McLaren recorded the fastest ever pit-stop in Valencia at the weekend, proving their relentless search for improvements is beginning to pay off after multiple mistakes.
However, the performance was overshadowed by a lenghtly second stop for Lewis Hamilton after their equipment failed.
Hamilton’s first stop was recorded at 2.6 seconds, though the actual time from Hamilton stopping to the green light on McLaren’s pit system was just 2.32s, 0.11s quicker than the previous record set by Mercedes in Korea last year.
Sporting director Sam Michael put the performance down to the hard work and newly-introduced equipment which was first used in Canada where McLaren set the fastest stop of the season up until the European GP.
“The job they are doing at the moment is spot on, and I have felt it coming for the last two or three races,” he told Autosport. “We’ve done a lot of work internally on the procedures and equipment, and we’ve been pushing them on a lot.
“And now we are in a world where we are dealing with milliseconds, rather than tenths. It is as competitive as the aero game now.”
The team will introduce more changes for the British GP in just under a fortnight, in an effort to avoid the issue which hit Hamilton’s second stop whereby the front-jack collapsed before the front-left had been affixed fully. A rear ‘gunner’ will also be changed after he suffered a cut to his hand during the race.
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