Watching the motorsport media in this country go apoplectic over the fact that the Supercars are playing second fiddle to both Formula One and Formula Two at the Australian Grand Prix has been nothing short of hilarious. This being the Australian Formula One Grand Prix weekend, means that the world's biggest motorsport circus by value and second biggest by volume (F1 is way smaller in terms of numbers of haulers compared with NASCAR) than has rolled into town, and Supercars have been consigned to big marquee tents in the infield at Albert Park.
I think that it is something of a rude shock to the Supercars teams, that they are in fact the support category to something which is much larger than they. Supercars is usually the headline category at the facilities that they travel to and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix weekend might very well be the only date on the calendar when they are on the undercard. Supercars now find themselves in the same position which many smaller categories are in, week in and week out; which hopefully might mean that as a category they might be forced to learn some degree of empathy. I suspect not though.
The garages proper on pit lane have been firstly allocated to Formula One obviously, while the remaining garages have been given to Formula Two. That also applies to where all of the haulers have had parking allocation, with Supercars being given the secondary overflow yard which is outside the circuit on the Village Green. Logistically speaking, this means that any and all equipment, must be brought in and out of the circuit via the tunnel which is underneath the final corner at the circuit. Perhaps as a concession, there will not be any pit stops in the Supercars race; which means that whatever happens on track is immediately consequential.
Supercars' management has had to issue special regulations which are additional to the Further Supplementary Regulations Manual, to stipulate what kind of equipment that the teams will be allowed to use in pit lane. As this was sent in an email, I shall not link to that but the special regulations are as follows:
5.14.1 Service Vehicles must be one (1) “pushable tyre rack” and one (1) “pushable trolley” fitted out to carry the necessary equipment including a maximum of two (2) laptops and two (2) monitors per Team and one (1) tablet per Car.
5.14.1.1 There is no provision for electrical supply in Pit Lane. Equipment carried on the trolley must be self-powered.
5.14.1.2 Trollies should be lined up at the allocated garage at Pit Entry at the same time as Cars are called to move to the Marshalling Area.
5.14.1.3 When directed, these service trolleys must be pushed direct to Pit Lane following the directions of Officials.
5.14.1.4 The pushable tyre rack and pushable trolley must be stationed against the pit garage wall in the working lane, in a location as directed by the MOM. The allocated area per Car is designated at 5m wide x 2m deep.
5.14.1.5 For all sessions, each Team is permitted only one (1) pneumatic wheel gun in Pit Lane per Car.
5.14.2 At the end of the relevant session or race, when directed to do so, the trolleys must move back along Pit Lane to the Pit Entry end, then back to their Paddock Area.
- Further Supplementary Regulations, Supercars, 20th Mar 2024.
This is all good and proper and interesting but what this points to is the possibility that maybe, Supercars could adopt what has been use in NASCAR since about 1970; that is, warwagons.
A warwagon is basically a portable trailer thing which contains a good amount of useful spare parts, the communications equipment to talk to drivers on the fly, as well as the battery packs which enable the teams to run their electric rattle guns for changing tyres. As the warwagons are incredibly portable, then the individual cars can be rearranged up and down pit lane, based not just upon the teams' position in the championship but upon the teams' election of where they would like to be as a result of qualifying. The warwagons mean that NASCAR teams can run pitlane operations at places where there aren't garages, or in the case of Bristol and Martinsville where there isn't even anything apart from powerpoints on a concrete surface.
The space in front of a warwagon on pit lane, can be defined as simply as painting boxes on the road. Since nothing is allowed over the wall when cars are not being serviced, then the chances of stuff being damaged, cars being damaged, or people being damaged is far smaller. Also, as individual car places are determined by qualifying and the big warwagon dance which follows means that team mates aren't next to each other, this also effectively eliminates that dreaded notion of double stacking as cars do not share the same space.
At the extreme other end of the level of facilities is the Formula One garage. Formula One teams dress their garages with floor liners, entire workshops of parts and pieces, the necessary pit lane equipment, the rattle guns and the pit boom which houses the refuelling equipment. A Formula One pitstop has been brought down to as little as 2 seconds and may have as many as eighteen people in an orchestrated dance. In contrast a NASCAR pitstop has just six crew members allowed over the wall.
Supercars thinks that it would like to be Formula One with its use of pit booms; but what this invariably means is that this merely gives the teams yet another excuse to leave the shop closed to new teams. In a Supercars pitstop at Bathurst; which might involve changing brake pads, there still can be as many as ten crew members in the service of the vehicle.
If I was Grand Poohbah And Lord High Everything Else, then I would make Supercars adopt the use of NASCAR's warwagons. For a start only having six people in pitlane when cars move through, is safer. Secondly, by switching to NASCAR's warwagons it would mean that they would not need a pit boom. The chap carrying the fuel can in NASCAR, is lifting 11 gallons on his shoulder. 11 gallons is 41.635L which is 38kg of fuel. I probably could not lift that kind of weight but there are plenty of beefy lads in a NASCAR pit crew who can. This also means that a NASCAR fuel drop only happens at the rate of flow that gravity will allow through the nozzle.
By making teams use warwagons instead of the current pitboom system, means that the teams actually fit into a smaller area; as well as being able to fit into pitlanes of more spartan conditions. Places like Symonds Plains, Winton, and Wanneroo, would be able to accomodate more teams and it even opens up the possibility of running rounds of the championship at places with less than stellar facilities. Imagine being able to rock up at Wakefield Park, Lakeside, or even inside Olympic Park at Homebush. It would be ace. Even with the meagre facilities pictured here, with the adoption of NASCAR's warwagons could open up all kinds of possbilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment