How do you think your stomach will feel in zero-g?
September 2019.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
and Roscosmos, the Russian space corporation
teamed up for a world first.
Attempting a pit stop whilst floating in zero-g.
When I first heard about this project it was hard to believe.
It would test us to the extreme.
With pit stops if you try and push to be fast
generally you lose a lot of time.
It's all about slow, deliberate maneuvers,
being able to keep cool under pressure.
I saw it as a real opportunity to see how far we could push the boundaries.
I've never dreamt in my childhood to become a spaceman.
There's only one way to get an F1 team
to float in a weightless environment and that's inside a plane.
The science is straightforward,
a plane ascends at a sharp angle to 9000 meters.
Engines are stalled
and the plane free falls over the Earth's curvature.
That acceleration counterbalances gravity
resulting in weightlessness, zero-g.
The thought of going in a plane
that's going to go straight up and straight down
I think is going to be very unnerving
and this is totally unnatural to what a plane should be doing.
In my mind it's an impossible environment,
just the fact that every force has a reaction.
So as soon as you try and pull a wheel off or put a wheel on,
all it's going to do is spin your body around,
even to the point of pulling the trigger on the gun,
because that can spin the gun around.
It's going to be hard to believe until we see it.
I'm not sure it can be done.
TWO WEEKS TO TEST FLIGHT
Safety first, so a special set needs to be built
for the crew and car to operate securely.
This set will sit in the cargo bay of the airplane.
This was pretty much the trickiest thing
because when we saw the actual measurements of the body
we realized okay, the body is huge it's like,
I don't know, almost five meters long,
almost two meters wide and how can this even fit
into the planes?
We wanted to have our own interior construction inside
but he needs to build it so it's not taking up too much space.
Actually our DP invented like a camera slider.
He decided maybe it makes more sense
to just build a construction to be even safer.
It's kind of a motion control system that he invented.
Roscosmos had a wide range of interesting projects,
but I can tell you it is the most insane one.
ONE WEEK TO TEST FLIGHT
Space is tight, they need to change four wheels
and have just 20 seconds to do it all in zero-g.
Yeah, I mean we're right now rehearsing
and see if everything works out well in the camera.
The guy's have got this mockup plane with a car in it
and they're just deciding footmarks
and places where they're going to stand
because obviously when they're floating in space
they're not going to know where they can stand
and what's going to happen.
The team come up with a smart solution
that can only be achieved in zero-g.
Put half the crew on the ceiling
and then flip the car upside down to change the tires.
So today is preparation but in a couple of days
is going to be true zero gravity, it's going to be for real,
- No CG. - No, no CGI,
this is going to be for real.
It's going to be fairly amazing and interesting to see how it works out.
We don't know how the car
is going react, what's it going to do,
what's going to happen when it goes into zero gravity.
What are people going to do?
When someone tries to take a wheel off
are they going to spin around themselves because of the forces?
Who knows. We'll have to wait and see.
Going to be more complicated. The guys are used to their positions,
they're used to where they normally sit or stand,
they're used to taking a wheel off on Earth.
To be able to do it in a plane in zero gravity,
they don't know what's going to happen.
Camera.
It's going to be difficult for us
because we're used to doing pit stops on the ground with the car
in this sort of position so to be doing it in an environment
where we're floating around is going to be difficult.
Everything we've learnt over the years to do a fast pit stop
is going to be completely tested to our extreme
and no one knows what's going to happen.
FIRST TEST FLIGHT
The formula to making the zero-g pit stop work is relentless practice,
discipline and precision teamwork.
A synergy between the world-class crews
of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
and Roscosmos.
So preparing on the ground with the Roscosmos guys,
they were very relaxed, really helpful, really professional
and I think they just try to help us relax
so that we could enjoy the experience and not be intimidated by it.
I am always impressed by their team work,
how they carry out
different actions neatly and within seconds.
They are doing 2-second pit stops.
I really don't know how I'm going to feel.
You listen to different stories from different people
and I think there's no formula to being okay or not being okay
so it's just a case of getting on and finding out.
They've given us some advice on how to behave in zero-g,
don't start rushing around trying to do too much,
just get used to it, feel the environment.
Just steadily float around, don't try and do summersaults or spin around,
just stay calm and let your body adjust to the environment.
Going into the first flight I wasn't really sure what to expect.
And the first time when you go into the negative-g move
it's just the biggest rush, it's crazy.
It's very disorientating but exciting
and you want it to go on for longer than it does,
suddenly 25 seconds feels like 3 seconds.
You have a very short space of time
because of the requirements
on the aircraft with fuel limitations.
To watch the film crew work, how busy everybody is,
how hard they're working, it's been impressive to watch that.
When it comes to safety the most dangerous thing
is the work of the upper team,
the guys who are on the ceiling.
They have to take an initial pose,
perform certain task with the wheels or with a screwdriver.
Then they have to fix themselves on the floor
and be careful not to get under the car.
I'm struggling to believe that this is actually happening.
The first parabolic flight, I was looking at the car,
I had my back to the car
and I couldn't control what I was doing.
And the second one I actually got a glimpse of the car floating
and I couldn't believe the car was in the air
because it's not something you should be seeing.
But the car was in the air
just floating the same as I was and it was like,
wow, I can't get this, my brain wouldn't compute what was going on.
After the flight, first words from some people were,
"Not too sure about that."
and other people were, "Brilliant, let's do it again, let's go now."
So it's been a mixed reception between the team.
It's been a huge project
building up to get this as far as we've gone so far.
I think the finished product is going to be amazing,
it is going to look completely different
to anything we've ever seen before.
Okay guys, we're shooting, we're shooting.
So we are heading now in this direction, okay?
After months of design, countless hours of practice
and several test flights, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
and Roscosmos are ready for the ultimate takeoff.
This year the pit stops have been right on the mark.
But our team never stops pushing the boundaries.
We have a new directive from headquarters.
Our mission... to do a pit stop in twenty seconds.
In Zero Gravity.
Zero gravity in 3... 2... 1...
Touchdown confirmed, we are safe now.