1994 German GP (Jos Verstappen): The most catastrophic fire of the era occurred at Hockenheim. Benetton mechanics removed a safety mesh filter from the Intertechnique fuel rig to increase fuel flow. Fuel sprayed over the hot engine, instantly creating a giant fireball. Verstappen suffered burns to his face.
1995 Belgian GP (Eddie Irvine): Fuel spilled from the nozzle onto Irvine's Jordan-Peugeot car bodywork during a standard stop, triggering an immediate flash fire that engulfed the rear cockpit before being extinguished.
2003 Austrian GP (Michael Schumacher): A damaged internal rubber seal on the Ferrari fuel rig caused fuel to drip directly onto the scorching engine cover. The crew sprayed extinguishing foam over the flames and Schumacher, who calmly waited, stayed in the race, and won.
2008 Singapore GP (Felipe Massa): An automated electronic pit light system mistakenly turned green before the fuel nozzle was detached. Massa drove away, ripping the fuel hose completely out of the rig. Highly flammable fuel leaked along the entire length of the pit lane, though it miraculously did not ignite.
2009 Brazilian GP (Heikki Kovalainen & Kimi Räikkönen): In the final year of refueling, Kovalainen prematurely tore away from his McLaren pit box with the fuel line still locked into his car. As he dragged the hose down the pit lane, fuel sprayed backwards directly onto Räikkönen’s Ferrari, sparking a terrifying flash explosion over Räikkönen's vehicle
You would think by now they could develop an insertion mechanism that slides the refueling hose into the car easier. Looking back at refueling, that seemed to be the main culprit in slow stops--getting the refueling nozzle into the car smoothly to get the fuel flowing. If they can get that worked out, it would be a big improvement in consistency and speed, imo.
F1’s first pressurised refuelling system by cobbling together a large diameter hose and a pair of aluminium beer kegs which were pressurised to 30PSI and could pump 30 gallons (136 litres) of fuel into the car in approximately 3 seconds. It was introduced in 1982 and banned for 1984
F1 next in-race refueling in 1994, utilizing advanced Intertechnique gravity-fed and pressure-assisted fuel rigs sourced from aircraft refueling system. Designed to pump 12 liters of fuel per second and weighed about 250 to 350 kilograms
If the FIA decides to bring back refueling for the new PU regs, could we see it before as way to fix the lack of ICE power, maybe for 2028? Smaller fuel tanks and removing the fuel flow limit?
Gotta admit he is saying numbers in that interview that sound really good.
Return to NA V8's, 700Kg weight (still too heavy, but moving in the right direction), small gas tank, return of refueling, only 10-15% or so for battery PU percentage of power (which would be PERFECT). Those are all huge plusses. Homeboy sounds like he is putting together a package of studies to present a case to the FIA to go NA V8’s asap. Maybe even 2029? Dare to dream for 2028??
Would love to see refueling return. Refueling would really add to the strategy mix, and that would be fantastic. A return to the Schumacher 4 stop strategy on the fly would be epic in races.
Would like to see midfield be able to have their own engines. If Cosworth heads that up, it would be a good project, imo. Those guys helped RB this year and the RB ICE has been claimed to be #1.
I have no idea how they would police some teams going turbo and some teams NA. Seems there could be ample room there to cheat that extra 2-4% that makes the difference between first place and not making the podium…but maybe that’s intentional to make some room for back room deals.
Going to an NA V8 is against saving weight. He's saying nonsense that turbo adds weight. But large NA engines with their fuel consumption adds a lot of weight as well as adding two more cylinders.
And that it "takes away noise". Interestingly Indycar also with V6 hybrids has a lot more appealing sound.
Refuelling is dreadful. It results in people in contention never meeting on the circuit when they're on a different strategy. Or when they do it's flyby passes, like with DRS, just worse.
