Saturday, May 22, 2004
Formula 1 mechanic
One of the best jobs in the world must be the Formula One pit stop crew , in particular the wheel changers. This is how it's done.
"Wheel changing: Each wheel has two crew members. One operates the compressed air-driven gun that removes the single, central retaining nut. The other removes the old wheel and fits the new. The gun man then re-attaches the nut and tightens it to around 500 lb/ft (pounds per foot). The wheel nut and the socket of the gun are magnetised to prevent the nut falling to the ground. This whole process takes around three seconds."
Three seconds! And I think nowadays there are 3 wheel changers, not 2, so that means 1 second of work per person!
"To prevent the nuts working loose, the right-hand side of the car uses right-handed threads, the left-hand side of the car left-sided threads. This means that the guns of the right and left sides have to work in opposite ways. Teams usually color code them to denote which is which. Each wheel man has a spare gun with him and usually a couple of spare wheel nuts too, just in case.
Imagine, you get to travel to all the F1 locations and during the race, probably spend a total of 30 seconds of doing actual work. This is assuming it takes you 1 second to take off that tyre, and you do this probably 6 times in a race, and perhaps another 10 times during qualifying heats including training, give or take a couple of seconds - 30 seconds!
From the "Anatomy of a Formula One PitStop"
Jordan Ford Team - Careers in Formula
Absolutely Formula One
One of the best jobs in the world must be the Formula One pit stop crew , in particular the wheel changers. This is how it's done.
"Wheel changing: Each wheel has two crew members. One operates the compressed air-driven gun that removes the single, central retaining nut. The other removes the old wheel and fits the new. The gun man then re-attaches the nut and tightens it to around 500 lb/ft (pounds per foot). The wheel nut and the socket of the gun are magnetised to prevent the nut falling to the ground. This whole process takes around three seconds."
Three seconds! And I think nowadays there are 3 wheel changers, not 2, so that means 1 second of work per person!
"To prevent the nuts working loose, the right-hand side of the car uses right-handed threads, the left-hand side of the car left-sided threads. This means that the guns of the right and left sides have to work in opposite ways. Teams usually color code them to denote which is which. Each wheel man has a spare gun with him and usually a couple of spare wheel nuts too, just in case.
Imagine, you get to travel to all the F1 locations and during the race, probably spend a total of 30 seconds of doing actual work. This is assuming it takes you 1 second to take off that tyre, and you do this probably 6 times in a race, and perhaps another 10 times during qualifying heats including training, give or take a couple of seconds - 30 seconds!
From the "Anatomy of a Formula One PitStop"
Jordan Ford Team - Careers in Formula
Absolutely Formula One
# posted by saa73 : 12:49 AM
