Week 3 Lab: Pricing the stop

Measure two-lap pit loss, reconcile Friday's physical tyre inventory, and enumerate every legal one- and two-stop compound sequence

8 March 2027

Two hours, worth 2%, completed and submitted inside the session. The codebase is standalone. It receives the clean-air counterfactual needed to price a stop; it does not import your week 2 fit or assume that fit was right.

What leaves the room is one measured pit-loss estimate with a 95% interval, a reconciled physical-set ledger, and every legal one- and two-stop compound sequence under the event card’s stated assumptions.

Before the session#

Install the supplied codebase and run its test suite. Read the data dictionary and event card, then run the loader on the example stop. Check that it prints the observed in-lap and out-lap beside the two expected no-stop laps supplied by the generator.

Reconcile the starting tyre ledger to the event card before you arrive. Count physical set identities, not compound labels: two hard sets means two distinct sets of four allocated tyres (2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, Issue 08, Article B6.2.2). No Formula 1 knowledge is needed to do this.

What is supplied#

Every time, set identity, tyre age and event fact in those materials belongs to the SlopU synthetic scenario. The governing allocation, returns and race-use rules come from the 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, Issue 08, Articles B6.2.4, B6.3.6, B6.3.8 and B6.4.2–B6.4.3.

In the session#

1. Measure the complete stop (30 minutes). For each event, compute observed in-lap + observed out-lap - expected no-stop lap 1 - expected no-stop lap 2. Inspect the individual losses, then report their mean and a 95% interval. Compare the estimate with the supplied stationary service time and explain why the two quantities differ. The service time covers the stationary car; pit loss prices the complete two-lap diversion against what would otherwise have happened.
2. Reconcile Friday (30 minutes). Apply the Standard Format return schedule: two dry sets after FP1, two after FP2 and two after FP3, while preserving the protected Qualifying and Race sets (Issue 08, Article B6.3.8). Electronic return is not use: a returned unused set is still unavailable and must be physically handed back before the next session (Issue 08, Articles B6.4.2–B6.4.3). Produce the post-FP3 ledger and flag every impossible row.
3. Enumerate before you compare (40 minutes). Under the supplied dry, uninterrupted-race assumption, list every one- and two-stop compound sequence that the remaining physical sets support. The race must use at least two dry specifications, including a mandatory Race specification (Issue 08, Article B6.3.6). A used set may be refitted unless the supplied ledger says it was returned, damaged or otherwise unavailable. For every rejected candidate, record either the exact rule or the unavailable compound that excludes it. Do not choose a stop lap and do not rank the legal candidates.
4. State the boundary and submit (20 minutes). Write one sentence limiting the pit-loss estimate and one sentence naming a condition that forces the legal enumeration to be rerun. “Weather” or “a suspension” alone is not a condition: say which assumption or rule changes. Use the remaining time to run the supplied checks and submit all four artefacts.

The four time boxes total two hours.

What you hand over#

A marker checks four things in the room:

• every per-stop loss, plus the mean and its 95% interval;
• the reconciled post-FP3 ledger, including any impossible input row;
• the complete legal strategy set, with a reason against each excluded candidate;
• two one-sentence limits: one on the estimate and one on the enumeration.

The dry-rule boundary matters. Intermediate or wet use removes the two-dry- specification requirement, and non-compliance otherwise brings disqualification; if the race is suspended and cannot restart, the sanction is 30 seconds instead (Issue 08, Article B6.3.6). A suspension also permits wheels and tyres to be changed, and that set counts as used once the car leaves the pit lane after resumption (Issue 08, Articles B5.14.4 and B6.3.2). Rerun the legal set when the bounded assumption no longer holds.

Assignment 1’s measurement criterion needs the estimate and its uncertainty. Its model-fitness criterion needs evidence that the strategy is legal under the regulations.