Chapter 5 of 6 · 2 min read
One Stop vs Two
The headline strategic call is how many times to stop. Each extra stop costs roughly twenty seconds of pit-lane time but buys a set of faster, fresher tyres. The optimum is a genuine gamble made before and during the race.
| Strategy | Upside | Downside |
|---|---|---|
| One stop | Keeps track position, fewer risks | Older, slower tyres late on |
| Two stop | Fresher, faster tyres | Loses ~20s + risk of traffic |
That twenty seconds is the pit loss — the time lost driving the pit lane and stopping versus staying on track. An extra stop only pays if the fresher tyres can win back more than the pit loss before the flag. Strategists weigh it as a simple sum: the time gained per lap on newer rubber, multiplied by the laps remaining, against the cost of the stop itself.
The right answer shifts with degradation (high deg pushes you toward more stops), the chance of a Safety Car (which makes a stop almost free), and how easy overtaking is at that circuit (if passing is hard, track position from a one-stop is gold). Teams will often split their two cars onto different strategies to cover both outcomes — one aggressive, one conservative — so at least one is on the right call whatever the race throws up.
Key takeaways
- Each stop costs ~20s but provides fresher, faster tyres.
- An extra stop only pays if new-tyre pace wins back more than the pit loss.
- Tyre offset — running newer or softer rubber than a rival — is a key weapon.
- Degradation, Safety Car odds, and overtaking difficulty drive the choice.
- Teams often split their two cars across strategies to cover both outcomes.