Other than the track itself, the Formula 1 pitwall is one of the most hectic places during the course of a race weekend. Typically seating up to 8 people, the trackside datacenter plays a temporary home to a mix of race engineers, strategists, and/or team executives.
However, for 2023, Haas has come up with a reduced-size pitwall that only seats 3 versus their usual 6, and it’s projected to save them around $250,000 that they can reinvest back into developing their car, the VF-23. The ingenious solution comes as a result of the recently implemented cost cap, which limits teams’ spending to $135 million. And as one of the smaller teams on the grid, Haas can use every extra dollar they can get.
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If you’re wondering how removing 3 spaces from the pitwall saves $250,000, the answer is that the savings don’t just come from the smaller unit itself, they also stem from the reduced cost of transport. If the pitwall is traveling to 23 races across 20 countries, with trips occurring as frequently as once a week, shipping expenses add up quick, and carrying a pitwall that’s half the size of their standard one would help reduce those expenses.
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“When you need to make efficiencies, you look at everything, but not efficiency, when you need money to invest in development because we have the cost cap, where do you put it?” said Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner. “We have six people out there, or a quarter of a million on car updates? I know what we are doing, and the guys came up with that idea. If I need to stay inside, I have no problem to as well. I don’t need to be there. With three seats, we can cover what we need to cover and we rearrange.”