Pitlane Access Safety Gate Loose Wheel Thingy

[KekeTheKing]

Because stops have progressed to the point where if you're in for 4.5 seconds, it seems an eternity. Teams feel they HAVE TO turn their car around in 3 seconds, and in that amount of haste, they can make impetuous decisions. Less people, slower stops, more deliberate decision making.

edit-c

Road of Bones

We were watching Webber's pit stop from the Overhead camera in Germany.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Jen, the main point about reducing numbers still holds good whether you have experts or numpties for pit crew, as the lollipop man will actually be able to see all four wheels, so will have a better chance of not letting the car go without them all on.
(mind you, if all the lollipop men are as clever as Force India's was at the Nurburgring, maybe you're right. )

 

[Jen]

Did the lollipop man see Webber's wasn't on properly? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

 

[Road of Bones]

KekeTheKing - indeed, but I was thinking about things like di Resta being released into the path of Vergne - you can't pick that up on an overhead cam. I suppose the cherrypicker cam above the first corner looking back up the pitlane would though, but you will lose the sense of drama attached to being right on top of the action, I guess.

What are the chances that, once the hoo-ha over PASGLWT has ebbed slightly, his Eccleship will order the camera-minions back into the crucible anyway?

 

[KekeTheKing]

This whole debate goes to show how utterly moronic a Speed Limit reduction is. I mean nobody in their right mind see's this as a way to ensure tires are secured before release.

 

[The Pits]

I think as a set of safety measures, I can understand the desire to change pit lane speed limits, however, to use this incident as a reason to rush them through is nonsense.

a more thorough review would likely provide some well thought out measures to improve safety, rather than a knee jerk reaction.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Maybe in like 15-20 years we can have robots changing tires and then do away with the speed limit completely. It's so freaking awesome to watch cars blast out of the pits in the 1980's approaching full speed.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Did the lollipop man see Webber's wasn't on properly? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

The lollipop man reacted to the wheel guy raising his arms. The signal that the wheel is good to go is all too similar to there is an issue don't go. When you are trying to pit within a couple of seconds reaction time by the lollipop man is crucial.

With less personnel the pit stop times would increase but not the danger of wheel nuts being misaligned. Standardisation of wheel fitting equipment is the best way of solving these issues along with electronics that determine that wheels are aligned properly. The same equipment could be used to replace the lollipop man entirely. The traffic light system employed by Ferrari I believe could be implemented throughout the grid. Automatic releases can allow for pitlane traffic ensuring none of the unsafe releases we have seen many times.

The only issue is making sure such a system works.

 

[The Pits]

I believe Red Bull also use the traffic light system, but also have a lollipop man.

Currently, the trigger for the traffic lights is a switch on the wheel gun, rather than a switch on the wheel itself.

I fully agree with the view that some kind of technical solution would be possible, and most effective.

 

[Mephistopheles]

OK, a minor hiccough,

If Gary Anderson is right about reducing team numbers at pitstops, how do they (the teams) assume that it will make any difference - a big team of numpties or a small team of numpties? Yes, I know that is being dismissive and these guys are trained to distraction but who can actually say that the team size will make a jot of difference

I don't believe it will make any difference I've seen other series where fewer people are involved in the pitstop and accidents still happen, for instance I've seen it where there is only the gunman allowed to touch the car and what happens is he pulls the wheel off chucks it behind himself grabs the new wheel and on occasions the discarded wheel trundles off into the pit lane on its lonesome, that's not very safe is it..? So the argument there is for more people involved in the pit stop, with this in mind does Gary have the formula for the optimum number of people involved in a pitstop for the optimum amount of safety, I don't think so you can't just blurt out a suggestion without doing any research and consider it to be true...

 

[Slyboogy]

Once incident in how many years?

Yeah I feel for the guy, but it doesn't mean you need to go over the top with safety because of one incident.

 

[KekeTheKing]

As Pits alluded to, it was a trigger on the wheel gun and a slip of the finger that led to the drama.

The issue occurred on Sunday when the mechanic on the right-rear went to remove a cross-threaded wheel nut and put on a replacement. As he did so the wheelgun slipped in his hand and he accidentally triggered the 'go' signal to the front jack man...

To prevent a repeat, Red Bull will now revise its wheelguns to ensure the 'go' signal cannot be triggered by such a mistake.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/297509/red-bull-racing-confirms-pit-stop-changes/

 

[teabagyokel]

KekeTheKing - Ban them from the next race!

Might make the Championship interesting.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Let them race just ban them from pitting!

 

[MCLS]

They'd probably find a way to still win

 

[Tacitus]

Ban the wheel guns!
Bring back the trusty wrench!

 

[Blog Zbod]

Seems to me, in a sane world, the safety committee would require a full accounting from the guilty parties, explaining precisely what went wrong, along with a plan to prevent a repeat occurrence. If the committee are convinced, they pass the information to the other teams as an advisory and call the matter closed.

Dieter Rencken fair lambastes the FIA for their kneejerk response in the latest edition of Autosport Plus. He makes the points that motor racing journos know quite well what they've let themselves in for, and that the FIA did not see fit to ban marshalls rendering trackside support, even when one was fatally injured in a freak accident. And how can the FIA conscience leaving pit crewmen vulnerable to the same injuries? Maybe if the unlucky journo hadn't deflected it, that same Red Bull tyre very well could have continued on to injure some pit crewman or track marshall.

Rencken intimates this change is part of a larger FOM plan to further restrict journo access to the event, which will lead to charging a hefty fee for the credentials that will allow them unfettered (or at least less fettered) access. So the 'free' journos get the cheap seats, but the pay journos get to sit ringside.

 

[siffert_fan]

Eliminate mandatory tyre changes and limit teams to one wheel nut gun.

 

[KekeTheKing]

So the FIA wants safer pit stops. How do they accomplish this? By making cars go slower on pitlane, completely defeating the purpose.

Since cars will automatically be losing more time in the pits, teams will be forced into even faster and hastier pit-stops. The slower speed limit will have no effect on how pit crews operate. Likewise, it will have no safety ramifications either, as cars without properly attached wheels do not reach the speed limit anyway.

 

[Galahad]

With fewer mechanics around the car the TV viewer would probably have a better idea of what's going on, even if it is only from a fixed camera. I agree with GA.