ANALYSIS: McLaren beats Red Bull for quickest pit stop

The Belgian Grand Prix saw McLaren conduct the quickest tyre change, narrowly beating reigning world champion team Red Bull. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.

McLaren was unable to replicate what they achieved at the Hungarian Grand Prix where the papaya outfit secured a brilliant one-two finish for the first time since the 2021 Monza round.

However, a third place for Oscar Piastri and a sixth place for Lando Norris were again a testament that the Woking-based outfit finds itself back in top form in the current field. Those places became even better after the disqualification of race winner George Russell.

As far as the pit stops are concerned, McLaren achieved its first DHL Fastest Pit Stop award of the current season. The British outfit called Piastri in for his first stop on Lap 11, and performed the quickest tyre change of the entire race with a time of 2.05s.

This stop ensured that Piastri was able to overtake George Russell straightaway on exiting the pits and thus neutralize the Mercedes undercut. This move also put him in a position many laps later, just before his second stop, to fight Mercedes for the win – but as he headed into the pit lane this time, his assessment of the way the previous stops had gone was to prove his nemesis.

Piastri: “I felt that on Friday there was a lot of grip in the pit lane and that I was always undershooting the box.” What’s more, during the first stop of the race, Lewis Hamilton had pulled out of position in the pits just in front of him. “So maybe I was coming in a bit slow,” he had thought to himself, losing too much time in the pit lane in the process. He didn’t want to make the same mistake again when coming in for a second time.

However, he overcooked it. His McLaren skidded to a halt a good metre or so past the stop markings, launching the unlucky crew member on the front jack into the air. “It wasn’t my finest hour,” said Piastri, taking the blame. But the mechanics again showed just what a class act they are.

Of course, a pit stop time of 4.43 seconds will never make the grade as the DHL Fastest Pit Stop, but to lose only 2.38 seconds as compared to the best stop of the day, even though each and every one of the mechanics had had to move forward a good three feet and the unfortunate man up front on the jack had almost been dumped unceremoniously on the tarmac, has to be a feat worthy of almost as much recognition!

Red Bull registered the second quickest tyre change with a time of 2.13s when they serviced Sergio Perez. Interestingly, RB recorded the third and fourth-quickest pit stop with a 2.16s and 2.25s.

Mercedes continued to impress not only with their constantly improving pace, but also with their encouraging tyre changes. Of Ferrari’s four stops last Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s first tyre change was the quickest with a time of 2.46s which was only enough for the tenth place in the pit stop competition.