Formula 1 news: Ferrari putting special focus on improving pit stops for the 2023 season
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari 26 Jan 2023
Scuderia Ferrari are hoping to put their pit stop woes behind them in 2023 with a rigorous training regime planned before they head to the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Head of vehicle operations Diego Ioverno revealed they will have completed at least 1000 practice pit stops before the team arrives in the gulf for the first race of the season.
He has also overseen a physical training programme and instituted a nutritional plan for the entire pit crew to ensure they are all in peak physical condition.
"During the tests, we recorded extraordinary record times," Ioverno told the Italian edition of Motorsport.com.
"We arrived at readings of 1.65 [seconds], but in the laboratory, the car always arrives perfectly aligned to the station and, above all, stops exactly at the expected point, while during a Grand Prix many other variables come into play that make the exercise very complicated.
"Those under 3 seconds are considered very good, up to 3.5 seconds are good but not perfect, under 4 seconds are inadequate and above 4.5 seconds we consider them to be failures."
Part of the training will also be to make sure that everyone is able to work on multiple aspects of the car. With F1 seasons getting longer and longer, Ferrari are looking to begin a rotation programme to make sure they have a really strong crew every weekend.
"It is crucial to raise the average level of the team," Ioverno elaborated.
"We analysed that problems emerged when we were forced to make personnel rotations in a long season that counted 22 GPs on the calendar.
"As well as trying to bring everyone towards the same threshold, this year we thought of making the functions more flexible as well: and so a gunner can also train in changing the wheel. In 2022, we had already intensified the activity: it was not a perfect year, but it was a top year.
"In 2023 the intention is to improve, avoiding that in a pit you can lose a wheel as happened last year: it wasn't the mechanic who was wrong where to position himself, but the car's call had come too late and he had found the passage obstructed by the car."
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