Who has F1's fastest pit crew?
2012-08-27 10:40
SUCCESSFUL TEAM: Ferrari has the fastest pit crew so far in 2012 and driver Fernando Alonso is leading the World championship.
Ferrari seems to be doing something right: Fernando Alonso is leading the 2012 World Drivers' championship and the team also has... the fastest pit crew.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport has found the Italian squad's tyre-changing crew is, on average, a touch under two-tenths faster than reigning champion team Red Bull per pit stop.
REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT
It's a remarkable turnaround for Maranello-based Ferrari from 2011's 's rankings; then the team was reportedly in the pit stop "midfield" in the same mid-season.
In 2011 Mercedes had the fastest pit crew; now the squad is only fourth, more than three-tenths slower than Ferrari and behind Force India.
McLaren, whose current crew is now orchestrated by Williams' former technical director Sam Michael, has the outright record for the fastest individual stop of 2012 (2.31sec in Germany) but overall the British team is behind Toro Rosso in sixth, on average more than seven-tenths slower than the Ferrari crew.
And, indicating that smaller budgets even slow teams down in the pits, Caterham's pit stops are on average 1.75sec slower than Red Bull, while Marussia (2.28) and HRT (3.28) bring up the rear.
