The FIA issued a notice earlier this week announcing crackdown on pit stop procedures to slow them down after some teams raised safety concerns.
Starting with the Hungarian Grand Prix, F1 teams must ensure that the response of the car, lowered by its jacks and released from the pit box, is based on human response times rather than automated systems.
The move was welcomed by both Mercedes and McLaren, but Red Bull – the fastest team in the pits this year – called it “disappointing”.
Regarding the new technical guideline for pit stops, Mekies said that while it “wouldn’t cause any trouble” to Ferrari, he was surprised by its timing and thought it would be better to discuss issues first.
“It’s sure to come out of the blue, I would agree with you,” said Mekies.
“I think, without going into the circumstances, I think it’s probably better if we have the chance to all sit together and work these things out with the FIA and the teams, rather than catching a bit of a surprise in the middle of the surprise Season with a TD.
“Ultimately, we understand why that is, but it would probably be nice to sit down and see what it is first.”
Laurent Mekies, Race Director, Ferrari, at the team bosses’ press conference
Photo by: FIA Pool
The pit stop clampdown is the latest in a series of technical guidelines recently issued by the FIA following measures on rear wing flexibility and tire pressure following events in recent races.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner hinted that Mercedes might be behind the pressure to slow down the pit stops, saying: “If you can’t be beaten, then of course the most logical thing to do is for your rivals to try to slow you down and, of course it is obvious. ” happens here. “
But Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff made it clear that the team had not directly pushed for the pit stops to be slowed down, but only asked for a possible system with which it could accelerate its processes.
“We asked the FIA about a safety mechanism that is related to a system we use and whether it could be optimized,” said Wolff.
“That happened three or four weeks ago, I would say. It was a technology question. So did that trigger something else? May be. I dont know. But we asked ourselves this question. “
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