How the Williams F1 team used biometrics to make Formula One's fastest pitstop

Pitstops have always been a part of Formula One, and consist of tyre changes and setup tweaks, but in the past they used to include refuelling. That meant they'd take several seconds to finish, and it didn't really matter how long it took to change the tyres as the fuel always took longer. But since 2010, refuelling has been banned from Formula 1. That means getting the tyres swapped over as soon as possible can get you in and out faster than your rivals – and hopefully ahead of them.

However, it's not just speed – consistency is important, too. “There's no point us doing a sub-two second pitstop and the next one being five or six seconds,” explains Gemma Fisher, Williams' human performance specialist. “In order to undercut rivals and plan your position on track, we need to know that we can rely on those guys to perform at a certain level.”