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Mercedes GP Design New Front Jack for Quicker Pit Stops

Even though people were expecting sub 3-second pit stops in the season opening race in Bahrain, the time spent by the drivers at the pits were in the vicinity of 3.5 to 4 seconds. Red Bull Racing, Ferrari and Mercedes GP had all announced the introduction of several devices to speed up their pit stops, but each failed to release their drivers within a 3 second margin.

Williams F1 were the first ones to announce that they've done their pit stop in under 3 seconds during the February testing, while Red Bull's Christian Horner told the media that his team of mechanics can manage this in under 2 seconds.

Now Mercedes GP's Ross Brawn comes to tell the reporters that his team will likely improve their pit stops to some 2.5 seconds. According to German weekly Der Spiegel, the Brackley based team is hoping for some under 3.5-second stops from as early as the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, this weekend.

A newly-shaped front jack has been designed so that mechanics can get to work more quickly on removing the old wheels and fitting new ones,” said a report from the GMM news agency, citing the aforementioned German publication. Recently, Ferrari also tested a new wheel nut for their F10's wheels that features an "automatic triggering of its fastener," leading to improved pit stop times.

Additionally, it was confirmed that a spokesman for the Mercedes-backed team told the media that sub-3.5 second will be a “great result” from now on, while “2.5 seconds would be a realistic goal” in the near future – probably until the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
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