In a remarkable feat of precision and teamwork, Red Bull Racing's pit crew recently completed a 2.84s pit stop in complete darkness, just for the sake of proving that their mastery of tyre changes extends far beyond the realm of sight.
Red Bull’s speed and performance coupled with Max Verstappen’s talent paid massive dividends this year, with the Milton Keynes-based outfit securing its sixth F1 Constructors’ title.
The team’s engineering excellence – responsible for the design and development of its dominant RB19 - is well chronicled. But Red Bull’s technical prowess would remain unexploited without an equally well-oiled squad of operators manning execution on race day.
As a testament to Red Bull’s unwavering dedication to performance, the championship winning outfit secured this year for the sixth consecutive season the DHL Fastest Pitstop Award with an average pit stop time of 2.31 seconds,
Blending its crews’ skills with Red Bull’s renowned adventurous spirit, the team embarked recently on one of the energy drink’s wacky challenges.
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Following up on its pit stop in zero gravity feat that it achieved a few years ago, the team tackled the aptly named "Pitch Black Pit Stop," an exercise accomplished under the most challenging conditions imaginable – with no ambient light to guide their movements.
After honing their skills in three practice sessions with blindfolds, the 22-member pit crew was thrown into the ultimate test: a pitch-black factory, their helmet visors also blacked out.
Despite the disorienting darkness, they persevered, gradually refining their pit stop routine over 10 attempts.
Their efforts were rewarded with an astonishing result, shaving their initial time of 8.84 seconds down to an incredible 2.84 seconds.
This blistering pace was on par with the average pit stop times achieved by most teams over an entire race weekend.
While the tyre changers operated entirely blind, the front and rear jack operators and the driver were equipped with night vision devices provided by the military, enabling them to navigate the car and maintain a sense of direction amidst the darkness.
"The sense of sight, being able to see the car, your team-mates and what you are doing are intrinsic to a successful pitstop, so having that taken away presented some serious hurdles," commented Red Bull's sporting manager Jonathan Wheatley.
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"However, what soon became clear is how fluid the team is in its approach, communication, ability and cohesive spirit; that the task at hand was almost second nature. I was really proud of their performance.
"The time of 2.84 seconds is a strong stop even in broad daylight. I'm certainly not saying that I would like to turn the lights out in a race, but being able to pull this off so succinctly, in the pitch black, shows what a well-oiled machine the crew is and testament to the fact we have won six consecutive DHL Fastest Pit Stop Awards. Beautiful work."
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