The mid-season rule change that has left F1 teams scrambling

When mid-race refuelling was re-banned by Formula 1 for the 2010 season, following a plethora of turgid races and incidents involving trigger-happy drivers leaving the pitlanes with the fuel lines still attached, the speed of pitstops fell dramatically.

Back then, getting close to the three-second bracket in the box was considered an incredible effort. Now, 11 years on, a three-second pitstop time is usually accompanied by a post-race inquest. That’s how much expectations have shifted, and the inclusion of increased automation and articulated jacks have pushed pitstops into the occasional sub-2s boundary. At least, until the FIA unveiled a new technical directive for the Belgian Grand Prix to slow pitstops down on safety grounds.

This directive has introduced mandatory tolerances to allow for human reaction times, imposing a minimum of 0.15s between the wheelnuts being tightened and those operating the jacks to lower the car, and a minimum of 0.2s between the car being lowered and the driver receiving the signal to go. The F1 technical regulations already stated that any automatic signals must be used passively rather than actively, but there was a concern that the wheelguns were automatically providing the signal to the jack operator and the pit exit lights.

Since the re-clarification of the rules, Red Bull was arguably hit the hardest. A frequent visitor to the realms of sub-2s pitstops, the team holds the record of a 1.82s stop recorded at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, and this year clocked in at 1.88s during the Hungarian Grand Prix – the final race under the old regime.

Sure, Red Bull chalked up a 2.15s stop at Zandvoort as part of Max Verstappen’s irrepressible path to victory at his home race but, at Monza, the greater chance of human error intervened.

A problem on the Dutchman’s front-right wheel produced an 11s stop, which fired Verstappen down the order after spending the first part of the race battling with Daniel Ricciardo for the lead. The error in question appeared to be with the operation of the “OK” button on the wheelgun, which must be operated after the stop to feed the signal in to the exit phase of the stop. This has always been a mandatory feature, but teams had been able to skirt the rules by pressing it prior to the wheel being fitted.

A slow stop for Verstappen at Monza dropped him back into the clutches of Hamilton and was a contributing factor in their collision

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“There was a rare human error in our pitstop, as a result of the new technical directive but nonetheless something we need to learn from,” team principal Christian Horner stated in his post-race column on Red Bull’s website.

The wheel had been correctly fitted, but Verstappen had not been given the signal to go – and that put him on the path to his collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Variante del Rettifilo. Thus, a tiny error had huge consequences – which have already affected the title fight.

Although Hamilton and Verstappen both recorded non-scoring races, Verstappen’s position ahead of Hamilton should have extended the Red Bull driver’s lead in the standings. Instead, it retained the status quo, and events at the following Russian Grand Prix handed back the title lead to Hamilton following his 100th F1 victory.

Hamilton has received a little rub of the green when it comes to benefitting from pitstop errors with the new system, but it only takes a delayed press of a button to potentially swing the odds back in his rival’s favour

Monza winner Daniel Ricciardo was next to face the effect of the new pitstop rules at Sochi last weekend. He endured a slow 8.9s stop on his scheduled trip to the pits - with the wheels once again all fully bolted on, the Australian was left waiting for the signal to leave.

Ricciardo’s misfortune played into the hands of Hamilton, who had been stuck behind the McLaren driver before the stops. Once released from behind Ricciardo's gearbox, the Mercedes driver recorded a succession of blistering lap times.

With the opportunity to close down race leader Lando Norris, Hamilton broke away from the pack of cars he’d been tangled up in and built himself immunity over the cars going long into the race. Although the pitstop rules didn’t directly affect a title contender, it certainly produced another series of events that helped one.

Prior to the revised pitstop rules, the average of the fastest stops from each race was 2.05s. In the three races since, it now stands at 2.33s. Tellingly, Red Bull had the fastest pitstop time in all but three of the pre-Belgium races, but has only snared the Dutch GP bragging rights thereafter.

Ricciardo was held up in Sochi by problems in his stop, which allowed Hamilton to close on Norris

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Red Bull endured a difficult stop with Sergio Perez during the Sochi race, which pulled him out of podium contention but Horner admitted that it wasn’t down to the technical directive that time; rather that the team “had a very slight delay on the wheel off, and then the clutch spun up the rear wheel, which then took more time to re-engage the wheel.”

Out of the two teams embroiled within the 2021 title fight, Mercedes would naturally be least affected by the changes as it has frequently taken a more cautious approach to pitstops. Red Bull’s pursuit of the quickest time has served it well in the past, but now with limits to the automation employed within them, it has taken away a slice of its advantage in the pitlane.

But mistakes were always going to be made. It’s hard to fathom a problem until it actually occurs in the heat of battle, and with three races of data (and with more time to practice back at base) these appear to be mere teething problems.

One can always expect F1 teams to find a way to maximise the opportunities available within the pitlane, and although the reduced assistance in pitstops will leave them just below the 2.5s-mark in the next few rounds, they’ll certainly drop even further in the future as the pitcrew and those in charge of conducting them will dream up some workarounds to find more time. This is F1, after all, and teams always find a way to claim back a few extra tenths after a rule change.

Hopefully, it doesn’t affect the title battle too much. Hamilton has received a little rub of the green when it comes to benefitting from pitstop errors with the new system, but it only takes a delayed press of a button to potentially swing the odds back in his rival’s favour.

It must also be clarified that the technical directive was not brought into force to have an effect on the Mercedes vs Red Bull battle, but rather to enforce the regulations that already exist and stop teams from taking liberties when it comes to safety.

Although the pitcrews across the grid are very good at detecting loose wheels and stopping the car in the event that a wheelnut hasn’t been tightened up properly, bouncing tyres have caused injury in the past – and someone’s wellbeing is more important than the worth of finding an extra couple of tenths in the pitlane.

PLUS: The other notable Monza escape that F1 should learn from 

What it does do is put the onus back onto the team’s people. As teams win together and lose together, that’s exactly how it should be.

A Mercedes pit crew member in the garage

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images