Watch McLaren’s incredible world record pit stop

Blink and you’ll miss it. No seriously, blink and you will miss it. On lap 27 of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, the McLaren pit crew broke the world record for an F1 pit stop by fully servicing Lando Norris’s car in 1.80 seconds. What?!

The effort beat the previous benchmark set by the Red Bull team at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2019, when it turned around Max Verstappen’s car in a comparatively lackadaisical 1.82 seconds.

This is despite Pirelli’s tyres getting bigger and heavier since then, as well as the FIA taking various measures to slow pit crews down in the name of safety a couple of years ago.

The speedy turnaround worked a treat too: Lando finished on the podium having started the race 10th on the grid, while teammate Oscar Piastri fared even better having started sixth and finished second.

“A fantastic day for the team as we achieve our 500th podium in Formula 1,” said team principal Andrea Stella. “Both Lando and Oscar drove great races in difficult conditions to finish P2 and P3 to add to the success in the Sprint yesterday.

“The tyre limitations provided an interesting challenge for the team as we had to adapt our strategy and prepare the team for six stops. However, they managed very well and the brilliant work by the pit-stop crew saw the fastest stop of 1.8 seconds.

Ah yes, ‘tyre limitations’. The race was marred by fears that the tyres wouldn’t last on the Lusail track’s aggressive kerbs, so a strict limit of 18 laps per set was imposed as a precaution. Hence why the pit crews were so busy on Sunday.

Clearly practice makes perfect. Click here to marvel at the teamwork on display…