With speed as fast as the latest pit stop record is, no one would be blamed for lagging behind, and that is exactly what had happened with the early days of this artistry.

Dating back to as early as the first races driven from one town to another, racing teams and experts had been looking for the best way to keep the car in prime shape without giving it lag time during repairs and refuels. So sit back and learn more about how they managed to do it, and so much more over the years.

The early days of race cars and subsequently racing teams saw battles on the road take place from one city to another. Considering the different format at the time, drivers were forced to take a mechanic with them at all times, driving on the passenger seat.

Once closed circuits became the standard format of the race tracks, drivers practically couldn’t afford to have one more person in their cars, which slowly evolved into the first pit stops. While half a minute was rather fast for the time, you need to take into consideration that refuelling was still a possibility, up until 1984. During half the century until this happened, many pit stop developments had been set in motion. Just before the onset of WWII, even Adolf Hitler left a mark on the industry with Mercedes and Auto Union racing for Germany at the time in order to promote its dominance and superiority. At the Leicestershire grand prix, these German cars had their first pit-stop after going 21 laps, and managed to win all first five places in the race. But what really set the idea of a pit stop straight is the fact that all other cars were a minimum of two laps behind.

Once racing teams had seen what could be done in the speed of a pit stop, there was no stopping them from reaching for the ultimate speed. What is more, the first mid-race re-fuelling had already been performed, and with this option out of the way, the speed of pit stops could well counter the online betting trend that evolved as rapidly as it could. It only took pit stop teams until 1993 to reach a staggering 3.2 seconds speed. The period from 1994 to 2009 saw the comeback of re-fuelling during pit stops, which indirectly meant that teams barely had a chance to beat the record.

The current record stands at a little below 2 seconds, 1.9 to be more precise, and it has been achieved by the Red Bull pit stop team back in 2013. Williams are still second in their attempts to break time and sound barriers, while Mercedes only has one achievement to boast about.

With fluid and flexible regulations, and an ever changing world of technologies, there is no saying what the pit stop of tomorrow will look like, but the one of today is sure different from those left behind.