How Pit Stop Strategies Win Races

Article reviewed and updated by Jack Renn, July 2026.

• F1 teams must use at least two different tyre compounds in a dry race, which forces a minimum of one pit stop and turns tyre timing into a strategic weapon
• Lewis Hamilton’s switch to a two-stop at Hungary 2019 and Charles Leclerc’s one-stop gamble at Monza 2024 both show how the right call on the pit wall beats faster cars on track
• Modern F1 pit stops take under three seconds, with the current record at 1.80 seconds set by McLaren for Lando Norris at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix

Why The Right Pit Wall Call Decides Grands Prix

Formula 1 races are decided as much on the pit wall as on track. How pit stop strategies win races comes down to three calls the team must get right: when to pit, how many times to stop, and which tyre compound to fit at each visit. A well-timed stop can gain a driver positions without overtaking a single car on the circuit, while a misjudged one can cost a World Drivers’ Championship contender a podium.

Pirelli supplies five dry-weather tyre compounds for the F1 season, labelled C1 (hardest) through C5 (softest). For each race weekend, three consecutive compounds from that range are selected and relabelled as hard, medium, and soft. This means the hard tyre at one circuit may be a completely different compound from the hard at another. Drivers must use at least two different compounds during a dry race, which guarantees a minimum of one pit stop and turns tyre selection into a strategic lever.

The two most common tactical moves are the undercut and the overcut. An undercut involves pitting earlier than a rival, fitting fresh tyres, and using the grip advantage to lap faster while the rival stays out on worn rubber. At the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri pitted one lap before McLaren teammate Lando Norris and the fresh-tyre pace advantage was so large that Norris lost the position permanently. The overcut works in reverse: a driver stays out longer, betting that a rival’s new tyres will take a lap or two to reach optimal temperature and that the gap built during the warm-up phase will be enough to stay ahead.

Safety car periods and red flags can reshape a race’s strategic picture in seconds. When the field bunches up behind the safety car, the time lost by pitting drops dramatically because the cars are already circulating slowly. Teams that react fastest to a safety car deployment can gain 15 to 20 seconds over rivals who stay out, which is why pit wall engineers monitor marshalling signals as closely as they monitor tyre data.

How Pit Stop Strategies Win Races In Practice

At the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton trailed Max Verstappen after both drivers had pitted once for hard tyres. Hamilton attacked for several laps but could not find a way past. With the gap to third place large enough to allow a free stop, Mercedes called Hamilton in on lap 48 for fresh medium tyres with 22 laps remaining. He was still 15 seconds behind Verstappen with 14 laps to go, but fresh medium rubber against ageing hards was closing the gap at over a second per lap. Hamilton overtook Verstappen into Turn 1 on lap 67 and won the race, extending his lead in the championship. A locked-in second place became a victory purely because Mercedes abandoned its one-stop plan and committed to a two-stop mid-race.

Charles Leclerc won the 2024 Italian Grand Prix at Monza with the opposite approach. McLaren locked out the front row in qualifying, but Leclerc passed Norris on the opening lap to take second behind Piastri. Ferrari pitted Leclerc early for hard tyres, gambling that he could run them to the end of the 53-lap race in 52°C track temperatures. The gamble paid off. Norris and Piastri stopped twice, and despite having fresher rubber in the closing stages, neither could close the gap. Leclerc won by 2.6 seconds from Piastri, giving Ferrari its first victory at Monza since 2019.

McLaren used the same one-stop approach to win the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris dropped to fifth on the opening lap but pitted on lap 31 for hard tyres and committed to a 39-lap final stint while his rivals stopped twice. The strategy put enormous pressure on his tyres in the closing laps, and teammate Piastri closed a 12-second gap to just 0.698 seconds by the chequered flag. McLaren even timed Piastri’s second stop to bait Ferrari’s Leclerc into pitting a lap later, dropping him from podium contention entirely. Norris held on for McLaren’s 200th grand prix victory.

The Crew That Executes In Under Two Seconds

A strategy’s value depends on the crew that carries it out. Each pit stop involves roughly 20 people working in coordination: three per wheel (one on the pneumatic gun, one to remove the old tyre, one to fit the new one), a front and rear jack operator, two stabilisers to hold the car steady, and a fire extinguisher operator standing by. Teams share a single pit crew across both cars, which is why double-stacking (pitting both drivers on the same lap) demands split-second timing.

The fastest pit stop in F1 history is 1.80 seconds, set by McLaren for Norris at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. Red Bull previously held the record at 1.82 seconds for Verstappen at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. For context, stops in the refuelling era routinely lasted seven to eight seconds, and early F1 pit stops could exceed 30 seconds. The pit lane speed limit is 80 km/h at all circuits except Monaco, where the tight pit lane reduces it to 60.

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Pit Stop FAQs

Sources

• 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Wikipedia
• 2024 Italian Grand Prix, Wikipedia
• 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, Wikipedia

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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