Pit stops per race, 1994 to 2026: how strategy changed

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, round 17.

The average starter made 1.71 pit stops in 2025 and has made 1.84 in 2026 so far. The figure has swung between 1.3 and 2.4 over three decades, and the swings line up with rule changes rather than with the circuits.

The figures come from this site’s pit-stop data, which starts in 1994, and count every stop by every starter, whatever its reason.

By season

Season	Stops per starter	Rules in force
1995	1.47	Refuelling allowed (from 1994); stops for fuel and tyres
1998	1.29	Grooved tyres; one or two fuel stops
2001	1.32
2004	2.36	Tyre competition between Bridgestone and Michelin; short stints on soft tyres
2007	1.80	Single tyre supplier again; two compounds per weekend, both to be used
2010	1.30	Refuelling banned; cars start full and stop once for tyres
2013	2.28	Pirelli tyres designed to wear quickly; two and three stops common
2016	2.14	Three compounds per weekend
2019	1.55	More durable compounds; one-stop races return
2022	1.83	18-inch tyres and ground-effect cars
2023	2.07
2024	1.72
2025	1.71
2026, 17 races	1.84	New cars and power units

What the swings show

Refuelling, 1994 to 2009, made a stop a fuel decision: a car could run a short first stint on low fuel to pass a rival at the stops. The 2004 peak, 2.36 stops per car, came when the tyre makers’ competition produced soft tyres that lasted a dozen laps.
The refuelling ban in 2010 cut the figure to 1.30 at once: with the fuel load fixed, the only reason to stop was the two-compound rule, and one stop satisfied it.
Pirelli’s fast-wearing tyres from 2011 pushed it back above two by 2013, by design: the supplier was asked to make races vary.
Since 2019 the compounds have lasted longer and the figure has settled between 1.5 and 2.1. Most races are one-stop races with a two-stop race where the softest compound is in the selection or the track is abrasive.

Within a season

The number varies by circuit far more than by year. At the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix 15 of 22 finishers stopped once; a race with high tyre wear, Bahrain or Barcelona, routinely has most of the field stopping twice. The record for most stops by one driver in a race is 7, set in wet-dry conditions where the tyre choice changed several times. Each race page gives the number of finishers by stops and the median lap of the first stop; each circuit page lists the winners’ stops since 1994.