Red Bull sees lead decrease in important F1 area

One of the key areas of succeeding during a Grand Prix is the pit stop, where a driver relinquishes control and places faith in his crew.

With the chance for position changes that could ultimately decide the outcome of the race, high pressure is placed on the pit crew to deliver when their driver comes in to swap tyres.

Red Bull enjoyed a highly dominant year in Formula 1 as it secured the Constructors' and Drivers' Championship for the second year in a row.

Its prowess was also evident in the Fastest Pit Stop award as it ended the year atop a table created to by DHL to track the most consistent team in the pit lane.

Throughout the year the top 10 fastest pit stops have been recorded at each race and have now been made into an end-of-year standings. Mirroring the F1 point-scoring system, the driver with the fastest pit stop at a race is awarded 25 points for his team, second fastest is 18 points and so on.

A driver can't claim two places inside the top 10 of each race, in which case the following points are delivered to the next applicable driver.

See how the pit stop championship for the teams looks below.

Red Bull's decreasing margin

It marked the fifth consective season that Red Bull has finished atop the pist stop standings.

However this year, its lead over the competition decreased compared to previous campaigns as it held a 75 point lead over second-placed Ferrari.

Last year, McLaren finished second in the standings but Red Bull possessed a greater gap to the rest of the field as it was 107 points in front of the competition.

Its a continuing trend as its 2021 margin was 252 points while in 2020, it had an even bigger advanatge of 291 points.

Although McLaren slipped from second to third for this season compared to last year, the pit crew carried out a 1.80 second pit stop at the Qatar Grand Prix on Lando Norris' car - a new F1 record.

In fact, six of the fastest pit stops this year were completed by McLaren.

Ferrari had the second fastest pit stop of the year with a 1.93s stop while servicing Charles Leclerc, also in Qatar, while Red Bull was third with a 1.98 pit stop in Hungary with Sergio Perez.