Gone in 2s: a deep dive into perfection analysing the collaborative maintenance pitstop of Formula 1

Purpose–The paper aims to convert into useable guidelines, the knowledge related to human factors andtasks’organisation, which are embedded in one of the most exciting maintenance actions that are carried out,the pitstop in Formula 1 races.Design/methodology/approach–The paper opted for a fault tree analysis (FTA) to de-construct all the sub-tasks and their possible deviations from desirable situations and to evaluate the most relevant informationneeded for carrying out the pitstop operation. Besides, the SHELL model was applied in a second stage toevaluate the interaction between human being and human interfaces with other components of the system.Once this set of information was crystallised, the research translated it into useable guidelines for organisingindustrial maintenance actions using the same approach and possible reaching the same results.Findings–The results of this study is a structured set of guidelines that encompasses the most paramountaspects that should be considered for setting correct maintenance actions. They represent a“guide”forincluding the different angles that are included during these operations.Research limitations/implications–The guidelines are potentially applicable to every maintenance operation.The guidelines should be tested on different working domains to check their applicability besides the racing world.Practical implications–This study is a reverse engineering work for creating a scheme to include intomaintenance operations aspects such as crew athlete-like fitness, training, technology, organisational issues,safety, ergonomics and psychology.Originality/value–The value of the paper is deconstructing the results of one of the most successful andprepared maintenance action. The paper takes a different approach in proposing how to structure and createmaintenance solutions. The difference in approaches between the maintenance during the pitstop of Formula 1car and industrial applications enhances the gap that needs still to be filled for further improving maintenanceactions out of the racing world.