Red Bull staged a pit stop competition on Wednesday morning downtown Montreal so the medias could get their hands dirty in changing the tires of a Formula 1 car!
Two participants changed simultaneously the two front wheels of a genuine Red Bull F1 car that has been cut in half for the purpose of the competition. It's the real stuff.
Donna Mei-Ling Park, host of the Auto123.com Show and I formed the Auto123.com team.
Changing the tire consisted in unscrewing the single nut using the air gun, changing the wheel and putting the nut back. Yep, sound easy to me.
However, the air gun is heavy, and so is the wheel! And you must remember to put the air gun in reverse to tighten the wheel after you put it back!
Everything was running well for me until I heard the aluminium nut fall on the ground! I quickly picked it up and managed to finish the work in just 14 seconds. Donna had a little more difficulties and finished her work in 16 seconds. The record was 11 seconds...
It was a lot of fun and nevertheless very stressful. You want to do it right, but it's not easy... especially when you're just one person doing the tire change. I can now imagine what the crew members feel when the car stops for the tire change.
Two participants changed simultaneously the two front wheels of a genuine Red Bull F1 car that has been cut in half for the purpose of the competition. It's the real stuff.
Donna Mei-Ling Park, host of the Auto123.com Show and I formed the Auto123.com team.
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| Photo: Philippe Champoux/Auto123.com |
Changing the tire consisted in unscrewing the single nut using the air gun, changing the wheel and putting the nut back. Yep, sound easy to me.
However, the air gun is heavy, and so is the wheel! And you must remember to put the air gun in reverse to tighten the wheel after you put it back!
Everything was running well for me until I heard the aluminium nut fall on the ground! I quickly picked it up and managed to finish the work in just 14 seconds. Donna had a little more difficulties and finished her work in 16 seconds. The record was 11 seconds...
It was a lot of fun and nevertheless very stressful. You want to do it right, but it's not easy... especially when you're just one person doing the tire change. I can now imagine what the crew members feel when the car stops for the tire change.
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