F1 - Season 2013 *Spoilers*

[Crowella]

Well I'm not saying I disagree about the dangerous situations occuring to begin with but it's a start.

[Trigger Happy]

Truth, but can you imagine football regulations of the game itself, stadia etc, if associations would be equally hysteric after every single each injury occurring in the sport?

[1nsane]

Well, it was a good decision in a way since there are just way too many people derping around the pits with all the mechanics, Pirelli guys, FIA guys and who knows who else just running across the pit lane waving their arms and being all important.

But the problem is that now FIA just looked at the moment of impact and saw that "hey, it was a cameraman! Let's remove them from the pitlane and everything is fine again for the next 10 years!". Instead they should have looked at the starting point of the accident and have realised that "yep, it was a loose tyre. Let's do something about these unsafe pitstops". The amount of failed tyre changes have become more and more frequent since the banning of refueling. Right now we see about an average of one pit error per race. And who knows how many of these happen outside of the view. They might really want to dig into what is causing these pit errors. Or at least give the teams some more reliable wheel guns if nothing else.

[Doorslammer]

Well, it was a good decision in a way since there are just way too many people derping around the pits with all the mechanics, Pirelli guys, FIA guys and who knows who else just running across the pit lane waving their arms and being all important.

But the problem is that now FIA just looked at the moment of impact and saw that "hey, it was a cameraman! Let's remove them from the pitlane and everything is fine again for the next 10 years!". Instead they should have looked at the starting point of the accident and have realised that "yep, it was a loose tyre. Let's do something about these unsafe pitstops". The amount of failed tyre changes have become more and more frequent since the banning of refueling. Right now we see about an average of one pit error per race. And who knows how many of these happen outside of the view. They might really want to dig into what is causing these pit errors. Or at least give the teams some more reliable wheel guns if nothing else.

The NHRA still has the very occasional death from a wheel impacting a person, but usually this requires an absolutely catastrophic part failure or accident to make this occur (not difficult considering the amount of energy unleashed on such vehicles). F1's loose wheel incidents would be very tricky to police other than an absolutely colossal fine for each incident. This incident should have normally killed someone, there's no ifs or buts about it! But... such is the human condition that things inevitably cock up now and again.

[Crowella]

They've released the list of drivers for the Young Driver's test.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108807

I'll go back to a quote I made in another thread here to sum up my main thought

(Regarding Cecotto after his incident with Bird)... I hope he doesn't get into F1 if that is how he behaves.

[1nsane]

The NHRA still has the very occasional death from a wheel impacting a person, but usually this requires an absolutely catastrophic part failure or accident to make this occur (not difficult considering the amount of energy unleashed on such vehicles). F1's loose wheel incidents would be very tricky to police other than an absolutely colossal fine for each incident. This incident should have normally killed someone, there's no ifs or buts about it! But... such is the human condition that things inevitably cock up now and again.

They should rule a mandatory battery recharge period during the pit stop (plugging it and everything) so they'd surely have enough of time to inspect every possible wheel... 20 times.

But yeah, the guy who got hit by the wheel was in the end lucky with the amount of unluck. It would have propably ended worse had it hit him anywhere else, even the legs.

But regarding the testing, it shows pretty well who are being seriously tried for the future seats. Rigon getting all 3 days (well, 2,5) from Ferrari, Ricciardo getting half a day from Red Bull + another from Toro Rosso, while Vergne has just one half from Toro Rosso shows their focus. And then Frijns and Gonzalez with 2 days are the other very likely ones to be seen in later. The one day drivers, except for maybe Da Costa will propably have to wait a bit longer. And McLaren drivers will wait for their seats for the next 10 years.

Edit: Except that looking at Rigon's past seasons, he might just be an eternal test/show driver for Ferrari. Last good season was in 2010 when he won in Superleague Formula. After that he got 3 points in GP2, got injured in 2011 and was at a handful of races in 2012.

[FRUKIScze]

S. Vettel made a testrun in red formula (probably ferrari) xD

[Mad Dan]

Reminds me of BBQ vehicle Mikko Hirvonen drove couple weeks ago .

[1nsane]

And the knee-jerking continues: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2980 ... eed-limit/

The pit speed limit is lowered to 80 km/h during the races. This will help with the unsafe releases in the cases where someone is let in front of another, but it doesn't really affect the actual tyre change so... Ehhh...

[Michkov]

In other news F1 looks set for a race in Austria in 2014

[Lukeno94]

And the knee-jerking continues: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2980 ... eed-limit/

The pit speed limit is lowered to 80 km/h during the races. This will help with the unsafe releases in the cases where someone is let in front of another, but it doesn't really affect the actual tyre change so... Ehhh...

Let's be honest, the 100 km/h speed limit was stupidly high. 80 km/h is still quite high - that's 50 mph. Not many people would look very pretty if an F1 car hit them at that speed...

[Trigger Happy]

To be honest ... it has nohing to do with the flying wheels. It won't help anyhow to protect people in pit lane from the wheels. So the point to change it? How many people were hurt in past two decades by passing by cars in that 100 kph speed? No real reason to change the speed limits. Nothing can be stupidly high about that limits, when they fulfil their purpose well.

[Lukeno94]

That is entirely the wrong approach to safety, and is precisely why the 1960s and 1970s were such a terrible time for drivers. The time to act is BEFORE an incident happens, not afterwards. And the slower speeds also help reduce the issues with unsafe releases, and also mean that any debris caused by pitlane collisions will be travelling slower and be less dangerous.

[Trigger Happy]

That is entirely the wrong approach to safety ... The time to act is BEFORE an incident happens, not afterwards.

I agree with you and I'd be glad, if it would be followed - but you missed the point entirely. Because now it is precisely opposite situation - ''something happened, so let's change whatever'', doesn't matter if it will help to solve the true core of the urgent problem threatening lives of people in pit lane or not, just deliver a good feeling that something was done.

[1nsane]

So now the drivers will also get a 10 place grid drop for every loose wheel, no matter when it happens. They finally found a way to maybe force the teams to actually check that the wheels are properly attached. After shotgunning rules, one of the four actually hit and stuck.

-80 kph limit affects only the releases in a sense that we will less likely get some collisions at pits. I think this rule was about to come next year anyway, so it was just brought earlier. Although it was still a hasty jump.
-Forcing the cameramen out from the pits removes about 10 people from the path of the devil tires, but there are still many more there. So eh.
-Forcing everyone on the pits to use a helmet is a good and sensible rule and is something that should have been there for years already. They should have forced the fire proof suits while they were at it.

Like Davo said, freak accidents always happen. And you could say the Webber's thing was one too. Or more a case of many things in the line just going wrong. The wheel guy apparently pressed some button too early which informed some other guy the wheel change was done. So then the front jack guy lowers the car too early. So the guy controlling the lights is too hasty and let's Webber go. Webber can't see the light changing back to red and is off. Frankly, this line of errors could have been broken by having some sort of double check in the process.

[Mad Dan]

If there was tanking fuel in pits again then pit crew would have enough time to change tyres and do it properly.

[Doorslammer]

If there was tanking fuel in pits again then pit crew would have enough time to change tyres and do it properly.

Heh, as long as that wasn't a rush job like how the epically terrible Intertechnique refuelling devices were. Those were far too fast themselves and caused more trouble than they're worth. Although a good decent and safe refill would add the time necessary for sure...

[Krisu]

What a boring, dull Vettel-fest once again.

[Krisu]

And again. Congrats for Seb for 4th consecutive title, I'm infinitely happy. yey

[Michkov]

You do know that he is still catchable? It's highly unlikely but still possible.

[Krisu]

You do know that he is still catchable? It's highly unlikely but still possible.

I would bet all my money for his title, it's 99.999 % certain.

[The Noose]

It seems very likely that Kimi returns to Ferrari.

[Trigger Happy]

And Sauber started to sell souvenirs related to Hulkenberg with -50% prize than those identical related to Gutierrez ...

[1nsane]

Massa has now said in the Twitterland that he won't be driving for Ferrari next year. So that's one spot open. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of a rollercoaster it will be between Räikkönen, Alonso, Hülkenberg and Massa.

And as Krisu, I'd bet for Vettel at this point. The rest of the tracks, especially the tilkedromes are just tailormade for Red Bull. And even if Vettel didn't win, the other contenders will eat enough of points off of each other. Or they just lift their hands up in the air and decide to start the race from the back and end up in 9th place.

[bduddy]

And Sauber started to sell souvenirs related to Hulkenberg with -50% prize than those identical related to Gutierrez ...

I saw that elsewhere, but I don't get what it has to do with the driver situation, to be honest. Both sets of merchandise will become obsolete at the same time (because Sauber's numbers will change...) whether Nico leaves or not. Maybe he just has fewer fans?