F1 Explains: inside a garage during a Grand Prix

0:05Hello everybody, welcome to F1 Explains, the official Formula 1 podcast that's here to unpick, unravel and demystify the wonderful world of Formula 1. My name is Christian Hewgill and we're nearly there. We nearly got through it. I'm very excited to say that racing is back next weekend. I'm excited not just because I've missed Formula 1 racing, of course I have, but because we're going to Miami. Always one of my favourite racers of the year. If you've been with us for a while, you'll know I always say that. It's one of my favourites, not just because we're recording another live show this year.

0:37More details on that a little bit later on in the programme. But also we've done some seriously cool stuff. And at last year's Miami Grand Prix, we recorded a very special episode with Haas. We had exclusive access to the team on race day. this is what happens inside a team during a Grand Prix.

1:02Pet crew, stand by, stand by. Box to slap, box to slap. Every single mechanic in front of me has just put their helmets on. Pet crew, 20 seconds. Everybody shot up from their seats instantly. It was a case of go, go, go. We prime everybody individually, physically for the stops. Even down to the last lap, you've got to stay ready. We've got nearly 70 different intercom channels. They're looking at live feed, best lap times from competitors, telemetry and data. It all comes together in the garage. The garage is a Formula One team's home. Yes, the racing happens on track. Yes, the drivers do the overtaking.

1:45But none of that could happen without the dozens of people who work here in the garage. It's an important place and of course, you've got questions about it. Hi Christian, it's Catherine from Pennsylvania. I have a question for you. What happens in an F1 garage during a race? Love the podcast. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine. Thank you to everyone who sends questions to F1explains at F1.com. We will answer them right here on F1 Explains. I'm Christian Hugill and this, what you're hearing now, is a little bit of podcasting history. We're going to be recording this episode inside a Formula One garage during a Formula One Grand Prix.

2:32That has never been done before. Now, usually the only people allowed into a team garage during the race are the mechanics who get the cars ready to race, the strategists who plant pit stops and the pit crew who of course change the tyres in a blink of an eye plus you do occasionally get some vip guests as well so we're with has america's formula one team here in miami it is of course one of the team's home racers and we thank them very much for letting us do this for letting us hopefully not get in the way this is where we're going to be during the Grand Prix. You will hear what happens inside this garage.

3:13And we're going to put your questions to the Haas engineers, the mechanics, the pit crew, the strategists, who all have really important jobs while the race is going on. Who knew there were more important jobs while the race is going on than recording podcasts? So the two white, black and red cars were just a second ago immediately in front of us. As I've been talking to you, the engines have been fired up and the drivers of course Esteban Ocon and Oli Behrman have put their helmets on and they've climbed in they've just this second driven out the pit lane and in front of me now I can see all the other teams doing what has for a little bit sooner to do than most of the others leave the garage and get onto the grid now Esteban starts this race 9th which gives him a solid chance of finishing in the top 10 I would say and scoring points Ollie Bearman is starting from the back in 19th, so it'll be a recovery drive for him, and that is nothing he's not done before.

4:11He scored points from the back before this season. So, out in front of me is the garage. What can I see here? I can see, and this will shock you guys, I can see lots and lots of people busily looking at screens. Men and women wearing the black and red shirts. Some people are lifting things up and putting them down. Bits of equipment. Some people are analysing every screen. there's a man in front of me at the very start with a good old-fashioned toolbox putting it onto a stool it is the very definition of a Formula One garage getting ready for lights out now of course all 10 teams have a garage each Haas are about two-thirds of the way along the pit lane they're in between Alpine and Racing Bulls and we have a quick list of questions about that Chris Chris is in Houston, in Texas.

5:00He asks how the order of the garages is decided. Well, at almost every race, including Miami, it's done in the order the team's finished in last year's Constructors' Championships. So reigning champions McLaren are at one end, Sauber, who finished last in the championship, are at the other.

5:22Now, before the race, as I've just been explaining, the garage is a hive of activity. Just a few moments ago, there were mechanics buzzing around the cars. One of those mechanics is Matt Thompson. He's the number one mechanic on Ollie Behrman's car. He's also a member of the pit crew. He uses a wheel gun to loosen the old tyre and then tighten the new one. More on that later. But first, he told us what he does in moments like we've just witnessed when the car leaves the garage to head to the starting grid. The garage prep sort of starts in the morning and then the real bit sort of starts 10 minutes before where we go to the grid, the tyres get fitted to the car, and obviously we get everyone ready to go to the grid with all the correct kit and stuff.

6:03Matt, we've had a listener question for you. This is from Rebecca, who's in Sydney in Australia. Rebecca asks, why do the drivers have to be buckled into the car by someone else? Are the seatbelts so different to normal road car seatbelts so they can't fasten themselves in? Maybe they're just lazy, is that what it is? They just don't like doing it themselves. I'm sure they probably would like to do it themselves. No, it's a safety thing. So the belts are basically non-adjustable. So they're custom made to the length that the driver needs. And that's if someone has to buckle them in because there's no adjustment on them.

6:32But presumably in a situation where they need to get out quickly, they can do that themselves. So they can release them themselves, yeah. That's important. Now, we are now going to bring in the Haas team physio, making a very welcome return to F1, explains. Faith Atak-Martin. Faith, lovely to see you in person down on the ground here in the garage. Welcome back. Thank you. Nice to be back. It's lovely to see you. Now, Faith, another person you are who has a crucial role in the garage. How will the guys have warmed up? How will they be ready for this? Well, we'll be ready first thing in the morning when we do pit stop practice.

7:04So usually Sunday mornings are a sequence of five or six stops to really prime everybody individually, physically for the stops. And part of that practice is a warm up. So we aim to dynamically stretch all the muscle groups and activate certain muscle groups in order to be ready for practice. that happens several hours before the race and then they'll not warm up again from that point. Matt Faith, we will catch up with you once the race gets underway. Thank you for now. Thank you. So 11 minutes to go until lights out. You know I mentioned a little earlier that sometimes there are VIP guests in the garage during the race.

7:45Just being guided in next to me now wearing a Haas black cap is Jon Bon Jovi. legendary rock singer of course just for our younger listeners our house living on a prayer today

8:06so matt and the mechanics have left the garage and are now with the car on the starting grid that's where they are now and the mechanics will soon be running it sprinting back to the garage so they're ready just in case they need to do a very early pit stop. But what's happening right now in the garage? We have got 32 minutes until the race starts and the mechanics' helmets, their water bottles are in front of me now being laid out on chairs in rows in front of us here in the garage. And by the way, these chairs, it looks like these two people who are putting out the chairs are just sitting out chairs for a school assembly.

8:44They're not. All of the chairs are set up So each member of the pit crew can get up and get ready for a pit stop as efficiently as possible. So they're making sure that the person who has the furthest to go isn't at the back, for example. Reducing the chances of bumping into each other. The intention to detail is incredible. Each one of these chairs has a person allocated to it. You can't just sit anywhere. You can't just sit anywhere, you know. Everything's thought of. Now, another person with a big garage-related job is Mark Lowe. He is the sporting director here at Haas. I asked him all about what he does and why a Formula One team's garage is such an important place.

9:25The garage really is the hub of the operation through the weekend. Everything comes together within the garage. So we've got engineers based in the office and we've got support teams based in the UK and Italy. But it all comes together in the garage. Throughout the weekend, we are limited by regulation to how many people we can actually have working on the car in terms of running the car. And that's not just mechanics, that's also the engineering team as well. So we're limited to 58 people that can actually be part of the operation of the car. We can bring many, many more people, such as marketing, communications, hospitality staff, but we're limited by how many people we can actually use to run the car itself.

10:07You're the sporting director at Haas, and you'll forgive me for saying this, Mark, there are a lot of job titles in Formula One. that like you hear, oh, they're the sporting director. And yet if someone asked me to go, what's a sporting director do? I'd sort of be like, do you know, I'm not exactly sure. So you hear the term sporting director. What is a sporting director doing during a race? What does that mean? My role here is to make sure that we're abiding by the sporting rules, the procedures regarding the start procedure or a red flag procedure, for example, making sure that the team is fully versed with what happens in those situations.

10:43Lovely to hear from Mark there. Here on the ground in Miami, we have just heard a loud klaxon that sounded across the entire pit lane. We could hear it in the garage. What that means is there is five minutes to go until the start of the race. Now, that's the point that you at home get very excited because you see the Formula One opening titles on the television. Now, anything can happen in a race and there are so many rules to follow. It's Mark's job to make sure the team doesn't break any of the regulations because that could lead to a race-rewinning penalty. Nobody wants that. He's got one more very important job to do, which we'll ask him about in a moment.

11:25But let's put that to one side for now because, as we've said, there's now just minutes until the Grand Prix starts. and we are starting to see in front of us, as promised, the mechanics arrive back in the garage. Some of them are checking out their helmets in front of me, which have been placed lovingly on the seats with water next to them to make sure the mechanics are hydrated as the race goes on. More and more of them arriving back into the garage now as two members of the crew wheel in some tyres, which are being put over on Ollie's side of the garage. At this point at home, it's around about the time that the commentators will be telling you who's starting where on the grid.

12:13It's race day in America. The Formula One World Championship returns to Miami. This is round six in 2025, and our grid has been draped in celebrity. It is now time for the main event. This is Grand Prix Sunday. here we go then you know we're getting close to lights out because the cars have left their positions on the grid to do the formation lap and what i really like about this is already the sense of camaraderie in the garage i've just seen two mechanics give each other one of those high fives where you then grab onto each other afterwards and give each other a hug gene each other up for the race a little bit of a good look mate yeah good luck to you too as they start so they have done that and then taken their seats in front of me to watch the race start and this is the bit where even though everybody in this garage has got a job to do everybody feels a little bit hopeless even these mechanics in front of me all they can do despite all the hard work they've had this weekend is just sit and wait their hands have gone up into the air a signal to suggest they're ready they're in position just in case they were needed to be called upon super early they're now sat down but as i say right now nothing more they could do this is the moments where our 20 superheroes earned their money and these mechanics at this moment are just like us watching intently for the start of the race.

13:49I do like this bit. Every single mechanic is now back in position. The drivers are about two-thirds of the way around the formation lap. The thing that's just dawned on me is how quiet the garage is. There's such a tension. And it's, maybe tension's the wrong word, it's more focus. because this place, we've obviously been here for about an hour recording before the race start. It's been a hive of activity. There's been laughter. There's been camaraderie. There's been music. There's been engine noise. And now, as our pole sitter, Max Verstappen is the first car to park up in his grid box. All is quiet.

14:36All is calm. Everybody's cool. Focus purely on their job.

14:46And of course, guiding us through all of these moments is Alex Jenks. Last car on the grid is Oliver Bearman. And here we go. Green flag at the back means it's time to look to the lights in Miami. And the Miami Grand Prix is underway. A good reaction time for the top three. It's Max Verstappen holding the lead, but he locks up. And Lando Norris is going to have the chance to get on the power. The two rivals are side by side, but Verstappen got his elbows out and maintains T1. We have had a fascinating first lap in Miami. Up at the front, Max Verstappen held the lead despite challenges from Kimi Antonelli and Lanzo Norris, who's dropped to sixth.

15:31But here in the garage, it has. All has been calm. Esteban Ocon is doing a solid job. He's stayed in the top ten during the opening lap. Everybody here will be very happy with that. Ollie Behrman has made up a few places as well and is in 16th. So the scene in front of me is calm. Everybody looking at the monitors, smiles on faces, relaxed, chatting. So far, so good for the two Haas drivers. So with the race underway, what is sporting director Mark's biggest challenge now? It's really just trying to keep abreast of all the communication channels that we've got. Although I'm not on all of them.

16:08Thank goodness for you. Yeah, exactly. I'm on a lot of those channels and there's a lot of different conversations going on for either side of the garage and by that I mean the engineering team for one car is separate for the engineering team on the other car we've obviously got a plan of when we're going to carry out our pit stops that's all very fluid depending on the situation so it's very important that I keep up to date with where we're at in our race it's my job to not only bring the crew out from the garage to do the pit stop but also inform them of what that flap angle needs to be so that's the uh turns for the front wing flap so it's plus will be up minus will be down mark um i'd like to put one of our listeners questions to you if that's okay this one has come in from annika who's in finland uh hi annika she says what's the purpose of a pit wall and obviously those are the seats on the wall between the pit lane and the racetrack you see three or four people sitting there during a race looking at screens so what are they doing and why are they not in the garage mark well the pit wall could almost be described as a track side mission control as such so the reason for having it out there is that we can actually see what's going on in the pit lane we can look and see what's going on directly in the garages on both sides in terms of the people that are sitting on there there's myself as sporting director there's the chief race engineer we've got the strategist on the pit wall and then we've got our team principal as well.

17:34And a similar question actually from Fabio. Fabio asks how the team members in the garage communicate and I'm guessing part of that is communicating from garage to pit wall. Exactly that. So all the mechanics are on radio so they've got earpieces that are moulded to their ears and they actually go inside their helmets so when they've got the helmets on for the pit stops they've actually got moulded earpieces. Each side of the garage will listen to their specific driver so Oli's team of mechanics will listen to Oli and his engineer talking. Esteban's will listen to Esteban and his engineer. But they'll also both be able to hear me.

18:09So when I broadcast on our global channel, both sets of mechanics hear that. We've got nearly 70 different intercom channels, internal communication channels that we use. But to the outside world, only the driver radio channel actually gets broadcast. So for the viewers watching at home, they're only actually going to listen to the driver and their engineer. There's many, many different communication channels that are happening in the background. And that's how we as a team communicate. Not just because it's a very noisy environment and you need to have headsets on, but also because different groups of people in different locations all around the world all need to speak to each other at the same time.

18:53So, for example, the tyre groups, there may be engineers that are spread all over the world and in the vicinity of the circuit as well, as in the office or in the garage. And then the same as the strategists. The strategists aren't necessarily listening to the same information that the electronics engineers want to be talking about. So everyone's on separate intercom channels so that they can carry out their communications as effectively as possible. if we're all internally speaking on one radio channel it would uh yeah well it wouldn't work we're like one of those meetings at work where everyone talks over each other we've all been in one of those yeah one of the biggest challenges is listening to multiple conversations that are happening all at the same time and not missing an important piece of information for example if a safety car comes out there's a lot of discussion about should we stop should we not stop and that might be happening on both sides of the garage the strategies to be talking about it if it's a very late call depending on where we are on the circuit if a safety car comes out it's important that i've caught that information from the strategists and the engineers and also the drivers if the drivers are suddenly feeding back that they're going to box if i miss that the mechanics won't be in the pit lane in the right time and then the pit stops delayed i can see mark out on the pit wall at the moment meanwhile in the garage all remains calm lots of steely determination on the faces of the mechanics in front of me looking at the screens one of my favorite formula one quotes was from the late great murray walker the commentator he once said anything can happen in formula one and it usually does so everyone in this garage has to be ready for any events a crash the weather and there is actually a chance of rain in this race we've been given some exclusive access to hass information as this race happens and they've told us that their weather radar which teams usually keep top secret so there's the potential of rain in around 10 minutes time so that's one to keep an eye on that is something that's going to be feeding in to the strategist's mind now up front there's a battle for the lead Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen really are going for it but that's not really any concern of the strategists on the pit wall in front of me now what they're concentrating on is their own battle and actually sometimes when it's not a hundred percent clear which is the best way to go forward teams will split their strategy those strategies study the data they crunch the numbers they work out the thousands of possible ways the race could happen and then they make a series of plans for the most likely scenario so in this case has have decided to split their strategy They have decided to put Oli Behrman, who's starting towards the back, on the harder tyre to start the race, hoping he can do a longer first stint and make up places.

21:46Meanwhile, Esteban, who needs to be competitive right from the off, is on the quicker but less durable medium tyre. That's got the yellow logo on the tyre. The hard has the white. So two different strategies at play for the Haas team during this race. They have to bear that in mind with anything that happens live on track that could impact them. Now, Ed Brand is a strategy engineer here at Haas. Right now, he's in a deep conversation with his fellow strategists. So what are they talking about in the early stages of this Grand Prix? As soon as the race gets underway, we have to look at our position, see where we're at, and basically work out the best race scenario for us.

22:29So obviously, if we're in a good position or points position, we want to try and secure that place. And if we're outside of the points, we want to do everything we can to be able to get into it. So after that one, that's kind of what our thinking is of how we can best optimise our race to get into the points. I like constantly thinking about points straight away. Points mean prizes. Let's put one of our listener questions to you. Dominic is from Germany. Dominic wants to know where all the data comes from, which helps you come up with that strategy. Yeah, so basically we have a software called RaceWatch.

23:02and that will run it during the during the race it basically runs hundreds of thousands of sims and then that will tell us live it will take into account what tires we have left um what tires others have left the pace that we're running at the pace that others are running at and basically it works all that out and we'll basically spit a number out that is best for us to box obviously it sounds simple that software is doing it all for us um but anything can throw up you know a safety car can be thrown up at any point and that changes everything we have to take that into account as well which the software doesn't there's lots more to it than just sort of the software of where the data goes there's sort of reading the race and being able to understand what what's best for us still if something happens let's say we're approaching the first pit stop how late do you finally decide okay this is when it's happening this is what we're doing so there's a few different scenarios one can be if we're 100 certain or we're alone we're under no threat from an undercut behind or trying to undercut anyone ahead we have like a call point where we call the drivers which is normally before the last corner but if we are racing and we don't want someone to know or whether we're doing some you know it's a late call we also have a late box point which is the latest we can call the driver to let them know we're boxing and as a strategy engineer you're on the pit wall right yes but you're also relying on people in here in the garage so tell us why and how so for us we do the easy bit we call the car to box we've made that decision but then obviously we're relying on on all the guys that are currently behind us to to be able to do the pit stops you know they have to be ready they have to know which tire to choose um so basically everything all the tires are in here and the next tires we call it lit there's basically a light above it um and we have to make sure that that's the correct selected tire which the engineer selects so that's down to the engineer to make sure that that's correctly lit um and then it's down to the mechanics to get the correct tire and we've seen it before we've had it before and other teams have had it before where they've selected the wrong tire mechanics have ran out and um either actually fitted the wrong tire or had to run back in and change it you guys have got so many variables to think about so many different variables so many different systems so many different people i struggle to concentrate on what someone's saying to me whilst sending an email i just can't do it how do you do it it scares me yeah it's um there's a lot of people talking there's a lot of radio channels um as well as us from from the strategy point we are also listening to other competitors as well so we obviously we want to know when they're boxing um so yeah there's a lot of channels and and you you kind of have to just listen for your name you know that that's the big thing is if someone says your name you you get so accustomed to hearing that that you naturally then go straight to it.

25:45So if somebody wants us, they will call our name before they ask the question. So that's the biggest thing of communication is making sure that we've heard what they're saying and you just have to pronounce that person's name to make sure that they can hear you first. It's a good lesson for life, I think, isn't it? Just wait until you hear your name and then you probably want to do something. Yes. Yeah, great. Again, I'm learning a lot. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much. Good luck with listening for your name this weekend. Perfect. Thank you very much. All that comes with it. We'll go back to the battle for the lead because we're going to go side by side again.

26:17The world champion versus the championship leader into the first turn. It's late on the brakes for Max Verstappen. He keeps the lead for the moment, but Piastri powers by. Well, the Miami Grand Prix has a new race leader. The crowds here in the United States have just gone absolutely wild as Oscar Piastri, showing he's more than capable of getting his elbows out, has forced his way past. the world champion Max Verstappen to take the lead. So I can see lots of conversation and lots of interest on the screens that are placed right in the middle of the garage. The garage is, of course, separated into Oli's side to my left and Esteban's side to the right.

26:57The screens are in the middle, and there is lots of interest on those screens and lots of conversations going on between those three people who I can see in front of me and the pit wall 10 yards or so from them across the pit lane. Just to the left of the screens in the middle of the garage, there are stacks and stacks of tyres. They've got blankets around them. They've got in big black letters with a big red highlighter, front left or front right or whatever the case may be. And as strategy engineer Ed said, those black round rubber things are crucial. How long they last, how long they stay grippy or in a wet race, which this could well be.

27:36how well they clear water determines when pit stops happen. Changing tyres at the right time can be the difference between scoring points and going home empty-handed. There are people in this garage right now who are thinking of nothing but tyres, like tyre science engineer Yuta Kimura. It is Yuta's job to study the tyres on the car, out on track, and see how they're performing. So how does he do that? We have some sensors on the wheel measuring the tyre temperature so we can actually monitor the tyre temperature pressure the basic condition of the tyre when car is running from the telemetry data and then obviously when tyre is coming back we visually monitor the tyre to assess the condition of the tyre.

28:23So the telemetry presumably is putting up live data and information on your screens right as the drivers are on track? Yeah every second And we got the data from the car. And then on live, we can monitor all the temperature and then tyre operating condition. How important is it to then sort of see it with your own eyes? That is also useful information sometimes, especially when the tyre is coming back. Then we can actually visually check the tyre with the Piret engineer. And that is the most useful information for us. We've got a question from one of our listeners. Tommy asks, how do the teams pick which tyres to use at each point during the race?

29:01Now, this must be, you know, an important part of your job. Yeah, it really depends on the strategy as well. So we decide and we discuss together with the strategy engineer, but we pick up the best tyre for the given stint ranks we were thinking about. And then we kind of assess the data from the free practice session. So we kind of know which tyre is the best for a certain amount of the stint. You've got all this data. It's on screens. You're seeing it on the tyres. You're talking to the strategists. Now, is that a team effort? as to decide which strategy, which tyre, or does that fall on one particular person to go, I'm making this decision?

29:37It's down to the team's work, so we always communicate very quickly, and then every time, every lap, we communicate to strategy engineer what's the best plan for the race. And be honest, you can be honest with us, is there ever any bickering there, or are you always completely unified in which way to go? We sometimes have a different opinion, but we always unite to the one decision, and when we made the decision, that's the team's decision. So that's how we work together. Good luck with those decisions. Thank you very much. We'll try best. Thank you. Great to hear from Jutta. I can see him right in front of me as we speak.

30:14Now, Haas have been incredible with the access they've given us, but obviously we're not going to speak to their team during the Grand Prix. Jutta has far better things to do. At the moment, he's in a conversation with Laura Muller, Esteban Ocon's race engineer. how often do we hear drivers on the team radio telling the team that their tires have worn out now utah is the one studying the data to see exactly how many more laps they're last telling ed and the strategists when they need to call a pit stop and as that pit stop approaches it's over to the people who actually get the tires ready to go on the car max cooper is one of them He's a tyre technician here at Haas.

30:57And a big part of the job is keeping the tyres at the perfect temperature because warm tyres are grippy. They do that by using heated tyre blankets, which wrap around the tyres. Here's Max with more on that. Our blankets are set to 70 degrees. And then before the session, if we think that they might not be up to 70, we can rip the blanket open slightly and check them with a heat gun. Engineer will come and check it to make sure they're where they need to be. if we need to make any adjustments we can do it on the uh the monitor box fantastic now brian in florida is a listener to f1 explains he says i noticed that teams often lay their tire blankets back on top of the tires before the car leaves the garage why is this it's very observant isn't it it is that's to purely keep heat in the tires so the second you take a blanket off it loses heat very quickly so the mechanics who do the tires in the garage will wrap it around as much as they can trying to keep the heat in for as long as possible.