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Pit crews are highly trained athletes who are paid accordingly
ByBruce Brown
Considering that a Formula 1 race car costs about $15 million, it’s reasonable to assume the people who work with them are paid exceptionally well. Watching a Formula 1 pit crew during a pit stop is a near-magical experience. Viewers aren’t privy to everything during a pit stop, but seeing an F1 pit crew change four racing tires in less than 2.5 seconds is astonishing. And that’s just the average time (see below for the record pit stop times).
Contents
- Why Formula 1 pit crew and mechanics salaries matter
- F1 pit crew and mechanics estimated salaries
- An average pit stop is 2.5 seconds, what’s the record?
Pit crews get plenty of attention for their synchronized efficiency, which raises the question of how much Formula 1 pit crew and mechanics get paid. Estimates for pit crew and mechanic salaries range from $30,000 for a person who stands by with a fire extinguisher in hand to $1,000,000 for an F1 pit crew chief.
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Why Formula 1 pit crew and mechanics salaries matter
It’s only appropriate that salaries for F1 pit crew and mechanics reflect the massive money engine that drives F1 racing. The Formula One Group, a division of Liberty Media, reported 2023 revenues of $3.222 billion. That figure is in the public record because Liberty Media is a public corporation. Other monetary figures associated with F1 are estimates quoted by supposedly knowledgeable insiders. It’s also possible that some figures are wild guesses that may or may not be based on hopes and dreams.
F1 pit crew and mechanics estimated salaries
The following oft-reported estimates of F1 pit crew salaries were published in 2022 on Tuko.co.ke, a Kenyan news website with no source reference. No specific source is mentioned in the original article. The salaries below could still be reasonable estimates, although they were from the F1 2021 season. In addition to the salary, race payment, and race-winning bonuses listed below, crew members would also likely receive bonuses at the end of the season, depending on the team’s overall performance.
| Pit Crew Member | Per Race Payment | Annual Salary | Race Winning Bonus |
| Crew Chief | $10,000 | $1 Million | $5,000 |
| Tire Changers | $5,000 | $350,000 | $2,500 |
| Tire Carriers | $3,500 | $270,000 | $2,500 |
| Jack Men | $3,000 | $150,000 | $500 |
| Wing Men | $3,000 | $150,000 | $500 |
| Stabilizers | $2,500 | $90,000 | $250 |
| Starter | $750 | $40,000 | $250 |
| Fire Extinguisher Man | $500 | $30,000 | $250 |
An average pit stop is 2.5 seconds, what’s the record?
In 2019, Red Bull set the record for the fastest pit stop in just 1.82 seconds at the Brazilian Grand Prix. That record held for four years but fell in the 2023 season when McLaren Racing took just 1.80 seconds for a pit stop with Lando Norris’s race car in the Qatar Grand Prix. The fastest pit stop of the 2024 F1 Schedule so far was during the Australian Grand Prix on March 24, when Red Bull’s pit crew took just 2.10 seconds with Sergio Perez’s racecar.
Red Bull still holds another F1 pit stop world record, however. In December 2023, the Red Bull pit crew completed a pit stop in 2.84 seconds in total darkness in a competition called the Pitch Black Pit Stop at the F1 headquarters in England.
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A Digital Trends Contributing Editor and Contributor for TheManual.com, Bruce Brown writes e-mobility reviews and covers…
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