Last weekend in Brazil, with Max Verstappen, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's crews performed another record-breaking pitstop. But what happens when the bulls are freed from the chains of gravity?
Never at a loss for out of the ordinary ideas, Red Bull recently took their team's pitstop skills to a whole new level, or an altitude of 33,000 feet to be precise.
With the help of Russian space agency Roscosmos, the RBR's crews took a 2005 RB1 on board an Ilyushin Il-76 MDK cosmonaut training plane to attempt the fastest possible pit stop in zero gravity conditions!
A few flights were necessary to get everyone accustomed to the Zero-G conditions, with each one consisting of a series of parabolas – with the aircraft climbing at a 45° angle, then falling in a ballistic arc at 45° – giving the pit crew a period of weightlessness lasting around 22 seconds before the next climb.
So a sub 20-second stop was basically the crews' target.
The team also had a purpose-built set onboard the plane to host RB1, as Marcus Prosser - Red Bull's head of brand and events - explained.
"We built quite a complex set, hiding all the rails for lights and the cameras. Space was at a premium and having a narrower car gave us a little bit more manoeuvrability within the fuselage," he said.
Indeed, in addition to the bulls swapping tyres, there was also an entire production crew to accommodate.
Car and equipment had to be carefully secured before and after each weightless period, reducing each filming session to around 15 seconds, and producing the most technically demanding activity the live demo team have ever undertaken.
"I’ve been involved in some special events," says support team coordinator Mark Willis.
"From slaloming the car in Kitzbühel, to the salt lakes of Argentina, we’ve been to some strange places and done some strange things.
"Ultimately this is the oddest – but also the most special because there’s simply nothing comparable."
Check out the video of the bulls taking their skills to the next level!
