> If something went wrong in the journey to theatre — such as a crucial wire becoming unattached — all staff would rush to the issue in an attempt to fix it, rather than having the discipline and structure for one dedicated staff member to do so in a less panicked manner.
I've never been a part of F1 racing or pediatric surgery, but even in plain old software development, it's always been great to step back and look at a process that we repeat; there's often a few improvements that seem obvious in retrospect, that don't pop out until you analyze the process.
The strategy department may be laughably bad, but at least with pitstops they've got it nailed down. They currently hold the fastest pitstop of the season [0] and they've been consistently faster than the rest of the field with pitstops so far.
This reminds me of the surgical checklist developed by Atul Gawande and explained in this NPR story https://www.npr.org/2010/01/05/122226184/atul-gawandes-check....
Basically, standardize the work with clear roles and responsibilities.
Good read. Here's the crux for me:
> If something went wrong in the journey to theatre — such as a crucial wire becoming unattached — all staff would rush to the issue in an attempt to fix it, rather than having the discipline and structure for one dedicated staff member to do so in a less panicked manner.
I've never been a part of F1 racing or pediatric surgery, but even in plain old software development, it's always been great to step back and look at a process that we repeat; there's often a few improvements that seem obvious in retrospect, that don't pop out until you analyze the process.
(Blameless) 'Post-Mortems' are crucial and certainly help improve process.
https://archive.is/1iGXK
Can't read the full article but the Williams F1 team helped hospital staff dealing with newborn babies as well. Was a story[1] on this back in 2016.
[1]: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/williams-pit-stop...
These days, Ferrari is probably the last team I'd want to take advice from on tactics, strategy and effective communication... :^)
The strategy department may be laughably bad, but at least with pitstops they've got it nailed down. They currently hold the fastest pitstop of the season [0] and they've been consistently faster than the rest of the field with pitstops so far.
[0] https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/2025-dhl-fastest-...
Oh they're just waiting for the strategy team to get their act together.
They have gotten better than a couple of years ago, though!
Great article! I've recently been implementing F1 pitstop techniques into our own development processes as well with a great deal of success.
What kinds of techniques have you implemented?