Williams Martini Racing far and away has had the dominant pit crew throughout the 2017 Formula One season. But based on its latest addition to the squad, Williams might be a little over-confident.
The Wantage, England-based team is adding professional motorcycle rider and British TV personality, Guy Martin, to its pit crew for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, Williams announced Wednesday.
Williams set the fastest pit stop of 2017 thus far during the British Grand Prix with a time of just 2.02-seconds, and had the fastest stop in seven of the first 11 races. What’s more, it set an F1 record at the 2016 European Grand Prix when it changed all four of Felipe Massa’s tires in 1.92 seconds.
“With no Formula One experience to his name, Guy will be going in at the deep end when he joins Williams Martini Racing, one of the world’s leading Formula One teams, at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix in Spa,” the team said in a statement.
Although Martin doesn’t have any experience as an F1 mechanic, saying he has “no Formula One experience” isn’t entirely true. The 35-year-old truck mechanic-turned-racer once, on his BMW Superbike, raced former F1 pilot David Coulthard, who was in Red Bull Racing’s 2012 championship-winning RB8.
In addition to helping build Williams’ two FW40 race cars at the start of the weekend, and break them down at the end, Martin will be on-hand for all three practice sessions, qualifying and the race.
