Marc Priestley was the top race mechanic for the McLaren Formula 1 team for nearly a decade. He remembers how the pit-stop crew would book a rolling set of flights from company headquarters to that week’s race – until the very last moment something new could be delivered and installed on the car.

The driver parks the car in the designated spot. The front jack operator raises the front of the car within 0.3 seconds. The rear jack operator waits until the car has fully entered the pit box. Wheel gunners loosen the wheel nuts. All four old tyres are removed in 0.6 seconds.