[Rules] End of pit-lane reporting?

[bravo]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...3/7/14791.html

The FIA has announced an immediate ban on anyone other than event marshals and team personnel being present in the pit lane during races and qualifying sessions. Access for approved media will be confined to the pit wall.

All team personnel working on a car during a stop will now be required to wear head protection, and the pit-lane speed limit during races will be cut from 100km/h to 80km/h (with the exception of Melbourne, Monaco and Singapore, where due to track configuration the limit will remain at 60km/h).

I imagine we're not going to get the insight we used to get from issues or changes made to cars in the pits.

[Peat]

Poor old Ted Kravitz.

[bella]

i expect the media will creep back in once they get comfortable with the number of people who *have* to be in the pitlane. but it has got a bit silly. reporters shouldn't be in the pitlane, they should be at the back of the garages, going in that way to speak to the relevant people.

[pauln]

Good piece on this from Will Buxton which hits the nail squarely on the head.
http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com...ing-the-cause/

All bar one of these are either measures that are already in place (so just to be enforced more robustly?) or already agreed for next season and being brought forward. The exception is confining FOM cameramen to the pit wall.

None of it addresses the issue at hand - how you prevent a repeat of the accident with Webber's tyre.

[bella]

give the teams who DO release cars without wheels attached like webbers a PROPER hiding, and not the token financial payments that exist now. immediate disqualification of both cars for starters.

[BSchneiderFan]

I think, in fairness, that we also have to accept that accidents can never be totally eradicated.

[bella]

ah, the standard motorsport disclaimer, which i do agree with to a certain extent. but a car being allowed to leave a pit with a wheel that immediately falls off at speed isn't an accident, that's a mistake. being hit by said tyre is an accident.

[Gingers4Justice]

One thing I'm a bit surprised by is that only now do all pit workers have to wear head protection. That's a no brainer. In the Le Mans pitlane, absolutely everyone has to wear head protection and fireproof overalls when the pitlane is live. I would have thought F1, of all places, would have introduced similar steps by now.

[bella]

speaking as someone who has been in an active pitlane with pitstops...

it's the same awkward ground that gets played over with ski and snowboard helmets on piste, skate helmets, and bike helmets.

some people find one or more of the following when wearing a helmet:
- that it limits their vision and hearing
- that it doesn't affect their vision and hearing
- that it affects their risk assessment, and they take more risks than they would do without safety equipment
- that it makes them think more about their decisions because they're wearing a helmet and they're more aware of the risk
- that they forget they're wearing one.

it's down to a grown-up, adult decision about how strong your situational awareness is, and how at risk you feel.

however, if you get hit by a speeding thing in the pitlane, as we saw with the unlucky cameraman, it's not your head that you have to worry about so it's a bit of a moot point really.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by pauln

Good piece on this from Will Buxton which hits the nail squarely on the head.
http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com...ing-the-cause/

All bar one of these are either measures that are already in place (so just to be enforced more robustly?) or already agreed for next season and being brought forward. The exception is confining FOM cameramen to the pit wall.

None of it addresses the issue at hand - how you prevent a repeat of the accident with Webber's tyre.

Minimum pitstop time?

[Adam43]

That would be a shame.

[Spritle]

Webber’s situation was an unsafe release. The crew members working on the rear tyre were clearly NOT finished yet he was let go. A similar situation occurred in the Williams pit TWICE yet their drivers were not released.

Communication errors between pit crew members can result in many different catastrophes. How many times have we seen near calamities because of this? Unfortunately helmets, pit wall perches or speed reductions may only prevent serious physical damage to the injured, not a reoccurrence. The system by which a GO signal is given is where the problem lies yet I am sure the teams have it down to perfection. Unfortunately accidents will always happen because of problems with wheel nuts, guns & jacks.

I don’t know what the solution is but even without refueling and with fabricated overtaking, pit strategy still plays a huge role in track position therefore the team push themselves to the limit to gain any advantage. The more stops there are, the more advantage that can be gained and the more likely accidents will happen. Any additional tasks or precautions you place on the crew members, the more stress there is.

Adding some failsafe type device like a wheel clip or something similar wouldn’t help if the crew wasn’t finished attaching it when the car is released. A minimum pit time would frankly suck IMHO and penalize the teams that worked their arses off to gain an advantage and wouldn’t prevent an unsafe release. Quite frankly, I would prefer to see the reintroduction of refueling if increasing the pit time delta is the desired objective.

The bottom line is; Massa dragging the fuel hose at Singapore (another unsafe release) was prevented from ever happening again by banning refueling. I’m afraid the ONLY way to prevent a reoccurrence of Webber’s disaster is to ban pit stops entirely for ANY reason. You get a puncture or break a part, you’re DNF’d…

…does anybody really want that?

The camera angle issue and pit stop coverage is a problem easily overcome. Protection of persons in the pit lane isn’t so easy but buggering up the pit stop process to excess won’t solve a thing.

[rustyfan]

FOM could do it NASCAR style, but instead of having the camera crews and reporters behind the pitwall - seeing, of course, as there is no inner pitwall in F-1 - they'd be standing inside the garages. Awkward for all involved, yeah, but it'd be better than the knee-jerk reaction we're getting now due to a single accident.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

FOM could do it NASCAR style, but instead of having the camera crews and reporters behind the pitwall - seeing, of course, as there is no inner pitwall in F-1 - they'd be standing inside the garages. Awkward for all involved, yeah, but it'd be better than the knee-jerk reaction we're getting now due to a single accident.

That's exactly what this new restriction has done. They're not allowed in pit lane - pit lane starts at the front of the garages. The garages are part of the paddock and the media have not been excluded from those areas.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by pauln

........... - how you prevent a repeat of the accident with Webber's tyre.

Surely an opportunity for someone to say: 'Bring back race distance tyres'. Then there's no real reason at all for anyone to take any notice of what's happening in the pit lane.

[Armco Bender]

........... - how you prevent a repeat of the accident with Webber's tyre.

Every team needs to fill in a pit release form,in triplicate,this will then be sent to the pit release controller who will then send a form to pit lane health and safety officer who will fill in.........you know where it will end up if pointy heads get involved...

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Do the Prat perches on the pitwall constitute part of the pitlane? Will we see Christian Horner wearing a Red Bull BMX helmet as well?

[broadrun96]

Why not end the hundred crewmen servicing the car? Don't need to go the full NASCAR with multiple lugs but one gun and one wheelman per corner seems adequate for most series. But let's not think what might improve vision but rather ***** and whine my vision/hearing/etc might be compromised but a helmet. Sorry but that argument is utter BS and is ridiculous, guess the drivers could see better without the helmet on so maybe we should go back and remove them. As for hearing, helmet or not you aren't hearing anything so try again. Thinking the helmet rule is meant to protect from flying wheels is ignoring the number of crew members that have been toppled like bowling pins in the past. Pitlane meeting unprotected head means head loses, and claiming the helmets are weak and useless means buy BETTER helmets. They are out there, spend some money.
As for pit reporters, sorry has anyone IN pitlane ever found out anything they couldn't have in the garage? Is it somehow more news worthy because they are reporting between the cars? Stop pretending cameras can't zoom and move to get the same shot at a distance, MLB and the NFL have done it from a LONG range to the point you can count the stitches on pitches to pick out what was thrown in realtime. ESPN has no problem picking up fine enough detail to watch dragsters turn the wheel and twist the sidewall at launch, but F1 can't figure it out?
Just seems to me there is a lot of whining that this does nothing and new the rules are stupid. Address the problem where it happened, at the TEAM level. Ban the electronic system and return to a lollipop in the drivers path to increase delay (one more thing to physically move) and bring back the old system of wheel locks (any idea why they were removed other than not included in rules?) I'm sure the teams could develop/redevelop the old system by the end of the summer break. I'd thought about the sensors that interrupt drive if the wheel isn't seated but if a wheel comes off on track that could make the car non-responsive or less controllable, not good if the wheel locks and spins a car back onto the racing line. Yeah slim chance but a wheel coming off doesn't happen every week either.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by bella

it's down to a grown-up, adult decision about how strong your situational awareness is, and how at risk you feel.

however, if you get hit by a speeding thing in the pitlane, as we saw with the unlucky cameraman, it's not your head that you have to worry about so it's a bit of a moot point really.

Bella, the problem is that many people don't have the necessary experience to assess the risks that they are facing.
(It is very difficult for a single individual to assemble the combined experience and knowledge of an industry. Ban's such as this forum's ban on showing fatal accidents, for whatever reasons, make this even more difficult)

For instance even if the cameraman was hit in the back of the legs by the wheel, he would have been bowled over / upended, and the result of this without a helmet would probably have been massive head trauma, he was probably lucky that the wheel hopped up and hit him where it did, even though it did not really look like it at the time.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by bella

i expect the media will creep back in once they get comfortable with the number of people who *have* to be in the pitlane. but it has got a bit silly. reporters shouldn't be in the pitlane, they should be at the back of the garages, going in that way to speak to the relevant people.

Given that the teams spend 100s of millions of dollars trying to get their cars to do as well as possible, I think we can assume that they are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that they do not screw up their pit stops.
Some random draconian penalty will not make the situation any safer!

Doing away with unnecessary tyre stops on the other hand would fix the problem though.

[F1Pete]

What year was it when speed limits in the pit lane were introduced?

[wnut]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

What year was it when speed limits in the pit lane were introduced?

1994 according to :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...egulationsnice

(Quite a nice quick reference.)

I thought it was earlier, but apparently not

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Tourer

That's exactly what this new restriction has done. They're not allowed in pit lane - pit lane starts at the front of the garages. The garages are part of the paddock and the media have not been excluded from those areas.

Ah ok, I assumed this ban included the garages as well since they, I mean, are close to the cars

Thanks for the clarification.

[chunder]

I dont have a problem with this ruling at all, in fact I think it a very good idea

Why on earth you need to pay someone a salary to report on a pitstop that you and they can see far clearer on the screen I dont know, utterly pointless and very jobs for the sake of it.

OK a pit lane reporter interviewing drivers bosses etc duing qually or in the garages, but no need at all for them to be in pit lane.

Not sure how this affects tv's ability to film pit stops, but am sure they will come up with something.

Someone has to hold a camera after all, and invariably that is a cameraman! But maybe they can use overheads and static cameras,.

But no need for pit lane reporters at all, never has been.

[Starfish Primer]

I agree with Chunder, they can even build a comm system to interview the team personnel from the press room.

I don´t feel this is an issue for the race fans, I see this as an issue for the media not for us.