There are things that happen in racing that are unbelievable. A driver making a gutsy pass at a time no one sees it coming, Toyota busting their race car on the last lap of Le Mans, and when you see this a two second F1 pit stop that includes a full tank of gas and a set of tires. This all happens in two seconds. We’re not taking anything away from NASCAR crews and the pit stops that they execute in lightning fast time as well, but two seconds. C’amon people…two freaking seconds!
There is a singularity of purpose among the crew that is amazing. These guys literally attack the car. It is impossible to actually see this thing happen clearly on the first watch. You will be so shocked with how quickly it is in and out you are going to wonder what the hell happened. Watch it a few times and stop action it to see exactly what the crew is doing. Obviously the fueling rig is an amazing device to launch an entire tank worth of fuel into the thing in a short time than it took you to read this sentence.
We’re saying that the Wood Brothers started this evolution with their innovative to crewing on a race car and specifically towards pit stops in the 1960s NASCAR days. Those steps then bled over to places like Indy and they have been climbing the international racing ranks ever since. The athletes who are now the crew members are the ultimate for now. We bet there will be robots at some point in the future who will cut this process all the way in half! Ok, we’re kidding about the time but not about the robots.
These people are superhuman.
Blink and you will miss it!
These guys are amazing. A really good watch is the Spectacular Evolution of F1 Pit Stops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrRnbHqogo
F1 does not refuel
They used to about ten years ago
It is very impressive. I saw one pit stop in a race last year that was 1.8 seconds. However, they do not add fuel. In F1 pit stops are tires only, they start the race (typically about 1.5 hours) with just enough fuel for the entire race.
What is even more impressive is when they double stack the stop. In other words each team has two cars, and they bring in one, and synchronize its leaving with the other car’s arrival. Mercedes does it best, true poetry in motion.