FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[toothe]

He came into the pits and left on fire. surely that cannot be safe, anyone know the rules on that situation?

[Irv the Swerve]

Ah the best thing was to send him out, the spray knew its job.

[toothe]

yeah, but is there rules on it?, it would have prolly blown out with the wind speeds if there wasnt any spray but thought they would have a regulation saying you cant leave the pit on fire or something

[Ruby]

I think it was one of those situations where it caught fire just as he was speeding off and there was not time to think as such, good job it was raining so badly heh

[KyrosV]

it was only excess petrol that hit the hot exhaust of the car, the fuel tank would have been sealed so no real problem.

[madbrad]

It just burned away in seconds. Water does not quell a gasoline fire at all. I don't know if there's a rule, but by the time anything could be done, the fire would be out. sitting there waiting could have been more dangerous than driving away. Did Sato even know there was a fire?

[supeindesu]

It was the correct response on that situation (if there's no rain should be different)

[Lewis Hamilton - COME ON!]

well it was funny, but the rain & wind put it out easy!

[ArtHowe]

As Madbrad said, water does not put out a gasoline fire. Gasoline floats on water and putting water on a gasoline fire is more likely to spread the fire than anything else. As it happens, the gasoline was simply overspill and soon burned out.

[stonemonkey]

It's not uncommon and I think the main concern as long as the fuel tank is sealed is that it could damage the rear suspension or tyre. Exactly the same thing happened to schumacher and asked about it afterwards he replied 'what fire?'