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Wheatley explains: This is how the Red Bull pit stop team is formed
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing's pitstop team is arguably the best in their field. Despite losing the record for fastest pit stop to McLaren this year, they continue to perform consistently well. In the Austrian team's Talking Bulls podcast, the team's sporting director talks about how he recruited the pitstop team.
Jonathan Wheatley is the sporting director at Red Bull Racing. Part of his responsibilities are the performance of the pit stop team. He makes the decisions in who is in that team and what role that person has in it.
So what all does Wheatley pay attention to when forming the pitstop team?
"We tend to look at people within our travelling crew. We look at their body shape, their physique and how they move. We've got a clinical management team that help identify people who might be good for certain roles. Then there's a day-to-day coaching crew that work with the pit crew. Phil Turner is one of those who works with Richard and some of the other guys."
Running a pit stop comes with quite a bit of pressure. After all, millions of people watch Formula 1. To see if the person is suitable for the pit stop team, they try to mimic the pressure at the factory during practice. "We identify a role where someone is comfortable. Even when you get through that, you need to put them under pressure to see how they handle pressure. Sometimes that's me stood behind them in a practice pit stop. I figure if they can't do it with me standing there, then they can't do it with a billion people watching on TV."
Wheatley explained that it has been quite difficult to field a full pit stop team this year. "There's 22 people in the pit stop, including the driver. You need reserves. This year has been pretty tough on us in terms of illnesses, weddings and funerals and people missing events so you need quite a few people in reserve able to do it. I work with a great group of people who I've been working with for a long time. They help identify the talent and help introduce them into the pit crew."