WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH HONDA'S LOLLIPOP GUY?

Looking for new employment.......

 

He almost took off the driver's head

 

Yep, he dragged it across the car. Maybe he thought he could hold the car down with his brut force.

 

The driver was never going to get hurt. I'm just happy that half the pit crew didn't end up with compound fractures.

 

Yeah, that was unbelievable. I originally thought he dropped the lollipop as a result of the oil line still being attached, but it was still attached as a result of him doing so. So, apparently, he was out in space somewhere. Absolutely careless mistake.

I wonder what Jenson (and the pit crew) thought of that afterwards...

 

Q. What happened with the lollipop man?

JB: I don't know. I think he saw the fuel nozzle move and he lifted it, so it is a tough one - and it is even tougher on the mechanics. A few of them have got some bruises but they are not too hurt which is good.

Anyway, that is something that we can resolve straight away and he is a guy who works so hard on pit-stops, he has done thousands of these things and that is one mistake in all the years I have been here, you cannot be too hard on the guy, it won't happen again.

 

I think the lollipop guy was the chief mechanic Alistair Gibson. If it was him, then it must be an honest once in a lifetime kinda mistake. Alistair has tons of F1 experience.

Let's see what Steve Matchett's comments are when Speed TV replays the race on 4/30. Steve knows Alistair very well.

 

He was only trying to get JB's atttention so he would stop...if he hadn't done that the car would have gooten farther down the pit lane and JB would have lost even more time...job well done IMHO...

 

I think they should go a little more high-tech than a lollipop. Each tire man should have a transmitter they press when their job is complete, and the fuel rig should also send a signal when it's been removed from the car. They can put a red light in the driver's face at the end of the stick that goes green when all the sensors have been triggered. This wouldn't be expensive or difficult to implement and would lessen the chance for this kind of human error in the future.

>8^)
ER

 

This is a great idea, I was thinking the exact same thing. I hadn't extended the idea to the tire guys as well, but that's even better. There should be a sensor on the fuel port on the car that can determine if anything is touching it or not. Just because you heave up on the fuel rig does not mean it's coming out of the port - and that's where the lollipop men get decieved. The sensor will not fall for such a deception.

 

Maybe when they are all done they raise their arms, then a guy at the front points the driver down pit road, like back in the old days.

 

Keep the lollipop man...the last thing F1 needs to do is remove the human element from the sport. Its a team sport and when there is a weakness from either driver or crew, it adds to the sport's flavour. When the team gets it right, it is a thing of beauty...something that shouldn't be overlooked.

Introducing a transmitter would remove all the excitement from the pit stops, and we'll start wondering why more people are not warming to F1.....

 

If anything would happen to those sensors, the driver is either:

1) going to take off with some of the crew still working
2) sit there and suffer a longer pit stop

Nothing is absolutely certain, especially in electronics

 

Good lord... I can only imagine the Ferrari attempt at such complicated electronics! If they ever ran in the rain, the whole system would corrode; the pilot would need a series of redundant systems and warning lights to indicate a failure in the system, and we'd see mechanics switching ECU's from wheel to wheel in an attempt to solve the problems that would certainly arise.

On the bright side, I could sell more Stabilant.


(I'm just waiting for the day Schumi complains about sticky black goo coming from his instrument panel)

 

Anyone hear of any fallout from it yet?

 

Yes... he went back to NASCAR for remedial training:
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ever notice ferrari has a mirror on the back of their lollipop. been there ever since the fire in ms car, don't remember what race it was, but it allows the driver to watch the fuel guy.

 

Soo the chief mechanic makes one mistake and everyone wants him fired??? Ahhyes.

Nearly every team has something like that happen atleast once a season, look at Ferrari and the tyre committee they have sometimes during a race.

Drivers make way more mistakes then the pitstop crew but I dont see anyone here cry foul to get them fired. Montoya loosing it on the parade lap in Melb was 100000x worst mistake, fire him!!! hahaha.

 

I dont know what sort of coverage you get, but the ITV dudes, mention that every race

 

If you do not work in F1, and particularly in the pressurized environment of a team making 10 second or less pit stop, you have no business making negative comments about this small but costly mistake. Luckily nobody was badly injured and the team responded and recovered quickly.

Nobody chastizing this guy here has had a mistake free professional life. I doubt however, if the mistakes you made were broadcast on worldwide television. The man who made the mistake is the Chief mechanic for the team and a long time veteran in F1.

Adding more electronics to F1 is the last thing it needs. And since when are electronic systems problem free. An error with an electronic system would be just as costly and dangerous as a human error.

Mistakes are part of life and racing. Motor racing is slowly loosing the humanizing factors to ever-growing technologies as it is. It is these mistakes that make it interesting. Otherwise they may as well be robot driven and computer controlled.

Eric

 

I totally agree, who cares if it happened. Button always drops back eventually anyway, at least he has a visible reason this time!