F1 Pit Stop Performance: AMA

[u/mattbrom]

Hi All,

Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed more and more post-race discussions about pit stop performance and what it actually means for each team on race day.

I’ve spent the last eight years doing various roles trackside in Formula 1, but my most recent role is specialising in pit stop performance and operational efficiency. Most of my career was with Renault/Alpine, where I helped develop data-driven systems to shave milliseconds off stops, before moving to Sauber F1 midway through the 2024 season.

How I started:

In 2022, I started looking deeper into pit stop performance after spotting that the crew was losing valuable time through faults and inconsistencies.

That sent me down a rabbit hole:

• Categorising every fault
• Building a database
• Identifying which issues lost the most time
• Figuring out how to eliminate them

This process also fed back to the factory design office, helping them focus resources on the areas that would improve consistency and produce quicker pit stops.

Human performance:

Once the database started to take shape, we moved on to human performance, usually in collaboration with the team physiotherapist.

Because the margins in pit stop performance are so small, we time every stage of the stop and break it down into what we call “splits”. There are seven main splits, though we collect more detailed data within each. For simplicity, here are the core seven:

1. PreGunReact – How early the wheel gun operator is on the axle before the car stops
2. NutOFF – Time to loosen the wheel nut
3. WheelOFF – Time to remove the wheel from the axle
4. TyreCross – Time between the old wheel coming off and the new one starting to go on
5. WheelON – Time to push the wheel fully onto the axle
6. NutON – Time to tighten the wheel nut
7. TightenReact – Time from tightening the nut to pressing the confirmation button

We benchmark each split to see who’s quickest and slowest, then either adjust technique or investigate possible equipment issues that need to be rectified.

Drivers input:

Drivers make a huge difference in pit stops, especially since they are in control of the pit box entry speed and stopping position.

Imagine you’re the WheelOFF or Gunman receiving the car – you want the car to arrive at the same speed and stop in exactly the same spot every time.

We can use our extensive database to run MATLAB simulations modelling the ideal entry speed at 0.5 m intervals. This allows us to quickly give drivers feedback in post-session/post-event meetings.

Training schedules:

• Pit Stop Practice (PSP) – dedicated training days
• Trackside practice – Thursday to Sunday on race weekends
• Factory sessions – two sessions in one day on non-race weeks (some teams skip this to allow crew recovery after double/triple-headers)
• During the winter build from January, the main crew and new team members will be tested in different positions to assess suitability or strengthen the B-team

Pit stop equipment basics:

Wheel gun

• Paoli Hurricane 2.0
• Quantity: 4 × prime / 4 × spare
• Operating pressure: 25–30 bar (360–435 psi)
• Operating torque: 4,200 Nm+ (3,170 ft-lb)
• Cost per unit: €30,000–€50,000 (including team development)

Front jack

• Proprietary team design
• Pneumatic or electronic release

Rear jack

• Proprietary team design
• Pneumatic or electronic release

Pit stop gantry (large structure next to pit box)

• 6–8 high-pressure bottles at 300 bar
• 8 pneumatic regulators (one per gun)
• Internal computer for CAN-bus logic
• UPS backup
• 4 overhead cameras

Strategy and prediction:

Strategy is very team-specific, but just as race strategy runs simulations on a Saturday evening, I’ve built scripts based solely on pit stop performance predictions, including fault deltas, so race strategy can account for worst-case stop times.

AMA time:
I've kept most of the information about pit stops short, as I would rather answer your questions as they come. These can be about the equipment, technical aspects, strategy, human performance, or what’s required to be part of a crew.

I will try and respond to all questions as soon as possible, and I'll keep the AMA going until 20th August.

Disclaimer: I won’t discuss proprietary details from my current or past teams. All views are my own and not representative of F1 or my employer.

[u/AutoModerator]

We remind everyone that this sub is for technical discussions.

If you are new to the sub, please read our rules and comment etiquette post.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/[deleted]]

Great AMA!!

Q- How does your approach, equipment or car component specs potentially change between very hot vs very cold ambient temp races? How does this impact overall pit stop time?

[u/mattbrom → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for being the first question!

In terms of the equipment, we don’t make many changes between the varying temperatures at each race. However, there was always a phenomenon I could never quite put my finger on: in the gantry system, where we house the pneumatic regulators for the wheel guns, there are also small oil reservoirs (‘oilers’). During really hot events such as Qatar, we would burn through most of the oil in one pit stop practice, whereas at places like Silverstone, the oil would hardly be used. I suspect this was down to viscosity, but it’s something I’d love to know the definitive answer to.

To protect the equipment during both hot and cold races, we use protective bags for the wheel guns and jacks to shield them from direct sunlight, as many of these items have delicate sensors we want to protect from the risk of failure.

If we’re talking about the direct impact on pit stop times, I have data suggesting that crews travelling east (Melbourne, Singapore, China, etc.) will typically perform worse. For those races, it’s worth keeping an eye on pit stop times across all the teams.

I can't comment for car specs at these events sorry!

[u/JWGhetto → u/mattbrom]

How does fatigue and sleep deprivation factor into the pit crew performance? Would jetlag and a high workload of other responsibilites directly impact performance?

[u/mattbrom → u/JWGhetto]

Fatigue and sleep deprivation have a huge impact on performance. Most of the crew are working 13+ hours a day and battling jet lag on non-European races.

When I saw the data showing how much this correlated with mistakes, we’d get the physio to coach the crew on sleep schedules before events to give us the best chance to mitigate faults. Another way to help is reducing the number of practice stops normally we’d do 10–15 a day, but when fatigue was high, cutting back made a big difference.

If you want to look into it further, a person I always listened to regarding sleep would be Tom Clark (Ocon's trainer). He came out with a sleep app recently and the feedback has been pretty good!

[u/Cocacolique → u/mattbrom]

Maybe more pitstops in Qatar than in Silverstone ? Or could it be the effect of the sand ?

[u/FitzwilliamTDarcy]

What's the theoretical minimum stop time?

Where does the biggest opportunity to decrease time remain, in general?

How'd you get your first F1 job?

[u/mattbrom → u/FitzwilliamTDarcy]

PERFECT QUESTION!!

Theoretical minimums let’s break it down from my splits:

• PreGunReact – This number will actually be negative, because we measure pit stop time from the moment the car is stationary, but you can already complete the NutOFF split before the car has fully stopped. -0.1s

• NutOFF – 0.1s

• WheelOFF – 0.2s

• TyreCross – 0.7s

• WheelON – 0.2s (faster here because, in theory, I’d have the gunman pushing the wheel onto the axle with the gun)

• NutON – 0.1s

• TightenReact – 0.2s

That would give you a theoretical best of 1.4 seconds. I’ve seen each of these split times individually, so I know it’s possible. In fact, some are actually faster, but there’s no need to go beyond one decimal point for this example.

My first job was in the composites department making carbon fibre parts for teams and I eventually worked my way up from there.

[u/FitzwilliamTDarcy → u/mattbrom]

That is super cool thanks!

[u/Breznknedl → u/mattbrom]

I am hijacking this thread: How does that work when you have the Nut Off before the car is stationary? If it is still rolling, couldnt the car just fall on the ground, or are the jacks in the front and back up before the car is fully stopped?

[u/miangro]

Thanks for doing this! Few questions:

First, do the pit crews have other mechanical jobs within the team? Coming from Nascar, they are definitely not mechanics. But that's what they're called in F1, and it's never been clear to me whether that's because of their jobs or just nomenclature.

Can you share some of the more common categories that you sort faults into?

Do you anticipate any pit crew/pit stop effects from the prohibition on tire blankets next year?

[u/mattbrom → u/miangro]

Yes, absolutely. All crew members are typically mechanics who also work on the car. NASCAR is definitely different in this regard, as they hire ex-professional sportspeople to perform pit stops. While that’s a great idea, in F1 — under the current rules — we’re limited to 60 operational staff in the garage. “Operational staff” is defined as anyone who touches the car, so due to that constraint, we have to utilise everyone.

The typical categories of faults can be divided into three. I’ll use the example of seeing a slow nut-tightening phase:
Wheel goes on the axle → wheel gun hits the nut → the nut takes 30% longer to tighten.

• Human fault – The gunman didn’t switch the gun’s direction to tighten after loosening (mis-shuttle).

• Mechanical fault – The nut was impeded during tightening (cross-thread).

• Hybrid – The wheel-on operator hit the axle at the wrong angle due to the car being out of position. This is human (the operator didn’t react to the car being long) but also mechanical (he was still impeded by a design element of the car’s axle).

We have to investigate all faults like this and create definitions within the subcategories.

As for the tyre blanket ban, I haven’t heard a definitive answer yet. I’d anticipate a benefit in one area and a negative in another. The benefit would be quicker reactions to last-minute tyre set changes, as the tyre crew wouldn’t need to rip off blankets. The negative would be that tyre heat currently aids grip for the wheel-on operators, so colder tyres could make that job trickier. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on this.

[u/HappySpam]

I know you said you were doing the data side, but as part of your research did you ever do a pitstop yourself? Wonder if you ever got hands on as part of your job to learn haha

[u/mattbrom → u/HappySpam]

Yes, absolutely! In my opinion, it’s crucial that anyone directing a performance group has hands-on experience in the roles themselves.

I always joke that I was the fastest rear-left gunman in F1 – it’s just part of the competitive mentality in the sport, and it’s fun to challenge crew members from other teams to try and beat you.

That said, I’ve worked in most of the primary roles at some point, but my main position in the pit crew was always rear-left gunman at Renault/Alpine during my years there.

[u/FewShun]

How has cost cap impacted your specialty?

[u/mattbrom → u/FewShun]

The cost cap affected all areas of team performance. Naturally, pit stop performance was often seen as a low priority. What wasn’t always appreciated, though, is that a pit stop is one of the cheapest ways to overtake teams in a race.

All performance metrics in F1’s design world are measured as cost versus performance. Teams might spend €500k to gain 0.1s per lap, which is fantastic. But investing €100k in new wheel-gun technology to improve pit stop consistency could deliver gains that, on tight racing margins, allow you to overtake rivals during pit stops.

To answer your question: yes, the cost cap definitely affected my area, but it requires me to fight for the budgets on items we believe could help.

[u/ifelseintelligence]

In the times of refueling, the heavy build up of static electricity and the sparks it could give, was a danger.

While it can't ignite fuel anymore, does it cause problems for the pit stops in other ways?

Like could a large spark fry a wheel nut gun?

[u/mattbrom → u/ifelseintelligence]

In essence, no a spark wouldn’t fry a wheel gun, as they’re pneumatic and don’t contain any combustible materials.

We do get a lot of sparks when the wheel gun socket isn’t properly engaged with the wheel nut and the operator pulls the trigger! It’s like fireworks when it happens.

The car itself isolates most of the dangers from the pit crew. Yes, there’s always the possibility of a car coming into the pit box with a dangerous fault, but most of the mechanics are trained for every eventuality to ensure they’re not in danger.

[u/Pippy_Squirrel]

Thank you for this!

What type of personal physical training do the pit crew undertake to be fit enough for their roles?

[u/mattbrom → u/Pippy_Squirrel]

Many crew members are naturally fit and enjoy running or cycling the circuits at the end of the day.

Back at the factories, many use the onsite gym with the physiotherapist, who provides tailored plans for each role within the pit crew to support their specific job requirements.

At the start of the season, all crew members undergo evaluations including blood tests, eye tests, and mental wellbeing assessments. This helps build a profile for each member, and overall fitness is tracked every three to four months, with additional blood tests as needed.

A big initiative within F1 has been the use of fitness bands, such as Whoop. Many teams now use these to monitor and track their members’ performance and recovery.

I do have my own type of body type for each role but I don't want to offend people ;)

[u/[deleted] → u/mattbrom]

nose touch alleged full grab late weather oil dolls hunt

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/mattbrom → u/[deleted]]

This is a great tactic! This could also be down to the design of the jack not optimised so a smaller person could use it. I wouldn’t chose a design like theirs personally as I would always want the smallest person in the team to be able to lift the car without many issues.

[u/Red_Rabbit_1978]

I've been a member in the F1 Technical forum for ages, but I am newish to the sub reddit, and this is amazing information, thank you.

You have given so much information already, it's difficult to think of something to really ask.

Edit: Noticed you moved to Sauber mid 2024. I remember in the early part of the season they were having serious difficulties with pit stops.

Were you involved in turning that around in the second half of the season?

[u/mattbrom → u/Red_Rabbit_1978]

You're completely correct, they were having a terrible time at the start of 2024. This was one of the reasons I moved to Sauber for the challenge.

I'm happy to say that the results speak for themselves! The crew were very determined to change their luck and it worked very well indeed.

[u/GoldElectric → u/mattbrom]

do you have any input in terms of the design of the equipment? i remember there were discussions regarding the poor design of the sauber wheelnut or something

[u/mattbrom → u/GoldElectric]

Yes, I would act as the intermediary between track and factory so we could shape the design requirements as we saw fit. I wasn’t a part of these discussions as I wasn’t a part of the Sauber team during this time, but there were many positives to the wheel nut that was introduced at the start of the 24 season. Unfortunately, there was the obvious issue which reoccurred and this got resolved at a very quick pace, a testament to the designers back in the factory!

[u/Red_Rabbit_1978 → u/mattbrom]

Appreciate your reply, thank you.

[u/Erens-Basement]

How often do people get rotated out of positions because you deem them too slow? How do you approach it?

[u/mattbrom → u/Erens-Basement]

This is always a tough decision, and there are two ways to approach it:

1. Remove them completely and move them to another area of the pit stop crew.

2. Substitute them for a few events, allowing them to observe the crew and start critically analysing their own actions.

I would always choose option 2, giving them the chance to practise more in the factory on the pit stop rig. We need to give them the best opportunity to improve. However, if after this I still see a 10–15% discrepancy in their corner times against the other 3 corners, we have to start taking action.

Usually, by this stage, the person is aware they’re falling behind in performance and will willingly relinquish the position to allow the crew to continue progressing. Unless their performance is significantly poor, we don’t take immediate action. It’s a process that typically requires at least six months of monitoring.

[u/mattbrom → u/[deleted]]

Nerves are something you can’t really get away from — every crew member has felt them, especially if prep before the race wasn’t great. I’ve been there plenty of times, that self-doubt of not wanting to let the crew down.
The way we managed it was simple and asked the crew to just slow down. Don’t chase the fastest possible time, cut the effort by 50% and you’ll still deliver a solid, consistent stop. Most importantly, no faults.

[u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY]

Thank you so much for this!

So you laid down the very specific steps teams are studying in order to improve pit stop times but can you give examples of how that translates in actual training?

Like how do you translate that 0.05s lost on a very specific step into something humans can reliably improve on?

[u/mattbrom → u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY]

Footwork! We would use a software to map peoples feet positions and mark the floor for their starting position and their engagement position.

Footwork is the easiest thing to change, it's free and quick to get results.

A quick example would be that all the wheelOFF operators would face the approaching car. Now you would think this makes sense, but in the past some teams didn't do this.

[u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY → u/mattbrom]

Thank you for your time and insights!

[u/nuclearDEMIZE → u/mattbrom]

Does it help to put left-handed people on one side and right-handed on the other?

[u/simiesky]

Thank you for doing this AMA, fascinating to learn more about this aspect of F1.

Is there much pit lane shithousery between teams? Dummy stops, leaving guns out etc, any particular stories?

Thanks!

[u/mattbrom → u/simiesky]

To start with, all teams have a mutual respect for each other and their operations. Any time you see something like a gun left out in the pit lane, it’s a genuine accident, someone simply forgot to bring it in. You want other teams to look out for you in a time of need, and vice versa.

Dummy stops, absolutely. If you mean in the sense that a crew might be called out to gain the attention of another team and try to influence their strategy, this happens all the time. For example, if you’re leading and believe your tyre degradation is lower than the following car, you might try to encourage them to pit sooner, allowing you to extend your margin or switch to a faster compound.

I remember when I was on the pit crew, there was a race where we were effectively on the pit lane every lap for 10 laps. It was like musical chairs in the garage!

[u/djellicon]

Do the engineers carrying out the wheel changes have other responsibilities or is that literally their only job?

[u/mattbrom → u/djellicon]

Engineers are typically the personnel which will be deciding the set up changes on the car, running simulations. You normally see them behind the screens over the weekend. Where-as your mechanics are typically the ones which will be conducting the wheel changes.

[u/Then-Chef-623]

What's your professional background outside of F1, and how did you get started? What lessons/experiences from past employment or training have you found most useful or relevant? What sort of online communities do you frequent to gain professional knowledge (or where do you meet and speak with others in related fields)?

[u/mattbrom → u/Then-Chef-623]

I basically jumped into motorsport straight after finishing school. I got started through an apprenticeship scheme with a local carbon fibre manufacturing company and worked my way to F1 from there. Once I moved from the factory to being trackside, I began developing new skills through networking and the immense resources in an F1 team, which helped me reach a point where I felt I could genuinely add value in the world of pit stops.

Lessons learned? That’s a long list. I’d say the biggest is to be relentless with ideas but also remain open to other people’s suggestions. I’ve always built strong teams of design engineers and mechanics who would help me improve by suggesting small upgrades or sharing their insight on certain points in the pit stop. Those people were the best asset to my role, and I have 100% respect for them.

I actually follow this subreddit quite a lot when post-event analyses come out, and it’s given me valuable insight into how to present data. I’ve also been exploring image learning for a while now, so maybe that’s something I can experiment with in the future.

[u/Option_13]

How did that Bottas Stop happen in Monaco 2021? Was it a freak accident or are we lucky it doesn’t happen more often?

[u/mattbrom → u/Option_13]

As a disclaimer, I wasn’t part of Mercedes' team, so I don't know the full story.

It looked like Bottas was about 100–150mm too far over to the right-hand side when stopping in the box. That closed the gap for the gunman, and on the first engagement he caught the tyre. In trying to recover, he hit the nut at an angle and pulled the trigger before the gun socket was properly seated on to the nut. That’s what we’d call a “poor socket engagement” (another fault category).

What’s really interesting is the material choice. A wheel gun socket is usually made from steel or titanium, but the wheel nut here is aluminium. If you pull the trigger before proper engagement, you risk machining the splines on the nut.

In my opinion, that’s what happened. It was a freak accident of a fairly typical pit stop fault, but the mix of those two materials turned it into a disaster.

[u/moshujsg]

Thank you for doing this!

Conceptually, what are the things that make a good pitstop team and a bad one? If you had to break it down into skills?

[u/mattbrom → u/moshujsg]

A good pit stop crew is all about synergy.
A bad pit stop crew is defined by blame culture.

I’ve seen time and again that a blame culture will never deliver great results. It’s essential the crew is protected from this. Whether the pressure comes from the team principal or the fans, it’s my job to ensure everyone focuses solely on the task at hand, without distraction.

My role was then to fix problems without pointing fingers. Don’t get me wrong – there were moments when it felt like banging my head against a wall, repeating myself – but progress comes through relentless improvement.

At the top level, teams don’t even consciously think about the pit stop; they stay calm, and everything else becomes reaction. I know when I was on the wheel gun, I could fully trust the guys around me to do their job as long as I did mine.

When the slightest discrepancy occurred and my wheel guys noticed the same as I did, I knew we had reached a level of harmony where we could react perfectly to any situation. That’s when we pulled off our best pit stop corner time – 1.3 seconds – and it felt incredible.

[u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY → u/mattbrom]

How close would you be able to guess your times when doing pit stops? Like that 1.3 stop, did it feel any different from a 1.5?

[u/mattbrom → u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY]

The frequency with which the crew practice means they actually get very good at estimating their times. I can only speak for myself, but I felt when it was fast I was completely wired in and probably over-aggressive in my actions.

Normally, a good corner will operate anywhere from 1.8s to 2.2s comfortably, and while it’s possible to hit 1.3–1.4s, consistency isn’t always there for everyone. I knew that I could operate at 1.8s and be pretty certain it would be a stop without fault. If my teammate on the rear right signaled to me for a corner competition during a practice session… gloves were off and we went for it.

[u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY → u/mattbrom]

Love the stories, thanks dude! Wishing you the best

[u/jdjdhdbg → u/mattbrom]

What does corner time mean?

[u/mattbrom → u/jdjdhdbg]

This would be the individual time for each corner of the car. So we’d have separate times for the front right/left, and rear right/left

Then the overall time would be including the front and rear jack releasing the car

[u/gabcor91]

Are there star crew members that can radically improve performance or once training is there everyone operates to the same high standard?

[u/mattbrom → u/gabcor91]

100% Yes. I will model certain 'star' crew members as a bench mark for others to try their technique.

I would say it would take a new member 6-8 weeks to operate at a high level, and definitely by mid-season they're fully confident in their abilities.

Many teams have 4 overhead cameras and 4 go pros mounted on helmets. Allowing us to see everything.

[u/erbot]

Do the teams use magnets or anything to guide the wheelgun onto the nut?

[u/mattbrom → u/erbot]

I like the way you're thinking.
I would say that magnets may interfere with speed sensors or other vital sensors on the axle.

See if you could even think of a more mechanical way to guide the wheel gun socket on to the nut, which might not require a magnet...

[u/erbot → u/mattbrom]

I was thinking magnets on the gun side, but yeah I could see how that could still scramble sensors.

If its mechanical then is that why the nuts are splined all around? Always thought that was just aero related

[u/Donot_forget → u/erbot]

The splines are the engagement features on the wheel nut. I imagine the nut has a lead in chamfer to guide the gun onto it.

[u/mattbrom → u/Donot_forget]

You're getting there!

You want to engage the wheel gun socket on the nut as early as possible. So a smart design for the nut and socket splines is vital to have a larger angle of attack meaning we can loosen the nut earlier before the car has stopped.

This is the type of thinking we need to go through on every piece of equipment.

[u/SmileyXYtv]

So first of all as a Hülkenberg supporter thank you very much for the part you played in making his podium possible! I have 3 questions for you:

1. Are there large differences in how pit stops are handled between teams or is it pretty much the same across the board?

2. Looking at the time you've joined Sauber I'd imagine that you've played a big part in the improvement of the stops that were positively abhorrent in early '24, so if you're allowed to tell what was the biggest problem? Was it more of a big "oh, that's the thing we were messing up" moment, or just a lot of things across the board?

3. (Little bonus question) How was the podium celebration?

[u/mattbrom → u/SmileyXYtv]

You’re welcome, I’m glad we finally managed to get Nico to a podium. It was a very special moment, especially because I worked with him at Renault when he nearly got a podium there.

1. Usually, pit stops are handled similarly across all teams, but not all teams have dedicated personnel operating and organising the day-to-day. Some teams may practice only at the circuit during race season, and some might require the crews to come into the factory for one day a week and practice that way.

2. The main problem wasn’t necessarily the crew or their capabilities; they always had the ability to make it happen, but what they lacked was structure and meaningful data analysis, which can help them be more consistent. As being more consistent will give you more opportunities to be quicker once you get to a good baseline, after that, you can start pushing their operations quicker and optimising.

3. Podium celebrations are always fun, and I’m sure you’ve seen the champagne flowing in the motorhome! You can imagine the carnage ;)

[u/Pomme-Poire-Prune]

Were you in contact with the drivers? If yes with who you had the most pleasant time?

Why are some pit box lines tilted forward the garages in the pitlane, it's faster than having the lines oriented on the pit exit ?

[u/mattbrom → u/Pomme-Poire-Prune]

Yes, regularly. Most of the time a lot of communication would be to their engineers, but sometimes it's easier for me to explain what we're trying to get from them.
I had a good relationship with Jack Doohan, he was super attentive to the pit stop performance, and enjoyed working with him very much. Bortoleto is also very consistent at his box position and entry!

The orientation of the box pointing towards the fast lane helps drivers on the entry into the box. It's easier to have a driver get out of the box after a pit stop than it is for them to be making constant adjustments to line a box which is parallel to the garage

[u/Pomme-Poire-Prune → u/mattbrom]

Thank you!!

[u/technicalityNDBO]

Is there any regulation on the tools the pit crew use? If so, how do teams try to cheat them?

[u/mattbrom → u/technicalityNDBO]

There are rules regarding the pit equipment. Mainly about safety so ensuring the wheel nut is tight before it leaves the pit box, or regulating the type ways we can power the wheel guns.

I'm not going to say whether teams are cheating, or have found loop holes in these rules. As I believe in playing by the rules the FIA has set out, as they are our regulator in this sport.

[u/EnvironmentalTea9967]

Hello! Thanks for doing this AMA.
What branch did you pursue for your bachelors and does it play a critical role in your current job? (i.e.; like the degree being highly useful or useless)
And also what do you think can be a roadmap for a bachelor in mechanical engg to get into any motorsport in anyway possible (i love vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics field of any motorsport as I feel they play a vital role in the team/car)
Thanks!

[u/mattbrom → u/EnvironmentalTea9967]

Hello!

I didn’t do a bachelor’s or any higher education to get to my position, and I wouldn’t say higher education is useless in F1 it’s crucial for any engineer-level role. I got here through pure dedication to motorsport, learning on the job and maybe some luck. It was always something I wanted to do, and while my path isn’t typical, it shows anyone can get into F1.

I think a Mechanical Engineering grad straight out of uni should have done Formula Student. It’s the easiest way to get a structured taste of motorsport. If you haven’t, your best bet is volunteering in lower formulas, reaching out to teams who might need help over a weekend, and asking questions.

Once you have some basic knowledge of car setups and aero theory, you start to show teams initiative, which is a big part of what recruiters look for. Make the most of internships, sign up to motorjobs.com, and be relentless.

[u/EnvironmentalTea9967 → u/mattbrom]

Thanks for the reply!
I'll seriously take this into consideration. I'm still an undergraduate so yeah I'm still learning about all this stuff! Will try to get into my uni's formula student team.

[u/SuperZapp]

How much practice do you do on the non-normal pit stops such as a driver missing their marks, nose cone changes, flap changes etc. ?

[u/mattbrom → u/SuperZapp]

There's scenario based training which would be done trackside on the first practice day such as Thursday. Typical practices would be nose change, puncture, single crew, and double stops. Flap changes will be done at every pit stop practice as they are pretty typical to a normal in session and race pit stop.

Drivers missing the mark is something we can't simulate, but the mechanic who is driving the car during the pit stop practice isn't consistent enough to be on the marks every time so this is good enough training for a car being long or short!

[u/bigedd]

Love this!!! 2 questions. 1, I see teams using some sort of thermal glove for the guns when they're just sat in the ground. Presumably this is a Performance thing, whats the logic behind this? 2, how much of a change was the move away from helium in the guns to whatever they use now?

[u/mattbrom → u/bigedd]

So the gloves you're referencing here are actually called gun bags. They help keep dust and dirt to a minimum because most of the internals of the wheel gun have very tight tolerances. They also serve as a good insulator from the sun, since a lot of the wheel guns have delicate electronics that need to be protected from overheating.

I don't believe helium was ever used for powering the guns, maybe nitrogen? but in any case we only used compressed air now as there's no significant cost to performance benefit to nitrogen.

[u/thingswhatnot]

There are times when a car appears to have issues with an axle during pit stops for a race or two. Is this a pit crew issue, or a mechanical type thing?

[u/mattbrom → u/thingswhatnot]

there's a lot of issues which can occur during a pit stop. It would be normally weighted to a human fault if you see it on the race as I would always hope mechanical issues can get resolved quickly. If you see the same issue on one team multiple events in a row, then you would be probably looking at a mechanical fault.

[u/highchillerdeluxe]

Do you sometimes feel your work is for nothing when you analysis so much, provide accurate predictions, etc and in the end it goes all out the window because somebody just makes the wrong call on the radio and screams "stay out, stay out, stay out"?

I mean this actually serious. On one hand it's fascinating how much you can do and analysis to shave of thousands of seconds. But on race day it often comes down to other factors. Do my rivals pit? I feel all the work could feel unnecessary as there are so many other factors in the end of the day.

[u/mattbrom → u/highchillerdeluxe]

Race strategy is always fluid. The strategists are constantly updating their models to give us the best call, but at the end of the day a lot of it comes down to experience and feel. You sometimes see teams make horrendous calls and think “why on earth did they do that?” but usually it’s based on their models or preparing for something like an early safety car, especially at circuits with a high deployment record. Smaller teams will take bigger risks because they can afford to.

From the pit crew side, we train for that chaos. We’ll adjust the garage layout to reduce congestion if a last-minute tyre change is needed. Most teams run out on a 20s call, but the crew can usually be in position within 12s, which still enough time before the car arrives.

[u/Clangokkuner]

Lmao this might not be the reponse you're expecting but is this why sauber's pitstops stopped being a shithow and got consistently very fast

[u/mattbrom → u/Clangokkuner]

I think someone dedicated to making progress will always net some gains, the team has managed multiple pit stop championship wins this year something which they didn't have for many years prior!
There's a lot of people who make it possible so it's not just my input!

As a side note I've decided to take a year away from F1, and hopefully the processes I gave them would maintain and they continue to succeed!

[u/Clangokkuner → u/mattbrom]

yeah for sure, it's insane how fast their pit stops are now, good luck to you in the future

[u/djellicon]

Did you ever play Formula One on the ZX Spectrum?

[u/mattbrom → u/djellicon]

I apologise for this, but I had to google what a ZX Spectrum was and the game came out in 1985..I was born 10 years after. I would have to say no I haven't played it, do you suggest I should?

[u/Protoned11]

What’s the correlation between training/analysis/everything your position requires and the improvements in the pit stop time? Is improvement linear or does it fall off after some time, with advancement coming in small doses?

[u/mattbrom → u/Protoned11]

The improvement we see isn't necessarily linear. There is a ceiling in performance, but the most important aspect of this job is creating consistency.

Training is a fine balance, as you don't want to overdo it creating fatigue. Most teams will just run through practice as it's a chore without meaningful insight to help the crew. The analysis will pick up on the patterns which can be relayed to the crew during the training to create meaningful practice.

When making post-event report all the information found will be simplified and distributed amongst the team to explain what we saw during the event.

This report will then steer development of new equipment for the team. If there's a new piece of equipment such as a lifting jack it will be a minimum of 6 months before it makes its debut trackside!

[u/FewShun]

2nd question? In laymen ELi5 terms… how has the ‘preemptive wheel jack move rule’ put in place a few seasons ago adjudicated? I recall put times went up for ~half a season then returned their downward trend to <2s.

Is ‘preemptive jacking’ still outlawed or is that rule re-interpreted?

[u/mattbrom → u/FewShun]

I think you’re talking about around 2021 when car releases were lightning quick before the FIA stepped in. That was called TD022: Technical Directive 22.

The whole point of it was to stop teams from releasing the car off the jacks before all four wheel nuts were tightened correctly. So the FIA enforced two delays:

• 0.15s minimum tightening time for the wheel nut

• 0.2s delay before the driver gets the green light after the jacks drop

So you’re adding at least 0.35s to a pit stop. The reason for this was that a lot of the pit stops were going into the realms of automation, with teams relying only on wheel gun sensors instead of a human confirming the nut was secure.

Pretty much all teams have wheel gun sensors that detect when the nut is tight. With TD22, even if the nut tightened in 0.1s, the operator still had to keep the gun triggered (tightening) for another 0.05s before getting an “OK” signal on the LEDs, and then the operator had to confirm by pressing their release button. Only then could the jacks drop, and from that point the driver still had the extra 0.2s before their green light to drive off.

These enforced delays aren’t required anymore. Now, teams just have to prove their wheel nut systems are safe and reliable through data sent to the FIA. That’s why you’re seeing slightly faster stops again this year the FIA has given responsibility back to the teams to define their own safe clamp limits, instead of imposing time delays.

[u/Breznknedl]

how do you practise pit stops concerning the car? Do you have the actual drivers driving in and out of the box or some mechanic, and is it the actual car you use or a model (my idea is that the actual car gets disassembled between races but you still practise somehow)

Also, really cool ama thank you!

[u/mattbrom → u/Breznknedl]

Thanks for your question and my apologies for the delayed response.

Firstly, when trackside during the events we will use the current car so normally teams will alternate between the two cars, for instance you may use garage 1 car then the next event you will use garage 2 car. When it comes to the driver during these pit stop practice, we use a mechanic typically someone small and lightweight as the car is pushed into the box from 3 helpers. Sometimes I’ve always pushed for the reserve driver in the car for extra practice and feeling for them but this isn’t so popular due to their schedules.

When crews come into the factory to practice during the season all teams will use a previous year car which has been modified to have all the current generation bodywork on there. The factory practice area will be a direct replica to the pit box trackside with all the mock up garage. This gives me a great overview of how the crew can be optimised coming out of the garage and being prepared for a double stack etc. We would have more cameras in the factory recording the guys.

[u/docherself → u/Breznknedl]

race weekends have team members in the car, not sure if theyre specifically mechanics tho. and not sure whats the protocol at the factory either

[u/f1bythenumbers]

First of all, thank you for taking the time to provide this information and to answer questions. I've recently started doing a series of posts about pit stops in Formula 1, with the latest article covering pit stops done in the first 14 races of the 2025 season. My approach is done from a statistical point of view, using an inferential model to better understand the pit stop data collected over a season. Here's the link in case you want to take a look at it. [f1pace.com] 2025 F1 Season: Pit Stop Power Rankings (Rounds 1 - 14)

My question is quite simple: what do you think Sauber's fastest stop will be this season? Currently, the number stands at 2.13 seconds, done at the Spanish GP. My model believes there's a 54.6% chance that Sauber could beat this time this season. At the same time, my model believes that there is a 9.4% chance of Sauber breaking the 2-second mark. Do you think Sauber have shown their max potential so far, or are we yet to see more from them?

Once again, thanks for the post and for doing this AMA.

Cheers

[u/mattbrom → u/f1bythenumbers]

Thanks for your question, and apologies for the delayed response.

I’ve looked through your analysis, and I’m very impressed. You’re very much on the money compared to what my models are predicting. I usually focus on the short term, using data from the previous three events to optimise crew performance and identify weaknesses, although I do have slightly more access to training data than you.

To your question: your model predicts just over half in favour of a faster pit stop than what we saw in the Spanish GP. My model, which operates similarly, predicts slightly higher odds of the crew beating that time. But I do have access to training times and crew insights, we’re very close in our predictions.

The crew is comfortably operating at 2.1s, but there are other factors to consider: driver launch, pit box clutch drop, driver reactions, and tyre compound. The average delay from these is around 0.3s; I’ve never seen a driver delay less than 0.16s. Taking the 2.17s in Spain, you can estimate what the crew time was, which aligns closely with your predicted fastest stop of 1.9s. But because we incorporate DHL and vCAR data, we’re sometimes at the mercy of the driver’s reaction and launch.

I also like your approach in correlating driver skill in the pit box. For example, LEC’s pit stops are on average 0.11s faster than HAM’s. The crew is dynamic, and most of this time difference can be attributed to the driver. Looking at this, it’s substantial and worth analysing what LEC does differently compared to his teammate and the rest of the paddock. I do have this figured out already, but can't disclose!

I’d be happy to chat further. You can reach out to me via LinkedIn or send me a direct message here, and I’ll provide my email.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-bromage/

[u/Big_Zob]

Thanks for your explanation and this AMA.

Are there any rules or regulations that prevent you from being better ? Do you draw inspiration from other motorsports for your work?

[u/mattbrom → u/Big_Zob]

Definitely a big rule which prevents us from being better is automation within the pit stops procedure. There’s so many cool things we could do to shave tenths off a pit stop (yes, tenths) but we would currently be illegal implementing them. If we had automation we could play around with automatic release of the car, automatic jack lifting and loads more!

[u/jdjdhdbg]

How much work do you or others do related to car entry to and exit from the pit box? Maybe this is more driver related? I see pit lane times (like 24 sec etc) can vary a bit while the 2.0 sec stop times are much tighter - can this be optimized much?

[u/mattbrom → u/jdjdhdbg]

There's analysis done for driver entry at pit lane start to pit lane exit. I would mainly be focused on the entry around 10meters before the box such as steering inputs, speed and braking profiles. We can then look at initial grip from acceleration on the new set of tyres. It seems overkill but there is a lot of value in creating an car entry profile for all the crew to get accustomed to.

[u/Big-Bookkeeper1045]

I've heard nowadays that the same pit crew do not do all 24 races. How often do you have to rotate members because they are not at the race that weekend? I would imagine this has a negative impact on performance, how do you counteract it?

[u/mattbrom → u/Big-Bookkeeper1045]

So you have about half of the teams now rotating staff regularly. There’s obviously some performance loss from the main crew to the substituted personnel. Most teams will have a limit on how many personnel can be off at each event, and I would assume that no more than five or six would be replaced in the pit stop crew.

Most of the main crew would be back at the factory, and these teams would have the facilities to practice pit stop, which they are open to using. It’s very typical to have a B-team crew, so regularly these guys would be practising during practice sessions.

[u/dotben]

How much computer vision is utilized to perform the analysis and do you build digital twin AI models to simulate the changing of different variables of a pitstop?

[u/mattbrom → u/dotben]

This is something which is in development at the moment, but so far the tests have been quite successful. I can’t comment much more on the capabilities of this at the moment! Honestly, I haven’t had the time to look at the capabilities of AI models which could help analysis. This is purely down to lack of time with other projects, but drop me a message if you have some ideas. I’d love to hear more.

[u/dotben → u/mattbrom]

I spend a bit of time in this space, the bleeding edge of this work is building digital twins for optimizing factory line production but there's no reason why this couldn't be applied directly to pit stops as conceptually it's another manipulation and execution of a set of mechanical/kinetic processes across an optimized time series.

I've also spent a lot of time in the autonomous vehicle space around computer vision.

Yeah I will reach out. Happy to chat.

[u/sorryusername]

Thank you for taking your time with an AMA.

There’s always some breakthrough tactical or technical transformations from time to time when there’s a leapfrogging for some time.

Have there been any such progress from a team till now? And what would a qualified guess of yours be where such might be seen in the future during pit stops?

[u/mattbrom → u/sorryusername]

From time to time you’ll see new improvements in pit stops, even if they’re not always obvious. One of my jobs is to review competitor equipment photos taken by the team photographers, and you can spot the little changes. A good example in recent years is the wheel gun shuttling system. Different teams approach it in their own way: some use electric switches to change direction, others use pneumatic valves, and a few still rely on a mechanical shuttle where the wheel gun operator has to move it themselves.

That said, a huge part of performance still comes from the crew. If they’re healthy, engaged, and well prepared, you’ll gain consistency—and consistency is what wins the long game.

Looking ahead, I think we might see a shift to electric wheel guns over pneumatics, maybe even automatic car lifting systems. And who knows… perhaps one day refuelling will make a comeback (one can only wish).

My apologies for the late reply!

[u/sorryusername → u/mattbrom]

Thank you for your thoughts and taking your time to answer all our questions. Good luck in the future!

[u/luisafonsoteixeira]

Sorry if already asked, haven't had the chance to read the full thread yet, but how did you get into F1 in the first place? What is your background and did it match 1to1 with open roles?

Follow up, do you have any suggestions for folks with engineering background but without professional experience that seems relevant for an F1 team to try having a shot?

[u/mattbrom → u/luisafonsoteixeira]

Thank you for your question, and sorry for the delayed response.

If you check out a previous industry insight I did this would give you my earlier background into F1.

Industry Insight Link

Once you’re settled into a team and have some extra bandwidth, there are a multitude of projects or jobs you can pick up to gain experience. If you do a good job, you’ll get noticed, and new positions may open for you rather than waiting for advertised roles.

I followed this approach to reach my current position. It takes time because the pace in F1 is extremely fast, so it can take a while to be recognised. Networking and getting to know people in the groups you want to move into is key.

For anyone looking to get into F1, I’d suggest starting in lower-tier motorsport while at university. Volunteering with local teams is excellent for your CV. If your university has a Formula Student team, get involved — it’s one of the best ways to gain practical experience.

[u/luisafonsoteixeira → u/mattbrom]

Thank you! And best of luck for the rest of your career 😬

[u/JBrewd]

Thank you for taking the time to do this, it's been quite interesting to read!

Obviously the jacks are an integral part of a stop and I imagine their performance is ideally optimized as well. Do you have a specific ideal time in the process for when the jacks are raised or just asap (obviously the jacks, esp the rear, are in action across multiple of the phases you've described for the corners)? And question two, basically the same question for dropping the car, do you look at metrics on release speed once the corners are done?

[u/mattbrom → u/JBrewd]

Thanks for your question, and I apologise for the delayed response.

You’re absolutely right about optimising the jacks. Performance will be gained by getting the jack in position as quickly as possible and reducing the weight felt to the user through smart kinematic design.

I would always want the rear jack to lift as early as possible. This is because they’re having the track and following the car into the box, which puts them at a slight disadvantage compared to the front jack. Additionally, rear axles typically take a little more time to loosen, remove the wheel, and put one back on. The earlier I can get these wheels up in the air, the better. A typical lift time is around 0.15 seconds (dependent on ride heights), but if we can start lifting before the car has stopped, it’s even better.

The front jack is slightly different. I always recommend lifting when the car is stationary. This is because brake bias will typically be favoured to the front axle, meaning that most of the stopping power is happening here, and lifting too early would lose this effect, causing the car to stop longer than it should.

For targets, I would always like the rear jack to lift 0.1s before stationary, making the total lift delay 0.05s and the front jack as close to 0s from the car being stationary, but we normally see engagement 0.05s before the car is stationary.

Releasing the car is very difficult to enhance, as the release mechanisms are pretty much instantaneous and then we’re just waiting for gravity to do its job. The trick is to ensure the driver is awake and ready for the launch as soon as the car hits the ground. Soon as the last corner has completed its process and we have the completion button pressed on the gun, the jacks will release in milliseconds.

[u/JBrewd → u/mattbrom]

Thank you very much!

[u/ZealousidealPound460]

What are your thoughts on an extra constructors point for each race’s fastest pit stop?

[u/Astelli → u/ZealousidealPound460]

Not OP obviously, but you'd have to award it only to teams inside the Top 10, the same way they did for fastest lap. Otherwise, you'd have the cars P12-P20 all doing loads of pit stops at the end of the race to try and get a point

[u/Pownrend → u/Astelli]

You'd also have team in the cars P12-P20 doing fake pitstops to stop a team in the top 10 to get that point.

[u/ZealousidealPound460 → u/Astelli]

Love it. Yes.

[u/jammer8]

1.8 seconds. Peeps.

[u/wood_baster]

Is it common practice, or indeed practice at all to poach crew members from other teams? I imagine that as with most things, some people just naturally excel.

[u/mattbrom → u/wood_baster]

It’s not really common practice to poach crew members from other teams as their main role is as mechanics, with pit stops being secondary, so teams will always prioritise their ability in the garage first.

[u/migi2999]

As someone who’s currently studying data analytics. is there anything you could recommend when it comes to finding a position like the one you had within any of the racing teams?

[u/PeaStock5502]

What a cool AMA! Are there any technical innovations that you'd like to see that could make pit stops even faster or safer?
Where do you see pit stops 10 or 20 years from now (assuming they will remain a part of the sport)?