F1

Order of garages

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  • #131335
    Enigma
    Participant

    I was wondering why the majority of the tracks have pitlanes where the best teams get the first garages. It should be like it is in Melbourne and Silverstone, where the world champion’s team gets the garage furthest down the pit lane. It means less traffic and chaos.

    Is there any particular reason it’s not like this at other tracks? Obviously some have better garages at the beginning of the pitlane, but surely not the modern ones?

    #200507
    raymondu999
    Participant

    Both have advantages, the most obvious is a straight drive in or out of the pit box. If it’s at the end, there is a higher possibility of getting caught out by an unsafe release.

    Assuming equal pitstops, and no rule of “unsafe release,” then the two cars will have identical gaps entering and exiting the pits. The unsafe release zone I believe is 30m, though I could be wrong. On the 100 kph pit limiter that’s 1.08s. Meaning the car behind would have to be further than that behind. Assuming equal pitstops, anything less than 1.08s of a gap would mean the car ahead gets caught out by unsafe release rules.

    #200508
    suffolk
    Participant

    I believe the garage order at Silverstone 2011 was changed by Formula One Management due to the location of corporate guest facilities.

    #200509
    Enigma
    Participant

    @raymondu999 Thanks for the effort, but that’s not what I’m asking at all. I’m asking why there’s only two or three tracks that have the pit order of Melbourne.

    It makes more sense to have it that way. The drivers with lower car numbers are usually faster than the cars with higher numbers, so they’re usually ahead.

    A good example is Malaysia. Almost everyone pitted on the first 2 laps after the restart, so there was a lot of traffic in the pitlane. The McLarens and Red Bulls, for example, had midfielders passing them in the pits. Button pitted from 2nd and had quite some traffic – had his pitbox been at the end of the pitlane, that wouldn’t have happened.

    #200510
    raymondu999
    Participant

    What goes around comes around in that respect. Being at the start of the pits mean you get the traffic that’s coming IN to the pits. Being at the end means you get the traffic that’s coming OUT of the pits. Honestly in that respect both ends are equal. But again. It’s like my post above. The added advantage of being at the start of the pits is that as long as you enter the pits less than 1 second behind the car ahead – you’re guaranteed to nab his spot, even if you had only identical pitstops.

    #200511
    Enigma
    Participant

    Imagine this year’s Spanish GP – a crash at turn one that means safety car, and then it starts raining. Let’s say one driver from each team pits. Which of the garage orders would be better for traffic?

    It’s very likely the cars are more or less in the order of their car numbers (not exactly, but more or less – 1-10 will probably be ahead of 16-25). If Red Bull and McLaren are at the end of the pitlane, and they arrive in the pits first, they won’t have any traffic from the midfielders, as those will stop behind them. With usual order, they’d have to wait for midfielders to pass until they could be released, and then they’d have to watch the midfielders diving into their pit boxes.

    Sorry if I complicated it (not my first language…), but I think it should be clear.

    #200512
    raymondu999
    Participant

    There is no free lunch in that aspect. If the field is close enough for you to catch traffic coming into the pits, then you will catch it if they’re coming out too.

    #200514
    George
    Participant

    @Enigma makes a good point, if you’re in the first pit box then you’ll probably have to be ~6sec ahead of the next car to not be caught out by the safe release rules. If you’re at the end pitbox then as @raymondu999 says you’ll only have to be around 1 second ahead.

    #200515
    Kingshark
    Participant

    I’ve heard that the earlier pit box (for the better teams) have better facilities. Is that true?

    #200516
    raymondu999
    Participant

    @Kingshark yes, some circuits’ pit garages are better at the start of the pits.

    @George no you’ve got it reversed. If for example Vettel is following Hamilton into the pits, and they are 1s apart. If theyboth have a 3.5s pitstop, by the time Hamilton should be released, he will get caught out by safe release regs.

    #200517
    Prisoner Monkeys
    Participant

    It should be like it is in Melbourne and Silverstone, where the world champion’s team gets the garage furthest down the pit lane.

    Don’t say that too loudly. Last year, the top teams were assigned the first pit bays, but they were swapped around at the last minute and the top teams were reassignd the last pit bays. This was a problem because the pit lane at Silverstone slopes downwards, and only the first two or three bays are visible to people in the stands opposite the pits. So people who had paid for tickets on the belief that they would be able to see the Red Bull and McLaren pit crews in action instead got to see the Virgin and HRT stops. A lot of people accused Bernie’s people (strangely enough, Bernie himself didn’t get blamed) of swapping the pit lane allcoations around so that corporate guests in the paddock club – over the far end of the lane – would be able to see Red Bull and McLaren and Ferrari.

    #200518
    George
    Participant

    @raymondu999 I can see what you’re saying, enigma and I were talking about a specific situation where there’s a queue of traffic coming in and you’d lose out heavily due to safe release rules. In a one vs one situation you’re correct, the first box is better.

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