Does Expediency Come With A Cost?

Ferrari, F1, AGP. (C)

    The racecar bids a hasty retreat to the pitlane. It grinds to a hurried halt in its pitbox. A mechanic aggressively wields a large mallet repeatedly at the recalcitrant locking nut on the wheel. After successfully removing the nut, he replaces the wheel with another sporting fresh rubber. He then repeats the process while another tops up the fuel for the thirsty machine. A glancing wipe of the small windscreen by another mechanic after passing the driver a drink. Remember, only four mechanics are allowed in the pitlane to service the car. Suddenly the driver lights up the rear tyres and they're off to rejoin the race. An excellent stop a little over 60 seconds. That's how pitstops were during Formula One's infancy in the 1950's.
    Fast forward 30 or so years to the 1980's and pitstops under 6 seconds were widely celebrated. Now since 2013, pitstops under two seconds are considered the norm, and are what the teams consistently strive for. The pit crews are well drilled, practising pitstops ad nauseam. Orchestrated, synchronized motion amongst over 20 mechanics if you will.
    Pitstops used to be controlled by a lollipop man (usually the chief mechanic) who gave the driver indication when the pitstop was complete and safe to leave the pitbox. In 2008, Ferrari were the first to use a lighting system instead of the lollipop man. However, after Felipe Massa left the pitbox with the fuel hose still attached in Singapore, shelved the system until it could be "perfected". By 2011's season end, all teams were adopting some version of the lighting system.
    But is the system truly perfected? 2013's German Grand Prix saw Mark Webber's Red Bull leave the pitbox with a loose wheel, which decided to detach itself and strike a pitlane camerman. Now in 2018 we've seen a raft of unsafe pitstop releases that can be attributed in some part to the indiscreet nature of the lighting system. Fernando Alonso suffered a loose wheelnut which rendered his McLaren a 3-wheel F1 car in winter testing. Haas squandered their best possible finish at Melbourne with both cars retiring with cross threaded wheelnuts in quick succession. Which brings us to Bahrain. Ferrari were fined 5000 euros in practise and 50000 euros in the race for unsafe releases. The race incident resulted in Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini sustaining a multiple fractured leg. The system relies on sensors to detect that the wheels are on the car, then automatically drops the jacks, thus triggering the green light. The sensors cannot differentiate whether the nuts are fitted correctly, or for that matter, if the wheel has actually been changed. It can however be overridden.
    So, in the relentless quest to gain a few tenths of a second, is safety being compromised? Do humans actually have quick enough reactions to override the system before the green light is triggered? Anyone who knows anything about safety knows that if you are presented with two options to achieve the same objective, you always choose the option that creates the least exposure to risk. Does this work for F1 though? One could argue that Ferrari's tentative, yet methodical pitstop at the next race in China could have cost Sebastian Vettel the position due to Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas' undercut. Should there be an element of danger left so as to not diminish performance? Or has lap time demands through technology brought safety levels into question? Wonder what the 1950's mechanic brandishing his mallet would say....        

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