Ferrari have revealed their masterplan to reduce pit stop errors in F1 in 2023, that includes 1,000 practice pit stops ahead of the start of the season and an even more ambitious target than they set for 2022.
Though Red Bull ended 2022 with clearly the fastest car, Ferrari were equal with their rivals for much of the season and it was edges in strategy and reliability that prevented them from staying in the championship fight for longer.
While most of their pit-stop blunders were to do with calls from the pit wall rather than the pit crew themselves, Red Bull had five of the six fastest stops of the season and led F1’s pit stop rankings, scoring twice as many points as Ferrari.
“From my experience I’ve understood that you don’t win GPs because of pit stops, but you can lose them because of pit stops,” Diego Ioverno, Head of Vehicle Operations at Ferrari, told Motorsport Italy.
“It is now essential for us to raise the average level of the team because problems in the pits have often happened during staff rotations.
“This championship will be the longest I have ever known. Versatility is also highlighted now.”
How much do Ferrari need to improve?
Ferrari aimed for 80% of their pitstops to be under three seconds in 2022 and although they failed to reach that mark, they’ve upped the ante again for 2023.
With a record-breaking 23 races on the upcoming calendar, they’ve loosened their targets for pit stops under four seconds from 3 to 4%, but are still aiming to shore up that phase of racing under new team principal Fred Vasseur.
“We made 73 per cent of our stops in under three seconds last year, but it’s not enough,” Ioverno added. “The target was 80 per cent and we didn’t get there.
“Below three seconds, with these tyres, you are really very good. Above four seconds is bad and between the two is average. For 2023, we want to reach 84 per cent of stops under three seconds.
“We do not want more than nine per cent of missed stops above 4.5 seconds. Mercedes, to give a benchmark, only have four per cent of missed stops but they are a bit slower than us on average.”
The Scuderia managed the highest proportion of pit stops under three seconds in 2022 (73% compared to 71% for Red Bull).
