It still amazes me that they can change 4 tyres, in 2.6secs. I wonder just how fast they can get with this task. Would it be possible to get down to 2 seconds? or even below 2 seconds?

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Stunning stuff. I think someone else noticed this in the race review, but it seems like Renault are consistently a second or so slower than the leading teams. I wonder if that’s a combination of the team personnel, as well as the drivers being relatively inexperienced with having to drop off the jacks and start moving so quickly.

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James do you feel that once Mclaren is able to get back their lost performance then they can capatalise?. As i feel that due to their pit issues,the team have lost the development race as the pit problems were like a distraction. Now that they have sorted their pit woes they can concentrate on winning. Do we know of any upgrades for Germany gp?…..as raised chassis is out of the question?.

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Shame they weren’t this consistently fast earlier in the season.

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The stops are not exactly lightyears ahead of their rivals and are only getting mentioned as they were so woeful at the start of the season.

Let’s say their pitstops remain 0.5 seconds ahead of the rest, the maximum that will save the team of the course of the race is 2 seconds. That would require a 4 stopper, mind you.

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While the actual time is impressive, i was under the impression that McLaren’s total pit time in Valencia was just over 24 seconds, where the three top teams were in the 23′s.
Could you shed some light on this, since it would indicate that Mclaren are really still not the fastest at total pit time.

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It’s a shame that when the car had the pace to win the pit stops were woeful and now the pit stops are the class of the field the car is out of contention.

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Gosh its all doom & gloom for some Mclaren.fans “Chin-up chaps “as the English would say. I think Silverstone caught everyone unawares and some teams made better set up choices than others. That said, they are definitely a few tenths off the pace, but that can’t be clawed back over a few weekends.

As for “focusing on pit stops and not improving pace “are you guys for real ? I’m sure the mechanics operating the jacks aren’t the same guys in the design shop or the Aero dept !(laughs) So I doubt that’s the issue. I agree too that speed of tyre changes isn’t the make all & Sam Michael said they always aimed for consistency no point doing 2.5 sec if you drop a 9 sec every now & then!.-for those asked about fastest possible – I doubt you could better by more than a tenth or so given Mclaren simulated 800 pit stops ( equiv of 16 race weekends)in one day just prior Silverstone testing new equipment & procedures! Also the out & in laps really separate the men from the boys i- there can be a few seconds in this alone if drivers aren’t on it every time!

Defintely Lotus could take a leaf out of Mclarens book because they do loose a second or so every time.

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Hi James,

would you be able to post something on Mecca’s recent woes? Could it be that the car’s development potential is less compared to Ferrari and RBR (due to stepped/high nose, due to Ferrari’s pull rod suspension)? It just seems like a drastic drop in form, uncharacteristic of Mecca. Thanks and if you already have, could you please point me there? Thanks again.

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I think there should be trophies for the best pit stop team of the GP or Season. F1 can afford it!

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So why did McLaren not update the front wheel brake duct first instead???

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To all those saying what’s the point McLaren being the fastest by .2 or whatever seconds in the pits are missing the point.
McLaren’s pitstops before Silverstone have been frankly woeful, arguably costing Lewis a win in Valencia (instead putting him in a situation with Maldonaldo and we all know what happened there). There have been at least 2 other occasions which cost Lewis points. They had a very quick car at the start of the season but lost out on a haul of points because of the stops.
Therefore its good that they’ve finally done a race with flawless pitstops. What’s the use of doing a 2.6s stop in Valencia followed by a 10+ stop?!
With regard to their lack of pace at Silverstone I hope we are all jumping the gun a bit saying that McLaren is 4/5th fastest car now. There was a massive lack of dry running before the race, the track was very green and I think McLaren simply didn’t set the car up correctly – Lewis and Jenson were running with wildly differing downforce settings – they in my opinion simply got shown up by most of the other teams who managed to set up their cars better.
Lets be honest – under the current regime McLaren are getting shown up quite a lot – in times gone by, McLaren were the best team out there – rarely heard of pit stop errors/strategy errors/sending people out with not enough fuel to do a qualifying run etc etc etc

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I think Mclaren are slow by a significant margin. – I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t as much as a second against Red Bull in some conditions. They certainly need a massive improvement if their drivers are to have any chance this year.

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I must say, I am getting a little concerned about the safety aspect ofthese super fast pitstops. We’ve seen at least two occassions where pitcrew hhave been hit. Are we getting to close to the limit of expectation and putting the risk too high. I certainly don’t want to return to refueling,with it risks, but at least the pressure wasn’t on to change the wheels so quickly. I wonder if it’s time to to implement a “minimum” stationary time limit, say 4 secs. Might reduce the pressure.Any thoughts on this, readers?

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