Horner: 'All Personnel To Wear Safety Equipment'

[OverTake.gg]

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has called for safety equipment to be worn by all personnel working in the Formula One pit lane.

It follows an incident during Mark Webber’s first stop in today’s German Grand Prix when a rear wheel came off his car and bounced past mechanics before thudding into camera-man Paul Allen, who suffered a fractured collarbone and two broken ribs.

Horner said: ‘It was a timely reminder that life in the pit lane is still a pretty dangerous place to be, that things can go wrong. Mechanics have to wear safety gear and helmets, and maybe it’s time other operational people in the pit lane have some safety equipment as well.’

Red Bull were fined £26,800 for the unsafe release of Webber’s car from the pits. The Australian finished seventh.

Images adamcooperf1

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[Helmut Skrdla]

Maybe RedBull could fix their wheels properly instead...

To be honest, the full FAQ on Red Bull's website makes it sound less arrogant, but still... there is not a single "We are sorry this happened" statement, all you can read is that they are "trying to find out why the wheel wasn't fixed", carefully not writing a single sentence that attaches any blame to themself. And then to turn around and basically say "Well, if the guys wore safety gears..."

 

[robsonsenna]

Maybe RedBull could fix their wheels properly instead...

To be honest, the full FAQ on Red Bull's website makes it sound less arrogant, but still... there is not a single "We are sorry this happened" statement, all you can read is that they are "trying to find out why the wheel wasn't fixed", carefully not writing a single sentence that attaches any blame to themself. And then to turn around and basically say "Well, if the guys wore safety gears..."

Great coment, mate.

 

[Metalfreaky]

I don't really know if it's possible to operate a professional TV camera with a helmet on your head.
Besides the helmet will only protect the people from head injuries and not from (several) broken bones the impact of a flying wheel will cause.
It's certainly not wrong to make the cameraman and other people wear protective clothing, but the cause of all this is a car being released that should have stayed stationary until all wheels were properly fixed.

 

[Emerson Martins]

Pit stops in F1 should be as in the endurance races, with the car been lifted by compressed air machine and with a limited people working on the car. The increase in pit time would make teams think twice to make a pit, helping to stop with this pit race that F1 is today, with a great colaboration of the tyres...

 

[Graham Laing]

If he wants to take that line ...... then I want to see him in a helmet, gloves etc. He is next to the pit lane, and has to cross it every now and then.

Let's go for ultimate safety and have tyres that last 100 laps, and skip the pit stops ..... that would be fun (not).

 

[Martin Maaskant]

Don't turn everything upside down because of one mishap. And I agree with HelmutS, I think RBR could made some sort of apology for that incident.

 

[Markus Neumann]

Wouldn't the "other operational people in the pit lane" also include people on the pit wall, i.e. even Horner himself? After all, a tyre might also bounce in their direction.
Anyway, pit lane speed limit will be reduced to 80 km/h next year, that will help a little bit.

 

[Jordi Casademunt]

Funny, my dad said the exact same thing during the race.

If it's unsafe to be in the pits without any protective gear, it's unsafe for everyone, so I think the suggestion itself is pretty reasonable. This should include the team crew at the pit wall, too (I suppose he's including them).

I don't think there's really a way to make sure the cars are safe before they exit their box. The pit stop crew will push themselves to the limit whatever the format is, so mistakes are bound to happen (specially in situations where a tenth might be the difference between exiting the pits in front of your rival or behind him). Maybe if there were fixed pit times (the car staying at the box 10 seconds regardless of the time spent changing the tyres), but I think that would be a joke of a rule.

 

[Christopher Mattiuz]

Other than a helmet, will pit lane personnel be asked to also have on any kind of protective padding like what an American Football player or motocross racer wears? I imagine the tire hit the guy with the force of a American Football or Rugby player running hitting his opponent at full speed.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I can tell you: it's not possible to operate camera with helmet on. You can barely operate them with the current finders (closed, not the LCD screens) on bright sunlight.

Only way to solve this is to implement minimum pit time, IMHO 4s is good. That would take that one second that you can save by going really really fast (or 1½ when they are breaking records). If you mess it up, it's gonna take longer than 4 seconds anyway. it would give the driver and the pit crew a clear indication that something went wrong. Enough time (lol, a second can be long..) for all 3 corners and lollipop man to recognize which corner has problem and give it the full attention.

The current system was great until they hit the limit, with all the training and ergonomic improvements, ie tools, positions, movements, everything optimized and you can possibly gain another ½s. But with those last tenths, chance for error increases. So in terms of racing, pitstop lengths are not so decisive anymore.

Of course they'd have to invent a proper pit time measurement and indicators for the lollipop man.. Drag race christmas trees come to mind, something like that in the lollipop arm .

 

[ENDR]

And I think they should go back to car refueling - back when it was allowed the tire guys had a comfortable 4-5 seconds to make sure all of the wheels are fixed properly and the car still had to stand there for additional 2 seconds until the refueling was done, during which the lollipop man could assess the situation on the pit lane (of course it didn't always work out ).
Refueling was banned because of safety and cutting costs, but... How many dangerous incidents connected with refueling were there in the last 10 years? A 2 or 3 hoses torn out and some fumes catching fire and burning out instantly - engine fires are much more serious. Compare that to the amount of wheels lost in the last couple of years because of rushed pit stops.
Also - costs of transporting the refueling rigs? Why can't they be in the garages as part of the standard equipment, used in any other racing series?
Oh, and I'm sure the teams wouldn't mind the lower weight of the car at race start and (because of that) less tire wear.

 

[Tony Holder]

Wouldn't the "other operational people in the pit lane" also include people on the pit wall, i.e. even Horner himself? After all, a tyre might also bounce in their direction.
Anyway, pit lane speed limit will be reduced to 80 km/h next year, that will help a little bit.

Quoting an F1 mechanic
'I'm all for keeping us safe but doing something like slowing pitstops down is just going to make f1 very boring'

and

'I think only the people doing a pitstop should be in the pitllane, and helmets etc a must for all!'

 

[Martin Maaskant]

I think that when you slow the pit stops it will take out the competition between the teams. During a pit stop a team has a direct influence on the outcome of a race. Anyway Bernie Ecclestone has made it clear that filming is only allowed from the pitwall so that the end of that discussion.

 

[Tony Holder]

I think that when you slow the pit stops it will take out the competition between the teams. During a pit stop a team has a direct influence on the outcome of a race. Anyway Bernie Ecclestone has made it clear that filming is only allowed from the pitwall so that the end of that discussion.

Can we not talk about this anymore....? What can we discuss now?

 

[Thomas O'Leary]

Have to agree with HelmutS here, an apology isnt hard to come by..

 

[Andi Goodwin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23249596


The FIA has banned media and 'non-essential personnel' from Grand Prix pit lanes after a cameraman was injured at last Sunday's German Grand Prix.

Andi

 

[Martin Maaskant]

Can we not talk about this anymore....? What can we discuss now?

What I meant was that Bernie is making up the rules like a real democrat

 

[Markus Neumann]

What I meant was that Bernie is making up the rules like a real democrat

Corporations aren't supposed to be democratic

 

[Tony Holder]

Emperor Bernie