lamboblogging

So in light of this weekends accident with Raikkonen I got thinking about what are the options around improving pit stop safety.

Ever since the introduction of the traffic light systems there have been numerous close calls and accidents. Not including the two Haas failures in Melbourne and Raikkonen's issue this week, others like Massa's incident in Singapore 2008 bring into question the reliability of the system.

It also raises a poignant question... Should pit-stop's be neutralized, to some extent, in the name of safety?

So what are the alternatives?

Smaller Crews - Other series' have been doing this for some time. For example, WEC utilities a system of only allowing 2(?) crew members into the pit-lane at a time during refueling and tyre changes. Here you can see the system in action. Sure it extends the length of pit stops a great deal. However it lowers exposure to crew members to the danger of other cars coming in and out of the lane. Also it increased reliability of the individual tyre changes, since it takes some of the urgency out of them. Australian Supercars also use this system.

Old Lollipop System - To some extent this system has the same problems as the traffic light system. Accidents still occurred under this system when lollipop men would lift it too early. Sometimes they would lift it too early then drop it back in the drivers face when they are already half way out of the box. Although it brings a more human element back to the pit stop process, it still has some of the same flaws as the traffic light system.

Minimum Pit Stop Time - The idea of an FIA mandated minimum stop time could remove a lot of the urgency out of pit stops. This could certainly increase reliability of the crews and reduce accidents. But lashback from purists (including myself) could be severe, as it instantly removes a lot of the zing from the whole pit stop process.

Neutral Lollipop/Traffic Light System - One other interesting alternative could be the introduction of a neutral party (probably FIA) to be responsible for the call to release the driver from the pit box. This takes the safety call away from the team and onto a neutral arbitrator who could be relied to analyze the progress of the pit stop without pressure from the team to release the driver when it may be unsafe to do so.

All of these alternatives sting from a purist point of view, and all tend to remove at least some of the excitement from the pit stops. But change is probably afoot after this weeks accident.

/discuss

Submitted April 09, 2018 at 08:25AM by shopkeeper56 https://ift.tt/2IE3OBA