Timing is the pits for Nick.

That rule is just sooo silly. I have no idea what was the original idea but I certainly have a hard time seeing anything good about it.

Bingo, Thomas.
It's retarded. The original idea may have been to increase safety in the pits during a SC period, but this rule has to be filed under 'W', for 'What were we thinking??'

How ironic would it be if it had happened to either Kimi, FA, or LH during Interlagos last year? Imagine the WDC being decided by some asinine, harebrained BS like this.

This rule is complete madness.
Why not ask the teams what lap they will be pitting and if the pit lane has to be closed for general use you can use it if you have allocated yourself a spot.
I.E if you plan to stop on lap 23 if a safety car comes out you can still stop

all they need to do is close the pit lane, then re-open it quicker, it takes too long atm, when the safety car comes out, everyone slows down, then as the saftey car approaches the pitlane entrance next time by, the pits open. at the moment its like two laps causing cars to run seriously low on fuel.

and tbh, the teams know this rule is in place currently, so they should be stopping before they get to such a low fuel level that should a saftey car come out, they wont run out of fuel on that lap, so it is partly BMW fault, but yes, theyre trying to get to the front etc etc but still, they know the rules.

well...

if You refuel during safety car u simply loose less distance to other cars than if you would refuel under normal conditions ( others drive slower and you can easily catch up after leaving the pits )

current ruling forbids entering pits UNTIL moment when all cars cue up nicely behind safety car. aim is to force person taking advantage in pitting under safety car to go on the last spot in cue but it creates big issue for those unlucky who run out of fuel before pits are open.

i bet they will change this rule soon and will allow cars to Enter pits under safety without any restrictions, instead they will hold those cars IN the pits under red light until last car in field passed.

They need to stop bringing the safety car out when the track is not blocked. There was no reason for the safety car this weekend.

When it is on track and someone must pit the stewards should hold them in their pit box until any advantage is negated.

If everyone is already bunched up behind the safety car they are going to loose more positions than if there was no safety car.

The best solution is to get rid of refueling. Bring back the sub five second pit stops.

Mark_

no need for the safety car this weekend? you have got to be joking!

so risk marshalls lives to clear debris on the track, if you dont clear the track, risk a drivers, look what happened to Kovalienen, his accident rumoured to be caused by debris. and for his accident with the race continuing, the medical car is supposed to race other cars to that position on the track? to help extracate him from the car. and risk more marshalls lives by sending them to a place where a car can clearly have anther accident. if one cars gone their, another car too.

i cannot believe this i have just read that comment

I just don't see what's so terrible about someone pitting during SC periods to gain some ground? One minute they want to stir things up, hell, they even talk about having a starting lineup based on the reversed WC standings, and the next minute they pull something like this. BS.

And I have to say I much prefer seeing someone get lucky and benefit from these circumstances every now and then than to see someone have their race ruined for no reason, like NH in Spain. The old pit rules did stir things up, because you'd have to gamle on going in or not going in depending on your original strategy.

Besides, who wanted this? Have the pit crews complained about not being safe? I think not.

bounceback - I was actually thinking of the first safety car at the start of the race when I wrote my response. Do you really feel that one was necessary?

The safety car was justified for HK's medical extraction.

It just seems they are a little quick to send out the safety car these days. It is getting more like Indycar with all of the full course yellows to keep the field bunched up.

Thanks for being so quick to hurl an insult my way!

To be honest i like the concept that drivers aren't allowed to dive into the pits as soon as the safety car appears on track. possibly if they were to change the rules to allow the penalty to be taken under the safety car period (i.e the driver forfeits his position to the back of the pack) it would be a fairer rule. i thought Heidfeld was unduly punished.

Also, why a 10 second stop/go and not just a drive through??

Backbeat, that's exactly the problem with F1 today! They can't admit a rule was bad and go back, instead they add new rules to compensate for the first bad rule, thus making everything more complicated and less entertaining. I mean, what the hell?

"Yeah, you can go into the pits during SC, but then you have to go into the pits twice."

MMMHM yeah that makes sense. Please.