Say a car's fuel consumption is unexpectedly high, perhaps a software problem that causes the engine mapping to go to "high power - low economy" and it can't be changed. Any scenario will do that causes a car to have an anomalously high fuel consumption. And the team realises that the car won't make it to the end of the race.

Is it possible to refuel the car and incur a penalty, for example? I remember with the no tyre changeing rules from 2005, that it was possible to replace a damaged tyre within certain restrictions, IIRC.

So is there a way for a car to refuel? Or is the car doomed to retire?

They are doomed to retire as they always used to be, becuase there is no in-race refuelling anymore. Can't see how you could differentiate between a software glitch and a team trying to pull a fast one. If they've genuinly made an error and run out of fuel it would most likely happen without warning away from the pits anyway.

Yup, if you're out of fuel, you're out of the race and that's it.


I have a penalties-related question: how is the 'safe release' area in the pits measured during the race? I must have missed it entirely, but Brundle and Legard said that any car released whilst other car was approaching (read: was closer than a certain distance, 25 yards?) will be given a penalty. Are GPS readings accurate enough for that?

Good question.

Maybe the car's telemetry will be used to decide. If a release looks close by eyeball check to see if it caused undue braking?

I believe they said that each team had markers in the pitlane to indicate the minimum distance a car had to be to permit them to release their car. It sounds complicated.

You can't refuel quickly now. It lasts a couple of minutes to put fuel into the car. So it would be totally pointless to do it during the race...

Yeah 55m is the distance. I assume they use gps to police it. An improvement in my view, much more precise than one guy interpreting 'safe release', easier to make it the same for everyone and hopefully no more of those scary moments going side-by-side past crews in the pitlane.

I've heard about it but where is it written in the rules?

It's actually not very complicated. There's a marker down the pitlane for each team. If there's a car between that and your pit, a release would be considered unsafe.

Yes, I get that, but how do they policy it? Cars are moving at 100 km/h in the pits, enforcing such a rule without a fool proof mechanism of checking whether the rules were breached is letting a door wide open for controversies and I haven't heard anything about additional sensors being installed all along the pitlane. Human eye won't do the job - there is plenty of mistakes in football when it comes to player being offside, and in here lollypop man is required to judge whether a car approaching him at 100 km/h is 54 or 56 yards from here at a given moment. That's about half of a football pitch lenght, I think judging whether stationary cars would be just behind or in front a marker would be hard enough, but at 100km/h? There has to be a system to make it work, but I haven't heard anything about it. It could be GPS, but I had no idea those things can be that accurate when it comes to fast moving objects.

Correct, the maximum flow rate is now 0.8ltrs/sec I believe.

Plus they'd have to push the car into the garage and take off the engine cover to do it.

Makes sense.

Though watching cars on a motorway I know it's not that difficult to tell if a car is past a stationary object. Remember, the lollipop man doesn't have to judge the distance, but whether the car is in front or behind something, which is much easier. Presumbly all they need to do is review the video in a controversial situation. I reality I don't know, I'm just guessing.

I suppose in answer to the original question. Yes, there is a penalty for refuelling: Disqualification from the race.

As others have said there would be no advantage to doing it anyway because of the limited fuel flow rate and having to remove the bodywork which would take far too long.

To answer my own doubts: they're not going to policy it rigidly, the 55 meters rule is a recommendation, not an actual rule.

its not a rule it is only a guideline

Doomed.

What's the penalty for not slowing down in FP when the red flags are waving?

Fine?

MSC overtook a car under red flags during one of the practice sessions in Hungary in 2006, but can't recall whether it was on Friday or Saturday, the penalty was I think a second or something added to quali time in each but don't quote me on that.

Difficult habit to break, I suppose.

proove he didnt slow down he was nearly 3 tenths up on his time but only .050 when he crossed the line

It doesn't work like that. It's up to driver to slow down enough so stewards know they did. Setting up the fastest time it's certainly not the way to do it. I think he will be given a fine this time.


edit: ok, so in 2006 Alonso brake tested someone during the Friday practice and got a 2 seconds penalty in qualifying for that. Schumacher overtook two cars (Alonso and Kubica) during red flags conditions during the Saturday practice, same penalty. So it's a possibility that MSC will be in troubles on Saturday, but I still think he will get away with a fine.

If it's not a rule how can there be a penalty if the guideline is ignored?

I dunno either.

But that's what Andy Stevenson said.