Gabriel Bortoleto is driving 210 miles per hour when he loses control of his car. The green Sauber slams into a concrete wallflies through the air, crashes into the fence on the other side of the circuit and comes to a stop about thirty meters away. Bortoleto is fine, but his car is in total ruins. Even the steering wheel is broken, the Brazilian holds it loosely in his hands.
Yet three hours after the worst crash of the season, in early November in the last lap of the sprint race in Bortoleto’s home city of São Paulo, there is another car ready for him. Not a ready-made example that was taken from storage somewhere, no: a new car that the mechanics put together in record time.
Such strong performances occur regularly in Formula 1. Almost always, a seriously crashed driver can return to the track the next day – or even a few hours later – in a patched-up car. How do F1 teams achieve that so quickly?
It all starts with a group of mechanics in the pits watching a TV and suddenly seeing a shot of their own car in a thousand pieces. “Your first thought is: oh dear. But that lasts ten seconds,” says Stuart Cramp in a video call. Until 2019, he was chief mechanic at “The disappointment turns into: how are we going to handle this? And then the adrenaline starts to kick in.”
It usually takes a while for the wreckage to be returned to the pits. In the meantime, the team will start assessing the damage. Firstly, by studying the TV images. “Sometimes it’s obvious what you need to fix, because the whole wheel is hanging off,” said Ollie Middleton, first mechanic on Carlos Sainz’s car at Williams, during a conversation at the Spa circuit. “But there are some things you can’t see.” Technicians behind the computer analyzing the information from the hundreds of sensors in and on the car therefore immediately send a signal if they can see from the data that a part is broken.
As soon as the crashed car is back in the pit box, it is further dismantled. A handful of mechanics perform a thorough check of the specific part of the car for which they are responsible. Not long after, it becomes clear what needs to be repaired or replaced.
The green Sauber with Gabriel Bortoleto on the circuit in Las Vegas.
Photo Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA
Sprinting drivers
In the past, such a repair was less urgent. Teams always took a complete spare car with them, which could be ready to drive within five minutes if necessary. If there was a big crash at the start and the race was stopped, the affected drivers sprinted invariably back to the pits to climb into the spare car for the restart. But to cut costs, spare cars were banned in 2008. Since then, teams have only had a spare copy of the chassis: the extremely strong heart of the car, where the driver sits and all parts – from engine to the nose cone – are attached to.
Because the chassis (also called the monocoque called) is the core of the car, it is crucial for the damage inventory. Damage to mounting points for, for example, the engine or suspension is an immediate no-no. “Then we quickly put it aside and grab the spare chassis,” says Cramp. The mechanics have already attached as many parts as possible to it before the start of the weekend – just in case. “All you have to do is add an engine and a gearbox.” At Bortoleto, Sauber also chose to build a new car around the spare chassis, the team said by email.
But in most cases the damaged car is actually repaired. Also because drivers want that most. “They get attached to their chassis,” says Cramp: a new chassis sometimes feels slightly different on the track than the old one. And if the new chassis accidentally deviates a few millimeters from the damaged one, there is a risk that it will subsequently fail the technical inspection, with disqualification as .
Such a repair is “controlled carnage“, says Middleton; orchestrated chaos. “For example, if you replace a piece of suspension, and someone else repairs a mirror, you are literally working between that person’s legs.” Up to three or four mechanics can work at the same time on ‘, F1 jargon for the entirety of the wheel hub, suspension, disc brake and the rod towards the suspension, which is usually the first to die in a collision. “But at a certain point, people no longer fit in,” says Cramp. “Then you start tripping over each other.” In practice, fifteen mechanics working simultaneously per car is about the maximum.
Some broken parts are replaced, others repaired. The latter especially applies to parts made of carbon fiber – almost the entire exterior of the car. For example, under the floor of the car there are all kinds of wind deflectors, which are attached with a special type of glue that loosens when heated. If damaged, they can easily be exchanged for a new one. Middleton: “Then we don’t have to replace the entire floor.”
All kinds of things contribute to the highest possible repair speed. For example, mechanics know their car so well that, according to Cramp, “they can build it with their eyes closed, so to speak.” In addition, there are checklists that specify exactly how tight each screw should be tightened and which lubricants should be used.
Also read
Famke Wilmink works as a technician in Formula 1: ‘When I started, I was the only woman’
In addition, the design department has already taken ease of repair into account when drawing the car. Sometimes the teams also learn from each other. “For example, when Red Bull replaced that steering arm in Hungary,” says Middleton. In 2020, Max Verstappen crashed in Budapest on the way to the starting line-upafter which his mechanics repaired the left front suspension in twenty minutes, not in the garage, but on the grid. Verstappen was still able to participate and finished on the podium. “Then we thought: how can we do that too?” says Middleton. “We talk to the designers who are working on next year’s car and go through all the what-if scenarios.”
Working ahead is the most important thing when doing repairs. For example, there are always a few complete corners at the back of the garages, which can be brought out if the driver has broken off a wheel. “We screw together such parts of the car in advance, which consist of all kinds of delicate parts,” says Cramp. Front wings, rear wings and all kinds of parts of the body are also directly interchangeable. Typically, F1 teams carry several reserves for each of the thousands of parts per car.
Exciting
If the , there remains a final series of checks to see whether everything has really been repaired. For example, the car is weighed to see how much weight is on each wheel. “If something isn’t right there, you know something is bent somewhere,” says Middleton. Technicians check the gearbox and replace the brake fluid. “When the car drives out of the pits,” says Cramp, “we have 100 percent confidence that everything is going well.”
A crash is “strangely exciting,” says Cramp. In an F1 team, everyone is extremely competitive. “Even if we eat a sandwich, it is still a competition. It is about the feeling of not wanting to be defeated.” Williams mechanic Middleton recognizes that. “On screens in the garage, a clock counts down until the next session. The closer it is, the bigger it is rush. Somehow we always just make it.”
Middleton’s most memorable repair was in Brazil last year, when qualifying was moved to Sunday morning, just hours before the race, due to bad weather. Both Williams drivers flew off the trackwhile there were few spare parts due to previous accidents. The game seemed over. “But after ten minutes we said: no, we are going to arrange this.” The whole team a break was made to make at least one car race-ready from all available parts. With success: Franco Colapinto was able to start. “It was great to see that car driving away for the warm-up lap.”
Unfortunately, Colapinto drove his car into the race to smithereens again. “That was tough,” says Middleton. “Then you have to look for the small bright spots: at least we could start packing nice and early.”
NEW: Give this item as a gift
As an NRC subscriber you can subscribe every month 10 items give as a gift to someone without an NRC subscription. The recipient can read the article directly, without a paywall.
Why you can trust NRC