Formula 1 Technical: Importance of a F1 Pit Wall

Red Bull racing pit wall

We have seen many Formula 1 races that have been decided by using clever pit strategies or by making important decisions like; undercuts, change of rubber compounds, and by fuel or tyre saving, during an ongoing race. Of course the driver has a say when some of these decisions are made; as every driver has a team meeting with his race-engineers and other team personnel on the night before, or on the morning, of the race. In this meeting every single aspect of the race is discussed, from what start procedures to use to what tyres the driver will start the race on (when he has the freedom to choose his starting tyre that is). This meeting is important as even the race strategy is discussed. As we know, races can be won or lost if you get, or don’t get, the strategy right on Sunday. Pre-hand planning about it is very essential, the simulators and the calculators will tell the team about the best possible strategy once qualifying is over, and drivers will stick to this plan during the race. The plan will most certainly yield the maximum out of the race-car, driver, and also the team, and in turn, out of the strategy and the race result itself.

What if everything goes wrong?

Imagine if it suddenly rains on Sunday without any prior warning or if there is anything out of the ordinary, which is out of a team’s control, on the big race day. Think there is a lap one, or also an in-race, puncture, or any un-scripted problem, which forces a team and a driver, to change their pre-planned strategy mid race. Won’t the driver and the team panic? Do you think, whilst giving total concentration towards racing a 600 BHP (plus the ERS power) F1 car, the driver will make calculations and permutations about his race strategy? And not to forget, he still has to do the “actual racing” with other competitors.

Indeed, it would be impossible for a driver to re-calculate everything in his small racing mind to work out the perfect damage control strategy from there. This is where the men, or even the women, on the pit wall are earning their mega bucks for. A team pit wall typically consists of the most important people a racing team needs, apart from the drivers of course. And this is where the tough decisions are made regarding race-running of the team cars.

What is a pit wall?

A particular team’s pit wall is situated in the pit lane right opposite the outfit’s garage, in between these two structures; the actual fast lane (where the F1 cars ply when they are in the pits) and the service lane is situated.

The Formula 1 pit wall (all the teams have their gantries in succession to each other) is separated just by a small wall-barrier from the actual start-finish straight on a race track. But, all the teams are very sensitive about the work they do and hence have separate individual boxes, one for each team. Have you ever wondered what the team bosses are doing in the pit garage during a race start, rather than, on their designated place at the wall? This is because, from the time of illumination of the five red lights, to them exhausting, all pit wall members, apart from two, are told to step away from the gantry. This is done for safety reasons because of the close proximity the pit wall enjoys from the start finish line.

This is why we see the famous television images (race in race out) of the tensed bosses in the garage with all the mechanics, when a grand prix is about being. A pit wall can tell the driver about the current scenario of a race, they can tell him about his position, his rival’s positions and the positions around him.

Sometimes in Formula 1, the driver ahead of you, or the one immediately behind you, are not always the cars you are actually racing in the long run. This, of course is because of the fact that different, and counter, strategies are used by some cars. And this is where a pit wall informs the driver of the situation, which would have been impossible for the driver to guess. The driver can also get information about the traffic and the visible race strategy, and position, of other drivers, who are going to be your challengers, when everything unfolds.

An F1 pitwall also has the ability to warn drivers of certain problems, both with the car or with the track, during a race weekend. The warnings can be in form of temperature problems of some car parts, which a driver can try to manage, to various flag notifications in an event of a crash on the circuit. Race engineers on the pitwall sometimes do the job of “driver coaching”; this was of course banned during the 2014 season.

Equipment at a pit wall’s disposal

The pit wall members have the luxury of having radio connectivity with all members of the team, including with on the track drivers, via the team’s individual communication channels. There are television monitors installed in front of the members so they can visually keep track of what is going on in the race. And of course there are various timing and data equipment available to them, so that they can have a non-pictorial (but in depth) idea of the ongoing grand prix and their cars in it.

They also get information from race control about weather forecasts, track condition status, track status, and the actual track temperature feeds during a grand prix. Interpreting this information helps in fine-tuning the in-race strategy for eking-out the best possible results. A team pit wall is always connected to the FIA race director Charlie Whiting. This is because; if any issue about the rules, regulations and technicality arrives, then the team and the FIA can solve it or make a settlement amicably.

Functions of a pit wall

It is the mission control area of a racing team which makes all the tactical and strategic calls on the race track during a grand prix. A Formula 1 pit wall typically is a gantry box where the operation of running a race car, during a race event, is done. These operations include; various data observation, information collection, giving technical recommendations, information consigning and action taking, during a grand prix weekend. The action taking is done on the basis of the information collection and observation, and any feedback, or action taking, given to a race driver, affects the strategy, pace performance and actual fundamental running of the race car.

This data exchange is done with the help of a sophisticated radio communication, and data transfer technology, which all the teams use to transfer voice data (from driver to team and vice versa), readings from the car and also telemetry data. It is also noted that sometimes teams rely on information from their headquarters (for example; McLaren Technology Center: Mission Control) to give certain real time recommendation on race strategy.

A team pit wall is also a very busy place when the free practice sessions are on; as this is where long run strategy, and the long run pace of the car, is tabulated by a team. In qualifying mode, especially at the final minutes of a qualifying session, the pit wall has to make some crucial decisions regarding; track position, tyre compounds and whether to run again in the session or not.

The data exchange between the car, driver and the team

The telemetry data exchange is the backbone for Formula 1 teams in terms of decision-making. This is because the telemetry includes data about the current status of the car’s engine, gearbox, suspension, hydraulic pressures and other important functions. They also receive data about the current tyre wear and all the temperatures, which have to be monitored time to time, from various parts of the car.

The data is of course used in real time by the teams on the pit wall, and in the garage, to run a deliberation and an analysis to make more accurate projections about a driver’s race. A racing team’s pit wall also has the ability to change pre-planned tactics and strategy, if necessary, and of course monitor the progress of their drivers and the data from the cars. If anything out of the extra ordinary happens, the team wall always has a contingency plan, or makes one in real time, to tackle the situation.

An F1 pit wall is always synchronized with the car, team garage, back offices (where more engineers sit and monitor the situation) and also with the team’s home base back at their headquarters (Example; Ferrari- Maranello, Italy). Refueling is currently banned in Formula 1, but still a team has to make a decision on the tyre choices during the race. This can be hectic and confusing if any unforeseen circumstance arises during the race.

They can sometimes win it, or unfortunately ruin it for a driver

Since the wall has the ability to look into the future of a race (figuratively); it can make certain decisions which might change the outcome of a driver’s grand prix. We have seen it in the past that if a driver is stuck (cannot overtake) behind a slow car, when he has much more pace, then a pit wall tends to change the strategy of the driver. This is done either by calling him for a pit-stop earlier, and trying an undercut, or by changing the driver to a contrary tyre compound. If there is absolutely no chance of pitting again, then the teams tell the drivers to manage their tyres and fuel for attacking the slower car later on.

Of course, selecting one over the other will bring in “opportunity cost factor” and hence a change or going for an alternate decision in the plan might, or might not, yield results in the end. A pit wall’s decision can be metaphorically termed in 3 outcomes; the good, the bad and the ugly. The good being, when a driver has profited from a decision by the wall (which happens most of the time), for example; Michael Schumacher at the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix, where the German, thanks to a master stroke by Ross Brawn on the pit wall, benefitted from a three-stopper to win the race.

Then there is the bad and with pit stops increasing in the recent years, McLaren (and many other teams) have taken some stick for making bold calls during a race, which have not worked. Of course this leaves out the ugly; and who can forget the Flavio Briatore-Nelson Piquet Jr. saga at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. It was pre planned of course, but the “crashtegy (crashing strategy)”, I am sure, required a good chuck of monitoring and real time decision making in order to make the situation, I mean the plan of elevating Piquet’s teammate to a race winning position, work. On the positive side, it showed both sides of the Renault, now called Lotus, garage can work in harmony (not that many knew about the plan anyway).

Who gets the privilege to sit on a pit wall?

Most importantly for the drivers, their personal race engineer is always on the pit wall during practice, qualifying and the race, or you can say whenever the race car is on track. This is why we always hear some fabulous pit-to-car radio chats between the driver and his engineer. For example; take any chat between Felipe Massa and Rob Smedley from their Ferrari days.

Besides the two race engineers (each for both drivers) various other team members sit on the pit wall. These include; team principal, the deputy team principal (in some cases), the technical director, performance engineers, racing director, team manager, sporting director and other various senior members of the staff. Sometimes when a driver retires from a race, he is often spotted sitting on his team’s pit wall monitoring the race and his teammate’s progress. Reserve drivers and test drivers are also seen sitting on the pit wall at various grand prix weekends.

One thing is for sure, decision making or no decision making, the pit wall is the best place in the house to view, monitor and follow a particular race-car or the whole grand prix itself.