What really happens on an F1 pitwall

The pitwall stand is, by any standards, an anachronism in modern F1. In the last couple of teams I have been with I have campaigned to get rid of it and save a considerable amount of freight weight, but to no avail. So why is it so important and what is going on at the pitwall while the cars are running?

Strangely, although I still regard it as an anachronism, stationing people at the pitwall has not always been the norm. Indeed, time was when there was no pitwall. It appears the trend started when it became necessary to communicate with the driver and this was, of course, long before the advent of radios in motorsport.

The pit signaller would put relevant information on a pit board to inform the driver of his position, the gaps to the cars in front and behind him, and the number of laps before his fuel stop or the end of the race.

Bizarrely, in these days of clear duplex voice communication and a dashboard with on-board diagnostic and information systems that probably exceed the sophistication of early space vehicles, we still find a need to put plastic numbers in an aluminium frame and wave them in the vague direction of a driver who is passing at anything up to 200mph.

The argument is always advanced that they are necessary in case of radio failures and yes, radio failures do happen, but they are very infrequent these days, and in case of a failure a backup system could be available.

More interesting is the role of the personnel sitting on the stand with a bank of monitors in front of them. Ironically, the need to display such a plethora of information is the very mechanism that stops those on the pitwall from actually seeing any live track action and, with full track video coverage, there is actually no need to see the track.

So what are these people doing? The answer does vary from team to team, but typically the team principal will take centre stage. Ultimately the buck stops here, although in general the team principal will take a true strategic role more than an operational one.

I would always impress upon the chief engineer and the race engineers that they had four major items to consider and that they should always consider them in the order of safety, legality, reliability and performance

I use the word 'strategic' advisedly, and mean by this that the big decisions - such as whether to retire a car if the other car has suffered an unexplained mechanical failure that may endanger the driver of the car still running.

The team principal will normally be flanked by the team manager and chief engineer. The role of the team manager now is to ensure compliance with the sporting regulations and to maintain contact, via an intercom system, with the race director. He is also generally responsible for the entire pit crew and ultimately for the human performance of the pitstop crew.

The chief engineer will generally be responsible for the operation of the cars. I would always impress upon the chief engineer, and indeed the race engineers, that they had four major items to consider and that they should always consider them in the order of safety, legality, reliability and performance. That is sometimes a shock to those who think that performance is everything, but keeping that order of priorities is the only responsible way to proceed.

It was for this reason that many years ago I introduced the concept of race engineers supported by performance engineers (who will not be on the pitwall) to ensure that performance did not come a poor second. Some teams will call these second engineers 'data engineers'. I feel this belittles their roles, particularly in these days of automatic data analysis and anomaly detection.

The chief engineer also has an important role to play in coordinating the information from the two cars. F1 is a team sport and if one car finds something then the chief engineer will ensure the information is conveyed to the other side of the garage. He also keeps a 'god's eye view' on proceedings - informing, for example, the race engineers of weather predictions or events on track that may affect their programmes.

Working further from the inside to the outside we may see the technical director, although the workload and number of races in a season means they may not attend all races.

Next are the strategists. There are many different ways teams fulfil this function. Many have a pitwall strategist for each car backed up by an analyst back at base. Some have one trackside strategist with the number-crunching done remotely.

During practice these guys will be gathering data, not just from their cars but also from their competitors, to judge aspects such as tyre performance and degradation as well as establishing their relative performance to others in order to build a plan for the race. During the race they will be acting more tactically than strategically, using the data garnered during practice and updating it in real time to feed the multiple computer models that will inform them of the statistical likelihood of various outcomes.

Finally, on the flanks of the pitwall sit the race engineers. These people are the direct communication between the team and the drivers and, other than in exceptional circumstances, will be the only voice the drivers hear. Race engineers are responsible for all operational aspects of the car and while they will assist with both performance and tactical decisions, they take their orders under advice from the specialists.

Of course all this is data driven, hence the need for all the monitors. These will be showing telemetry from the cars, timing data from the FIA feed, real-time video of both the television feed and a closed-circuit system that follows the team cars based on their GPS position, and the weather radar and tactical information. Data and decisions are coordinated via an intercom system, which has multiple 'chat rooms' for various groups and is also connected to analysts back at base.

With all this going on, it's no wonder those on the pitwall are generally only aware of events surrounding the immediate environment of their own two cars.