The new tyre war

Formula 1 personnel are incorrigible competitors, so now that pit stops have been freed from the shackles of refuelling it’s not surprising to see teams attacking the length of the tyre change. Williams announced on Twitter last week that their pit crew have beaten the three-second barrier.

This intelligence coincided with me joining Red Bull Racing’s mechanics for a two-day team building exercise. The full story will appear in the Red Bulletin at the beginning of March but you can see a news snippet (and pictures) on the RBR site here.

Red Bull’s target time is aggressive, but they’re confident of achieving it by improving the crew’s physical conditioning and doing a number of bespoke exercises to improve on co-ordination. No doubt other teams are trying to achieve the same result through subtly different means.

Who will win out? It’s an interesting counterpoint to the technical battle that’s played out every year.

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