Red Bull Performs First Ever Pitstop In Zero Gravity Following Interlagos Stint

Red Bull mechanics completed what was officially Formula 1’s fastest ever pit stop at the Brazilian Grand Prix when they changed Max Verstappen’s tires in a staggering 1.82 seconds. Now the team has released footage of them doing a pit stop in zero gravity.

They completed the exercise with the help of Russian space agency Roscosmos aboard an Ilyushin 11-76-MDK cosmonaut training craft.

Using a 2005 spec Red Bull RBI, the team filmed the pit stop over a week, doing seven flights and working around 80 parabolas where the aircraft climbed at 45 degrees before it fell in a ‘ballistic arc at 45 degrees.

The result was a time of artificial weightlessness.

Red Bull mechanic, Paul Knight, said the first parabola they did was quite strange.

There was no sensation of climbing or descending. He added that climbing at 2G, meaning they experienced twice their average weight, felt like being planted on the ground as one struggled to move. The sensation that followed reversed when they went over the top and into freefall.

According to the team, everyone was like Bambi on ice at first as they were struggling to get their bearings. However, they figured out to stabilize themselves and the best way to deal with the unearthly sensations.

Knight claimed it was an amazing experience and nothing that one could imagine.

The support team chief mechanic, Joe Robinson, said it pushed them harder than they could ever imagine.

Apparently, one realizes how much they rely on gravity when there is not any available.

He added that something as straightforward as the tightening of a wheel nut becomes extremely difficult when the vehicle is not tied down and floating.

The only control that a person has is through the stiffness of the ankles tucked into the floor straps.

He said it challenges one to think and operate in different ways. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and he wanted to stay and do it for a longer time.

The RB1 is much smaller than the current generation of Red Bull Formula 1 cars. That makes it easier for them to maneuver and more predictable when it had to be strapped down when gravity retook effect though the team confirmed that the exercise was much harder than they thought.

David Coulthard was the first person to experience zero gravity while in an F1 car in 1999 as part of a promotional campaign with their title sponsor.