Yahoo Movies Formula 1 Wants Teams To Stop Climbing the Pit Wall
It is a familiar sight at the end of a Formula 1 race: crew members of the winning team climbing to the top of the pit-wall fence and leaning over toward the track to wave the winner home. It happened in both of this season's races. And, now, Formula 1 is threatening to enforce an existing rule that would ensure it never happens again.
As Motorsport reports, F1's race-directing team noted in pre-race safety notes for the Australian Grand Prix that a ban this is already in place. The quoted rule notes that teams are technically not supposed to cross into the pit lane unless they are actively moving to work on a car. While that has traditionally been ignored in the name of celebration, the pre-race notes explicitly state that "it is forbidden to climb on the pit wall debris fence at any time."
While the text may be vague, the Motorsport report suggests that this is part of a clear action against climbing up debris fences to avoid both the risk of a crew member falling onto the track and the risk of someone dropping something over the fence that could instead impact a car or driver. Although it would presumably be a violation of the rule being quoted, the report also states that leaning out the openings in the debris fence that exist for pit-sign communication will remain legal during post-race celebrations.
The new decision makes sense, but Australia is a strange place to begin enforcing it. As the story also states, Melbourne is the rare track that does not actually have a barbed wire debris fence between the pit lane and the track surface. It instead has clear glass, which cannot be climbed anyway.
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