Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise performed a pitstop at the Mercedes garage before the 2023 Miami GP on Sunday.
He was a guest at the team and watched the race from the Silver Arrows' garage. Before the race, he got the opportunity to become a pit crew member who removed the used front-left wheel from the car during a pit stop practice.
A video was posted on the Mercedes F1 Twitter account, where Cruise was seen pulling the used tyre from the W14. After removing the tyre and completing the pit stop, he had a huge smile on his face and also spoke to other crew members. At the end of the video, he said:
"Made it look easy!"
The pit stop time was not too bad either as it lasted between 3 and 3.5 seconds. It's considered slow during a main race but was quite impressive for a pit stop practice.
Here's the video:
At the end, the entire pit and garage team of Mercedes took a picture with the Hollywood star around the W14.
Mercedes technical director on how several personnel collectively work in a team
Mercedes technical director James Allison recently explained how the media usually gets it wrong when it comes to how teams work and develop their cars.
He clarified that it's a team sport, and many people collectively create an F1 car. By no means is one single individual responsible for what goes wrong in a car. He said:
"I think that sort of question is often asked in one form or another, and it betrays – forgive me – it betrays a certain lack of understanding of how our factories actually work. I mean, our factories, the grid’s factories. It's many hundreds of people, a thousand-plus people in some cases. You don't have one person's hand on a car, it's just not how it works at all."
Mercedes technical director also adds that even the legendary car designer Adrian Newey would agree that a car's and team's success and failure depend on every person in the team:
"Each person puts their shoulder to the wheel, and if the whole place is well set-up and well-organised, that wheel turns more and more effectively. Even the great Adrian Newey would probably tell you that if you pinned him down hard enough. It is a very big team effort."
The German team are struggling to create a good car that can compete in the front of the grid. Since the new regulations were introduced in 2022, the Silver Arrows have struggled while Red Bull are dominating.