"Choking under pressure" in Formula 1

This bachelor's thesis analyses the presence and influence of the phenomenon of "choking under pressure" during pit stops in Formula 1 performed by pit crews. A relatively unexplored concept in the economic literature and falling under the domain of behavioural economics, it represents a paradoxical effect for some standard economic theories by causing a reduction in an individual's performance despite high incentives to maximise their performance. It is these incentives that cause the reduction in performance through the pressure imposed on the individual. In the theoretical part, the phenomenon is described in the context of various theories from behavioural and standard economics. The paper also provides a review of previous, mainly economic, literature. The empirical part presents econometric models: linear least squares regression and logistic regression, or the logit model. It uses collected data from the 2018 and 2020 seasons to build the models. In 2020, races were not open to fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest, among other things, a low response of mechanics' performance to selected determinants of pressure, an increase in the likelihood of "choking" occurring at a worse track position, and a deterioration in their performance in the absence of an audience in 2020.