In the seven seconds it takes to complete an average Grand Prix pit stop, a driver will get four fresh tires, a tank of fuel, an inspection to remove debris from nooks and crannies, and maybe some shiny new parts to replace any track casualties. It’s a hyperdrive time warp where jobs that might take an afternoon at your local garage are crammed into a few heartbeats. Dozens of mechanics work in choreographed synchrony, while team managers analyze every detail of every task down to hundredths of a second. We talked to Red Bull Racing’s own in-house clock watcher, Jonathan Wheatley, to find out what happens during the longest seven seconds in motor sports.

Jacks:

1.2 man-seconds

Two jack men — one in front, one in back — lift the car a few inches so service can commence. The Red Bull jack is a simple mechanical lever (fewer parts to jam or fail) with a collapsible frame. Instead of letting the racer down gently when the work is done, a jack man pulls a switch to drop it to the ground. Junk Removal:

2 man-seconds

If even a shred of a plastic bag gets into the guts of an F1 car, it could be curtains for the race — maybe even for the engine. So when the pneumatic gun operators are done locking down the tires, two of them reach into the scorching radiator inlets and check for dangerous hitchhikers.

115.8 man-seconds of work are completed in just 7 seconds. Tires:

48 man-seconds

A dozen crew members swap out the tires, three on each wheel. One works the pneumatic gun, one pulls off the old shoe, and one mounts the new rubber (prewarmed to between 176 and 212 degrees). Then the gun man refastens the wheel nut — in Red Bull’s case, to a staggering 700 lb-ft.

Fuel:

11.6 man-seconds

It takes two crew members to handle an F1 fuel rig, one on the nozzle and one just to wrangle the massive hose. The amount for each fill-up is planned by race engineers and preloaded into the line. Once connected, the go-juice is pumped at an officially mandated 3.2 gallons per second. Part Swaps:

53 man-seconds

The most frequently damaged part of an F1 racer is the nose assembly. Because it doubles as a jacking point, when a new front end is needed, the front wheel men must lift up the car and set it on a carbon-fiber box. If all goes well, the team can change out a nose during an average seven-second stop.



