Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Ferrari have explained a specific issue with their wheel nut design is leading to problematic pitstops in 2020.
Ferrari’s pitstops have been a constant issue for the team throughout 2020, with Sebastian Vettel’s slow stops at the Sakhir Grand Prix costing him 4.5 seconds and 6.5 seconds respectively.
According to Ferrari, 22% of their pitstops in 2020 have taken longer than 3.5 seconds, with that figure regarded as the cut-off point for a stop being a ‘serious failure’. The team themselves say that the season outcome might not have been affected too much, but the constant time loss from such stops has cost them points overall.
“It’s true that the number of stops over 3.5 seconds is too high by the Scuderia’s past standards, but the vast majority of times that there has been a less than optimal stop, it has been down to a specific problem linked to the wheel nut,” explained Diego Ioverno, Scuderia’s Vehicle Operation Engineer. “The thread is not strong enough and so the nut has stripped several times. It’s a reliability problem we are working hard on to fix for next year.”
For such a fundamental design issue to have only been acknowledged so late in the season, Ioverno explained that awareness of the design flaw leads to a knock-on effect as the mechanics now know there could be a problem: “When the guys feel, even unconsciously, that they are using a component that is more at risk, with a margin of error for engaging the wheel-gun that is much smaller, that has a negative effect on the whole procedure. That can be seen from the fact that for us, an average time for a good pit stop is 2.73 seconds, which means there is room for improvement there too.”
Ioverno went on to explain that the pit crew themselves are comparatively new, due to the organisational changes the team have made in the past 12-18 months. While Red Bull, Williams and Mercedes constantly hit around the 2 second mark to change all four wheels, Ferrari’s crew takes a little bit more time to come together to work in complete harmony.
“It should be pointed out that our pit crew is relatively new as part of the significant changes we have introduced over the past two years, both for the crew itself and on the organisational side.” continued Ioverno. “It is clear therefore that it takes a little time for all those involved in the pit stop to gel. There is no other sport that calls on perfect synchronisation of over twenty people. That’s why the best teams are the ones that have used the same crew for several years. So, apart from reliability, we also need to work on this area, both through specific training sessions and psychological and physical training and that will be another priority over the winter in preparation for 2021.”
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