Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stop from house stop works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: how many people does it take to perform a Formula
Speaker 1: one pit stop in just seven or so seconds? If
Speaker 1: you've ever watched a Formula one race, or a NASCAR
Speaker 1: race for that matter, you know that the pit stop
Speaker 1: is an important part of winning in Formula one. A
Speaker 1: well executed pit stop can replace all four tires, refuel
Speaker 1: the car with many gallons of gas, and do it
Speaker 1: all in roughly seven seconds. So how do they do it?
Speaker 1: They use a lot of well coordinated manpower. Most of
Speaker 1: that manpower is focused on the tires. It takes fifteen
Speaker 1: people to replace them. Three people handle each tire, One
Speaker 1: person takes the old tire off, one person puts the
Speaker 1: new tire on, and one person handles the pneumatic wrench.
Speaker 1: Then two or three more people jack the car up
Speaker 1: and down for the couple of seconds necessary to slide
Speaker 1: the tires on and off. Two other people handle fuelling.
Speaker 1: The reason it takes two people is because the fuelling
Speaker 1: hose is massive. It has to be, since nine leaders
Speaker 1: are more than two gallons of fuel are flowing per
Speaker 1: second through that hose. Then there are two more people
Speaker 1: on a backup refueling rig. Now we're up to nineteen people.
Speaker 1: The fireman is standing by with a fire extinguisher in
Speaker 1: his hand in case something goes wrong in that fueling
Speaker 1: process and a fire breaks out. Then there's a person
Speaker 1: there with the engine starter. There's no built in starter
Speaker 1: motor on a Formula one car. It's done with a
Speaker 1: separate tool, and he's there in case the engine cuts
Speaker 1: off while it's in the pit. The pneumatic man deals
Speaker 1: with the pressurized pneumatic system used in place of valve
Speaker 1: springs on F one cars. Heat checks and repressurizes the
Speaker 1: system when necessary. Then there's also an extra person to
Speaker 1: wipe off the driver's visor and supply water. He doesn't
Speaker 1: come out on every pit stop, but he can be out,
Speaker 1: and in some cases there are two people to provide
Speaker 1: adjustments to the front and rear wings. They also don't
Speaker 1: come out every time, but if adjustments are needed, there there. Finally,
Speaker 1: the last person is called the lollipop Man. He handles
Speaker 1: a big round sign that resembles a lollipop and it
Speaker 1: tells the driver what to do at the end. Of
Speaker 1: the pit stop. It's this guy's job to get the
Speaker 1: driver out of the pits and as little time as possible.
Speaker 1: That's a total of twenty six people. They're not all
Speaker 1: used on every pit stop, but you will always see
Speaker 1: at least twenty people making the seven second pit stop possible.
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