Welcome to brain Stop from house stop works dot com where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how many people does it take to perform a Formula one pit stop in just seven or so seconds? If you've ever watched a Formula one race, or a NASCAR race for that matter, you know that the pit stop is an important part of winning in Formula one. A well executed pit stop can replace all four tires, refuel the car with many gallons of gas, and do it
all in roughly seven seconds. So how do they do it? They use a lot of well coordinated manpower. Most of that manpower is focused on the tires. It takes fifteen people to replace them. Three people handle each tire, One person takes the old tire off, one person puts the new tire on, and one person handles the pneumatic wrench. Then two or three more people jack the car up and down for the couple of seconds necessary to slide the tires on and off. Two other people handle fuelling.
The reason it takes two people is because the fuelling hose is massive. It has to be, since nine leaders are more than two gallons of fuel are flowing per second through that hose. Then there are two more people on a backup refueling rig. Now we're up to nineteen people. The fireman is standing by with a fire extinguisher in his hand in case something goes wrong in that fueling process and a fire breaks out. Then there's a person there with the engine starter. There's no built in starter
motor on a Formula one car. It's done with a separate tool, and he's there in case the engine cuts off while it's in the pit. The pneumatic man deals with the pressurized pneumatic system used in place of valve springs on F one cars. Heat checks and repressurizes the system when necessary. Then there's also an extra person to wipe off the driver's visor and supply water. He doesn't come out on every pit stop, but he can be out, and in some cases there are two people to provide
adjustments to the front and rear wings. They also don't come out every time, but if adjustments are needed, there there. Finally, the last person is called the lollipop Man. He handles a big round sign that resembles a lollipop and it tells the driver what to do at the end. Of the pit stop. It's this guy's job to get the driver out of the pits and as little time as possible.
That's a total of twenty six people. They're not all used on every pit stop, but you will always see at least twenty people making the seven second pit stop possible. For more on this and thousands of other topics, does that house stop works dot com And don't forget to check out the brain stop blog on the house Stop works dot com homepage. You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain Stuff h s W. The house Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.