box.
But this advantage isn’t worth as much as a slick pit stop procedure and a well-drilled team. Mercedes enjoyed the same benefit in 2010 but have remained one of the quickest crews despite losing it this year.
Ferrari have concentrated on their pit stops in recent races and it shows. They were never better than fifth-fastest in the first six races. Since then, they’ve never been out of the top three.
How quick the teams are at turning around pit stops matches their on-track performance very closely. But there are a few significant exceptions.
The first is Mercedes, who did the fastest pit stop times in three races this year: China, Spain and Germany.
Force India are another. From the Malaysian to the European Grand Prix they were consistently among the top four fastest pit stop times.
However HRT are lagging well behind even their closest on-track rivals. While Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Riciardo may entertain hopes of racing the Virgins on Sundays, losing up to two seconds on every pit visit is not going to help their cause.
Average pit stop times at each race
This chart shows the average pit stop time for all of a driver’s pit stops (in seconds) in each race. Use the controls below to show or hide different drivers:
Australia | Malaysia | China | Turkey | Spain | Monaco | Canada | Europe | Britain | Germany | Hungary | |
Sebastian Vettel | 23.32 | 22.408 | 21.764 | 20.402 | 20.215 | 28.536 | 23.119 | 20.593 | 26.504 | 20.259 | 20.322 |
Mark Webber | 24.059 | 22.198 | 21.888 | 21.1 | 20.306 | 30.091 | 24.906 | 20.384 | 24.416 | 20.688 | 20.673 |
Lewis Hamilton | 23.213 | 23.253 | 20.659 | 24.909 | 20.364 | 28.466 | 20.529 | 24.168 | 20.627 | 21.205 | |
Jenson Button | 22.992 | 22.451 | 21.925 | 21.808 | 20.295 | 25.26 | 25.313 | 20.6 | 24.216 | 20.952 | 20.966 |
Fernando Alonso | 24.055 | 24.51 | 21.888 | 21.53 | 20.481 | 29.372 | 25.457 | 20.721 | 24.671 | 20.147 | 21.539 |
Felipe Massa | 24.146 | 24.886 | 21.396 | 23.375 | 21.618 | 26.615 | 24.634 | 22.22 | 23.775 | 20.811 | 21.76 |
Michael Schumacher | 24.505 | 22.355 | 21.295 | 23.016 | 20.341 | 35.084 | 23.592 | 24.345 | 27.447 | 20.332 | 21.01 |
Nico Rosberg | 23.716 | 23.357 | 21.165 | 21.189 | 20.192 | 25.183 | 22.882 | 21.832 | 24.561 | 20.457 | 21.128 |
Nick Heidfeld | 24.046 | 23.241 | 22.019 | 21.744 | 21.357 | 26.138 | 23.239 | 21.957 | 24.575 | 23.403 | |
Vitaly Petrov | 25.109 | 24.852 | 21.993 | 21.561 | 22.609 | 28.856 | 23.981 | 21.459 | 24.526 | 21.011 | 23.172 |
Rubens Barrichello | 29.269 | 28.74 | 21.595 | 22.424 | 23.112 | 25.757 | 24.029 | 21.237 | 24.908 | 24.514 | |
Pastor Maldonado | 24.281 | 22.754 | 22.79 | 25.947 | 25.502 | 21.532 | 24.793 | 21.329 | 22.666 | ||
Adrian Sutil | 24.925 | 22.298 | 23.585 | 21.246 | 21.423 | 26.458 | 25.869 | 20.666 | 25.685 | 20.859 | 21.448 |
Paul di Resta | 24.598 | 23.056 | 21.604 | 20.999 | 20.256 | 39.807 | 24.746 | 20.818 | 34.458 | 23.106 | 21.333 |
Kamui Kobayashi | 24.128 | 23.361 | 21.896 | 22.577 | 22.166 | 28.642 | 24.153 | 22.019 | 28.448 | 21.075 | 22.612 |
Sergio Perez | 23.438 | 23.597 | 24.572 | 24.061 | 22.188 | 21.939 | 25.503 | 24.446 | 21.234 | ||
Sebastien Buemi | 24.221 | 25.36 | 22.887 | 21.976 | 22.127 | 25.388 | 24.782 | 20.925 | 25.45 | 24.128 | 21.39 |
Jaime Alguersuari | 25.903 | 23.236 | 22.419 | 22.114 | 21.444 | 26.729 | 24.749 | 21.247 | 24.407 | 21.376 | 22.544 |
Heikki Kovalainen | 24.865 | 26.21 | 22.188 | 22.534 | 21.631 | 26.078 | 44.037 | 22.333 | 21.632 | 21.998 | |
Jarno Trulli | 24.874 | 25.516 | 22.645 | 22.716 | 22.363 | 25.908 | 42.643 | 22.729 | 23.118 | ||
Narain Karthikeyan | 26.049 | 25.596 | 24.53 | 36.053 | 29.328 | 26.255 | |||||
Vitantonio Liuzzi | 31.064 | 23.983 | 37.493 | 23.157 | 28.298 | 31.792 | 23.153 | 26.074 | 22.048 | 23.888 | |
Timo Glock | 24.523 | 26.139 | 21.849 | 26.827 | 24.752 | 21.965 | 25.188 | 21.752 | 21.255 | ||
Jerome dAmbrosio | 25.853 | 25.334 | 22.852 | 23.808 | 22.622 | 26.835 | 27.502 | 22.097 | 27.085 | 22.175 | 29.643 |
Pedro de la Rosa | 27.164 | ||||||||||
Daniel Ricciardo | 26.407 | 23.186 | 22.686 | ||||||||
Karun Chandhok | 25.556 |
A quick pit stop is great but it’s not much use if a team can only do it once in ten attempts. A crack pit crew need to match their speed with consistency – and here Red Bull are also on top form.
Similarly McLaren turn around Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s cars in more or less the same amount of time each weekend.
Ferrari have been less consistent. Felipe Massa has had some particularly bad pit stops, though the effect of those has sometimes been heightened by poor in- and out-laps, particularly in Hungary.
On the face of it, Nico Rosberg appears to have had quicker pit stops than Michael Schumacher. But Schumacher has had to change his front wing in several races this year due to damage.
How teams are sharpening up their pit stops
Since in-race refuelling was banned at the end of 2009, the speed of a pit stop has been determined solely by how quickly the crew can get the old tyres off and the new ones on.
A slow pit stop can have obvious consequences. A clear recent example being Massa leading Sebastian Vettel into the pits on the last lap at the Nurburgring, then following him out after a fumbled stop.
Teams have been experimenting with different approaches to make their pit stops quicker and more consistent.
The use of high-visibility boards to help drivers stop on their marks with greater accuracy is widespread. Red Bull took the concept a step further, using lasers to help Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel position their cars perfectly.
A further example of Red Bull’s attention to detail was evident at Silverstone. In the damp conditions before the start the team used air blowers to dry the surface in their pit box.
Mercedes have used techniques borrowed from their DTM team to guard against lost wheel nuts – see the video above for more.
Some teams have even adjusted the rigging above the cars to ensure maximum air pressure is being driven to the guns the mechanics use to remove and replace the wheels.
The new tyre compounds used in F1 may have made overtaking on the track easier, but it hasn’t relieved the pressure on the pit crews. With up to four pit stops in dry races instead of one, they’re busier and more important to a driver’s performance than ever before.
Notes on the analysis
The data used is the FIA’s statistics on time spent in the pit lane for each pit stop. A complete list of stationary times for every pit stop is not available.
Timo Glock’s average pit stop time for the Australian Grand Prix was ignored as he spent almost nine minutes in the garage at one point.
Drive-through and stop-go penalties were ignored.
2011 F1 season statistics
- 2011 F1 statistics: Championship points
- 2011 F1 statistics: Season records
- 2011 F1 statistics: Races
- 2011 F1 statistics: Qualifying
- 2011 F1 statistics: Retirements
- 2011 F1 statistics: Strategy
- 2011 F1 statistics: Driver form guides
Images © Red Bull/Getty images, Allianz, Force India F1 Team, McLaren, Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
Ell (@ell)
11th August 2011, 10:58
Very interesting. I always thought Mercedes were the fastest in the pits. It shows how RBR drivers have had the equipment to make for the pits without failing. Although the race they did fail it probably cost Vettel the race. Mclaren’s pit stops aren’t the fastest, but they consistently seem to get the job done.
AlexT (@alext)
11th August 2011, 12:06
they seem to get the job done…like they did in Silverstone for Button?
bananarama
11th August 2011, 12:10
Well, as with everything in life, people need a motivation to do well. The teams try to engineer their pitstops as much as the cars but within the limits there is much room. One major motivation is racing for position, another can be incentives and yet another can be Ross Brawn standing across the track with a stopwatch, judging how well you are doing. He is the only one I know who actually does that but it seems to work.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th August 2011, 13:11
Well, they were last year. And they are still amongst the better teams, but Red Bull has overtaken them and Ferrari is closing in.
tonyselby (@)
11th August 2011, 23:10
Agree with last point but ferrari coming on strong second half of season but red bull dominating no thanks to MW, Alonso can still be F1 champion ahead of Vettel if he has the right set up for the rest of the season
Alex
13th August 2011, 1:08
interesting to see though that almost everyone one of Vettels average pitstops are quicker than Webbers bar silverstone where he had that wheelnut problem (although so did Webber in that race, just cost less time)
sato113 (@sato113)
11th August 2011, 11:18
i’d be great if someone could annotate that second picture of a mercedes pitstop, pointing out the role of each mechanic in the photo.
great article!
beneboy (@beneboy)
11th August 2011, 12:11
Check out this link to Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_stop#F1_pit_crew_roles
It doesn’t have an annotated picture but you can get a good idea of who is doing what from the description.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
11th August 2011, 11:32
Then it’s a good thing that the proposed 2014 regulations call for smaller front wings, because otherwise, Mercedes might have to set aside a full budget for Schumacher’s front wing breakages …
James
11th August 2011, 12:05
You expect Schumacher to still be driving then?
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
11th August 2011, 16:33
Maybe not, but Barrichello will be! :P
Stacey
11th August 2011, 12:08
I think credit should be given to Virgin Racing…one of the newer teams that has only been in F1 for 2 years and they look to be on the whole second quickest at pit stops. Will do them good in the future if they find any extra speed
BasCB (@bascb)
11th August 2011, 13:13
I think you have somewhere misread the graph, Viring are rather 2nd or 3rd from the backside of the grid in fastest stops and somewhere in the middle for averages.
Grant Gordon
11th August 2011, 12:43
I’d be very interested to see the slowest pit stop of each driver graphed for each race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th August 2011, 12:52
You can view a list of all pit stop times for the last two races:
Germany pit stops and tyres used
Hungary pit stops and tyres used
That data for earlier races will be available here later.
Fixy (@)
11th August 2011, 12:44
The second graph shows how most drivers had below-average pit stops at Monaco.
HRT should really improve, they’re always way back, whilts Lotus and Virgin occasionally challenge higher teams in the stops.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th August 2011, 12:46
HRT with the slowest pit stops. Talk about consistently setting the bar at its lowest..
Mike
12th August 2011, 9:02
Of course you could choose to notice that in the last few races they have been remarkably quicker…. In the last 3-4 HRT have been competitive with Virgin and Lotus. Which is what they should try and aim for.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
11th August 2011, 13:37
HRT’s cause probably isn’t helped by running over their own pit crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzc-QwvgLj8
SirCoolbeans (@sircoolbeans)
11th August 2011, 14:39
I do hope that guy is okay. Apparently his head injuries were quite serious. I’ve asked a few times over the winter and this year if anyone knows if he was okay in the end, but no one seems to have any information. I assume he is.
Alex W
12th August 2011, 6:16
That is sickening.
sw6569 (@sw6569)
11th August 2011, 15:12
Looks like McLaren could do with implementing that wheel nut technology…
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
11th August 2011, 17:40
They could also teach the lollipop guy to not release the car until the gun mechanic tells him the wheel is attached. Would help!
Eggry (@eggry)
11th August 2011, 17:41
Oh I can see. Massa definitely have been suffered from poor pit stop.
D.
11th August 2011, 18:19
This is an unrelated note, but looking at the race video on F1.com for Hungary I can’t help but make the comment, once again, that Massa is completely useless on a wet track, as has been well documented over the years. You would expect an experienced driver like him to at least not spin out of the track ***every time*** it is wet. This is unbelievable.
Adrian J (@adrian-j)
11th August 2011, 22:56
Every time it’s wet? Like Brazil 2008?
UKfanatic (@)
11th August 2011, 22:00
Great arcticle. Keith your the best statistician.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th August 2011, 22:06
Thank you :-)
Q85
11th August 2011, 22:05
ferrari might of had some quick ones.
but they have equally had some rubbish ones too. for both alonso and massa. They rarely get through a races with all good pit stops.
Mike
12th August 2011, 9:04
Yeah, if they can work on consistency they’d be able to take it to Red Bull and Mclaren fairly easily.
LoneFanMX
11th August 2011, 23:58
You would think that HRT would make it’s best effort in all those little things that don’t require a massive budget. I guess it has to do with the negative emotional inertia of dragging along a very slow car. But it can work the other way around, (a great challenge in the cusp of auto-sport) and one wonders if a fast pitstop and winning attitude would translate to places up the grid.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
12th August 2011, 0:01
Do some drivers not quite stop on the mark each time – so the crew have to adjust? I’m wondering why Massa’s consistently losing out, and there was an extreme example from d’Ambrosio…
Any chance of an out-lap graph for all the drivers? Is that data available? That might show if anyone has an advantage, and by how much, when getting new tyres up to speed.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th August 2011, 0:29
All the lap times for all the drivers are in the post-race team reviews which go up on a Monday – they will include the out-laps.
You can also find all the lap times for some of the recent races here – the rest for this year will be added later:
2011 F1 statistics: Race charts
As for doing a side-by-side comparison, it’s not something I produce at the moment but could do in the future.
baldry888
12th August 2011, 7:35
They aint got nothin on this guy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onBMhW56EQ
Younger Hamii
12th August 2011, 23:29
HRT are the slowest in almost every Department,EVEN PITSTOPS