Pit stop safety

[schmenke]

why why why when a team member/driver so much as stubs thier toe do we have to a great big safty debate. motorsport is dangerous. too much unessasary safety debate will lead to motorsport become far too dull and controlled. its a dangerous sport please acept this. the fia or anyone involved in motorsport ( apart from maybe the btcc drivers) ever purposefully do anything that would put in danger any other member of the f1 community. just accept accidents can happen anytime anywhere.

I would generally accept this view when applied to on-track racing, but why should unnecessary risk be extended to the pit lane? With the amount of people in the pits the potential for injury is far greater.

A simple solution to ensure that cars are not released prematurely would not be detrimental to the sport would it?

How about replacing the lollipop-man with a steward who releases the car? Isn't something similar already done in the ALMS?

[GRAVETT]

and stewards dont make mistakes now do they. a lights system may work to release the cars but computors fail, humans fail. i do not see any reason to change this part of the pit stops. i have never heard any significant protest from any mechanic or team member that would make anyone think that unnecessary risk is being put upon them. if every accident was addressed and the probelm made safe we would be watching f1 drivers compete on playstations. hmmm maybe not because then repetative strain injury would be an issue.

[Allyc85]

why why why when a team member/driver so much as stubs thier toe do we have to a great big safty debate. motorsport is dangerous. too much unessasary safety debate will lead to motorsport become far too dull and controlled. its a dangerous sport please acept this. the fia or anyone involved in motorsport ( apart from maybe the btcc drivers) ever purposefully do anything that would put in danger any other member of the f1 community. just accept accidents can happen anytime anywhere.

spot on mate

[Dave B]

Obviously you can sanitize the sport too much and ruin the spectacle. Nobody wants that.

However I cannot see what's wrong with holding the cars for an extra second in the pit lane to ensure that the (admittedly small) risk of a potentially fatal accident is minimised.

I accept that it's one more thing which could go wrong, but there's 10,000+ components on a Formula One car which could fail at any time. One or two more wouldn't hurt.

Drivers accept the risk of motorsport, as do team members to some extent. And obviously everybody in the pitlane wears a pass which reminds them that motorsport is dangerous. But there's 20+ people involved in a pit stop, not to mention the camera crews and media who crowd round the cars. If one small improvement can make their jobs a bit safer without ruining the racing, then I cannot see a problem.

[schmenke]

and stewards dont make mistakes now do they. a lights system may work to release the cars but computors fail, humans fail. i do not see any reason to change this part of the pit stops. i have never heard any significant protest from any mechanic or team member that would make anyone think that unnecessary risk is being put upon them. if every accident was addressed and the probelm made safe we would be watching f1 drivers compete on playstations. hmmm maybe not because then repetative strain injury would be an issue.

Who said anything about protests?

Stewards wouldn't be encumbered with the pressure of releasing the cars prematurely.