CASE STUDY
Faster stops. Fewer injuries.
F1 Pit Stop Performance · Williams Racing and Haas F1 Team
Image: Haas F1 Team
AT A GLANCE
Williams Racing
Human Performance Specialist, 2017–2018
Haas F1 Team
Pit Stop Performance Lead, 2020–2022
THE CHALLENGE
A pit stop is a team performance measured in tenths of a second and repeated under the most public scrutiny in sport. One fast stop is easy to celebrate. The real challenge is making a crew of around twenty people quick and reliable at every race, with long hours and constant travel, on top of a job that takes its toll on backs and joints.
Williams Racing
I travelled to more than 21 Grands Prix a year, delivering strength and conditioning for 60 people, pit stop technical sessions, sport science support and performance analysis. I also managed the staff delivering conditioning to the support crew.
The crew’s results
2.02s
Fastest pit stop of the 2017 Formula 1 season, British Grand Prix
2nd
2017 DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award, with the most race wins of any team (7 of 20)
−28%
Job-related injury rate, 2017
−35%
Lower back injuries in 2018, with all injuries down a further 26%
Haas F1 Team
At Haas, the crew wasn’t the limiting factor; the equipment was. Alongside data-driven coaching and biomechanics analysis of every role, the work moved to the tools themselves: I secured the budget for and helped deliver a redesigned rear jack. I also ran physical testing and monitoring for the whole travelling race team.
−26%
Lower back injury rate, 2021 to 2022
WHAT IT TAUGHT ME
I could have added more sessions, more testing, more programmes. But with the load already high from the hours, the travel and the work itself, adding more was never really an option. The biggest performance gain would have been more time off, and that wasn’t my call to make. It taught me that the environment is a constraint on performance, unless you can change the environment itself.
