Welcome to the Pit Wall

Each week Roy will break down the biggest moves, fastest laps, and fiercest rivalries from the track — with hot takes, telemetry insights, and leaderboard drama that keep teams race-ready and in the fight for the podium.

Let’s take a look at the starting grid…

No surprises up front — Team PaddyPower came out swinging, clocking Ferrari-level page speed to lock in P1 with Equifax and Sage Therapeutics rounding out the podium at qualifying.

Shoutout to the teams completing the Top 20 — Team Mimecast, Team Spartan Nash and ServiceNow are so close, separated by milliseconds and Verizon is in P20. These teams have everything to race for.

Any team in the mid-field is not out of the race yet. Veterans United, Luno and Lloyds Banking Group, a first-corner collision could easily see you in contention.

To the rest of the field – tough week in the garage? Remember, qualifying is about pure pace, but the race is about strategy and endurance, and there’s a long way to go yet.

Telemetry Breakdown:

The starting grid was all about homepage load speed. We’re talking raw power. PageSpeed Insights shows a clear split — desktop leaders hitting sub-1.5s, but mobile lag is a silent killer, 2.3s is the time to beat. Teams with bloated third-party scripts? They’re toast.

This is what Jim Taylor, Technical Director at Happydance, had to say about the grid:

“Every site in the Top 20 is running on the Happydance platform. That’s not a coincidence—it’s performance engineering at work. Those teams are flying, with load times that would make even the stewards blink. But we’re not getting complacent. Speed locks in pole, but precision, consistency, and candidate experience win championships. The grid is set. Now comes the real race.”

Roy’s Hot Take:

If your careers site loads like it’s stuck in traffic on the M25, you’re not just off the pace—you’re out of contention. Get tuned or get lapped. Find some grip and go full throttle.

We based the starting grid on the results of Google's Speed Index, which measures the time it takes for a page to load and become interactive. The lower the number, the better. Learn more about Speed Index

The grid is locked. Engines are fired. The Performance GP kicks off next week — and every millisecond matters. Check your telemetry, tighten those setups... it’s time to prove what you’ve got under the hood.