F1 cars to go electric-only in pit lanes. Discuss.

z31maniac wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: Really? All this bitching and whining as a result of electric only in pits?

All change is bad! rabblerabblerabblerabblerabblerabble

Haha!

carguy123 wrote: As we've seen in the last couple of years there can be some very dangerous situations in the pit lanes. Electric won't stop all of them, but it will help with some. And who said they'd be silent. I haven't seen anything that says the engine must be turner off, only that electricity be the motivation power. And with all the other cars 5' away on the track how do you tell if the loud gas motor is a pit car or one on the track, so that's a non issue.

maybe they should change the way pit stops are done- make it more like NASCAR where no one goes over the wall until the car is coming into the pit box, and the car can't leave the pit box until all tires and the all crew members are back on the wall side of the car.

but then they wouldn't have their seemingly amazing 5 second pit stops any more, and the crew members would actually have to do something more than take off a nut and put a nut back on. it would make it more of a team effort, with more opportunities for someone in the pit crew to make a stupid mistake and cost them a race or do something truly amazing and win them the race..

i do like how they don't have built in air jacks on F1 cars like a lot of other race series do, tho.

carguy123 wrote: As we've seen in the last couple of years there can be some very dangerous situations in the pit lanes.

The vast majority of safety issues in the pits were down to refueling. And that's gone.

triumph5 wrote: Wait until the first mechanic or driver is burned by an electrical short or worse. Then KERS and this ridiculous rule will be eliminated.

It's already happened. An older issue of Racecar Engineering (nice mag) had an article about a BMW mechanic who was electrocuted by the KERS.

This is F1. If drivers get killed, that's a problem, but if the people behind the scenes get killed, it can be shuffled under the rug.

If DRS use was unlimited, there'd be no point in having it.

As far as safety in the pits, if I remember correctly, there is a LOUD beep/beep/beep, anytime a car has entered pit lane.

I thought the cars looked cooler in the 70s. Why did they have to change them?