An F1 Mechanic Reveals the High-Stakes Pressures of a Race Day Pit Stop

Aston Martin’s pit crew in action.Aston Martin

MEN’S HEALTH: What is required to succeed in doing a sub-2-second pit stop?

ALEX RUSH: It truly is a team effort, and you see that demonstrated when the cars pull in for the pit stop. Everyone is shooting for that 1.9-second or 2-second stop; that’s how quickly we want to get the car back on that track. And there are 20 people who need to work together to accomplish that. We all have our own jobs to do in that instance, and we all are relying on each other to knock out our own responsibilities.

For me, as a gunman, I have to pay attention to my two main points of contact in the team, which is going to be my wheel-off man and my wheel-on man. The three of us are the ones involved with changing the tires. And between the three of us, we are paying attention to the patterns and everything happen in our peripheral. There is a lot of muscle memory that is happening.

MH: This year brought changes to the Pirelli motorsport tires that F1 has been using for the past 14 seasons. There are now five different compounds, and the tires are lighter than in previous seasons. Has this changed your pit stops at all?

AR: Lighter and quicker is always better on our end. The tires were never especially heavy to lift, and the weight itself, 45 kg for a complete set, isn’t a tremendous amount. It’s more the awkwardness of the shape. The weight for each tire would be lifted easily if it were a dumbbell, shaped to your hand, and built with a grip. If you’ve ever changed the tire of your own car, you’ll know that doing it in a few seconds wouldn’t be an easy task. But that’s what these tires and the equipment we use were developed for.

MH: Can you talk about the guns that you use to change the Pirelli tires?

AR: The wheel guns we have are supplied by another Italian company, Paoli, which are like high-powered impact wrenches of sorts. Every team has its own variation. Ours are running at around 30 bar, which is a lot of pressure. Fast enough to take a wheel nut off in almost half a second.

As you can imagine the torque and kickback is pretty serious, so if you’re not trained for it or prepared for it, you can be thrown off. But once you’ve used these guns enough, you learn how to control them. At that point it’s not so much about strength, or overpowering the situation, you are learning how to control it. The guns start to feel like an extension of you.

They are also extensions of our team’s computer system, the triggers change direction of the gun, and a trigger to pull when I’m engaged on the nut. The button that is there to indicate to the team that the tire is one, and all the other four gunmen have the same button. The jackman has a button that let’s us know when he’s ready as well. Once all of our buttons are green, the car drops, and it’s off.

The five new compounds from Pirelli, which provides all the tires for F1.Pirelli

MH:I know you're a big runner, so your cardio is up, but what other training is important when it comes to your job during a pick stop?

AR: These movements that we are doing, whether it’s removing the tires, slamming the tires on, or bolting them on, are very explosive. Your body has to be prepared. I would say that grip strength and core strength are hugely important, along with reaction time. So when I’m training, I want to make sure that I have some explosive movements in there. I am doing plenty of core work and rotational work.

I would say several movements that help me in both of those objectives are Russian Twists with a kettlebell, Bulgarian split squats, and good old pull-ups or dead hangs. We have trainers who work with the team who will also help push us in certain directions if we want. When we are at the track, we are practicing our pit stops every day, which is a great workout in itself.

Because we’re traveling so much I don’t have room in my pack to carry a lot of training gear with me. That’s why I’ve enjoyed picking up running more and more, because all I need is my running shoes, my Garmin to track the route, and especially for races in hotter locations like Qatar or Singapore, I have been packing electrolytes from PureSport just to make sure I’m good on hydration.

MH: What is it like being in the team garages during a race, waiting for the next high-octane pit stop?

AR: I think people would be surprised to know that we are just listening to the roars of the race. We aren’t getting all of the team communications or commentary that the viewers on Apple TV are hearing. We’re watching data on the screen, while we watch video of the race happening without sound. The pit crew works for both drivers, so we’ll just gave a tap on the shoulder or a call through the radio that this-or-that driver are coming in 15 seconds or so.

That’s when we will put on our helmets or throw down the visor. I would say that that’s the action that signals “gametime” more than anything else. Boom, helmet on, out we go. I sit down, prep my line, prep my gun, and wait for the car to come in. My eye is on the target, making sure I’m ready to go as soon as the car hits that jack.

MH: In addition to hitting some Russian Twists and Bulgarian split squats, what recommendations would you have for F1 viewers at home who want to change a tire better.

AR: Impact wrenches make the job quite a bit easier, for my cars I’ve always been a DeWalt guy. I like them for the car, but also any other drilling needs I have at home during those rare instances when I have some time away from the track. A solid impact wrench, a manual wrench for the final adjustment, and a car jack will have you right.

Dewalt Cordless 1/2 Impact Wrench Kit

ROGTZ Electric Hydraulic Car Jack Kit

LEXIVON Hand 1/2 Torque Wrench

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