Carlos Sainz and George Russell are asking the FIA to review the width of the pitlanes
The Ferrari driver and the British driver believe that some access lanes to the pits are currently too narrow, putting team mechanics in danger during the Grand Prix races.
The Dutch Grand Prix undoubtedly left a mark on Carlos Sainz. First, he fell victim to a completely botched pit stop due to a missing wheel. Later, the Spanish driver was penalized for an unsafe release in the pit lane, narrowly avoiding a collision with Fernando Alonso’s Alpine and, according to his own words, almost running over a McLaren mechanic. Earlier, during Ferrari’s terrible mistake, Sergio Perez ran over an abandoned tightening gun on the pitlane while trying to avoid car number 55.
Memories that still seem to give Carlos Sainz cold sweats, but not for the reasons one might imagine. The driver is particularly concerned about the safety of the mechanics during such incidents in particularly narrow pitlanes, like at Zandvoort… And Singapore, the next race on the calendar.
“We need to improve the safety of mechanics, because we forget that these individuals wearing suits and helmets during pit stops are in the middle of cars traveling at 80 km/h, and they are just a few centimeters away from incidents and very dangerous situations,” said the Madrid native to Motorsport.com.
Carlos Sainz is mainly concerned about the risks involved in situations under the Safety Car, when teams rush to bring their cars through the pit lane. « I am worried that one day something might happen if we continue to have these narrow pit lanes and so much is happening, especially when there are multiple pit stops at the same time. »
To find a compromise
The Mercedes driver George Russell, who is also the head of the GPDA, also believes that the FIA should look into this issue. « At Zandvoort, it was clearly too narrow, and something needs to be done about it. It must be quite intimidating for the guys making the pit stop », declares the Brit.
« When you have a car that reaches 60 or 80 km/h, and you take a turn, the tires are cold, the car kicks. So in a circuit like this one, I’m not too sure about the solution. But we need to find a better compromise, » he warns.
Several incidents have occurred in the past in pit lanes that were considered too narrow. In Budapest, in 2010, Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil collided during their pit stop, with the Polish driver being released as the German driver was entering his box.
