A number of Formula One teams experienced issues with their refuelling equipment during yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Toyota, Honda, Williams and Toro Rosso each suffered fuel rig failures, and the most of serious of those resulted in small fires. The incidents have raised questions about the quality of the refuelling systems used in F1.
The fuel rigs may look simple but are actually quite complicated. As fuel rushes into the car’s tank, the rig ‘sucks’ air out, which results in a complex set of values that have to align perfectly for the whole unit to function. The connection is double sealed and no fuel should run through the hose unless it is fully attached to the car.
This isn’t always the case though, and that is what caused some of the issues yesterday. The rig pumps twelve litres of fuel per second so even just a quick spillage is enough to cause a serious problem.
Sebastian Bourdais , Rubens Barrichello, and Kazuki Nakajima sat through minor pitlane fires during the Grand Prix. It was particularly disconcerting for Bourdais, whose car caught fire in both of his pitstops! After the second disastrous stop he had to return to the pits for a third time just to clean off all of the fire extinguishing foam that had made it inside his visor.
Timo Glock also had problem with his fuel rig, but did so without any flames. It is unusual to see so many rig failures in one race and some teams believe it may have been the result of the heat. The unexpectedly high temperatures at the circuit may have caused the fuel to expand and create extra pressure.
The units are supplied by a French company called Intertechnique and the F1 teams are not allowed to modify them, which is something that has always caused frustration. Mechanics and Engineers can control the quality of their own equipment, but there is nothing they can do about the gear provided to them by the FIA.
Interestingly, Intertechnique also make the fuel circulation system for the Airbus A380 which is something that will worry me should I ever have to fly in it!
There may be some calls over the August summer break for the fuel rigs in Formula One to be investigated, and understandably so. Five failures in one Grand Prix is unacceptable, regardless of the temperature (don’t fly with Airbus on a hot day).
However, any actions coming from the Hungarian Grand Prix will be nothing compared to the controversy created by the very first fuel rig failure fourteen years ago.
Modern refuelling was introduced into Formula One in 1994 to improve the show. It added an extra layer of strategy into the racing and also forced drivers to push hard all race rather than spend large amounts of time conserving their fuel and tyres. The practice had previously been banned throughout the eighties because teams unsafely tried to stuff their cars with as much fuel as possible in as short a time as possible. This why they were all given standard equipment in 1994 and told to leave it alone. The FIA made it quite clear that no Grand Prix team should tamper with the fuel rigs.
Not every team obeyed that order.
On lap fifteen of the 1994 German Grand Prix Jos Verstappen pulled into the pits for his first scheduled pitstop. The army of Benetton mechanics flocked around his car as per usual, but what happened next will be forever etched in the memory of those who saw it.
The Benetton fuel rig malfunctioned and sprayed fuel all over the car, and into Verstappen’s open visor. When the liquid touched the white hot exhausts it ignited, and the pitstop erupted into a monstrous fireball that engulfed the car and the nearby mechanics. A thick plume of dark black smoke rose out of pitlane.
The fire was extinguished very quickly and amazingly only five mechanics suffered burns, along with Verstappen who was able to pull himself from the car. Jos was caught in the flames for longer than he should have been because he panicked in the fireball and forgot to take the steering wheel off before jumping out.
The sister Benetton of Michael Schumacher retired with engine problems a few laps later, which was probably a good thing for the team because there would not have been enough mechanics to service him at his next pitstop anyway.
The FIA launched an investigation into the horrendous accident, and discovered the cause of the fuel spill was a valve that failed to close properly. The valve had failed because some sort of debris had got into the rig, and this was only possible because Benetton had removed the system’s filter.
By removing the filter, Benetton had increased the flow rate by 12% and given themselves an unfair advantage.
It might explain how Michael Schumacher jumped Ayrton Senna so convincingly when they made their pitstops together during the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Benetton had already been caught cheating earlier in the year as traction control had been found on the car (the team claimed it had only ever been used in testing) and this latest controversy was the second indiscretion big enough to have them excluded from the sport.
Flavio Briatore and Ross Brawn were in charge at Benetton, and commissioned their own ‘independent’ investigation into the fire. This report concluded that no debris had interfered with the valve and that it was a total rig failure. They claimed the responsibility lay solely with Intertechnique and described the refuelling systems as poorly designed and unsafe.
Benetton’s investigation was ludicrous. They commissioned a company called AFTA (Accident and Failure Technical Analysis Ltd) to run it, but the company contained just three employees, two of which were married, and none of them knew anything about Formula One. Their ‘independent’ investigation was little more than a Benetton press release on ATFA letterhead.
The team also claimed they had been given permission by the FIA to remove the filter, which was obviously not the case because no such authorisation had ever been given in writing.
It seemed almost certain that Benetton would be disqualified from the 1994 World Championship. They had been caught red handed and their defence was unconvincing at best.
Much like the 2007 spy scandal, the matter was to be decided by the FIA World Council.
Amazingly, the FIA decided to hand down no punishment.
It sparked a controversy that continues to ignite passions today, fourteen years down the track.
Benetton won the case because they pleaded guiltily and asked for leniency. By pleading guilty the World Council only had to decide a punishment, rather than establish who was at fault, and it meant the FIA’s lawyers were unable to present all of their damming evidence against Benetton.
The team asked for leniency by providing a letter from Intertechnicque they believed gave them permission to remove the filter. The letter explained how to assemble the rig and use it without the filter, and although it didn’t authorise Benetton to make such amendments, it was enough to impress the World Council.
The team claimed that as a result of this letter, a junior employee thought it was OK to remove the filter and did so without anyone else’s knowledge.
It was a flimsy defence, but the team escaped punishment due to their legal wizardry.
The F1 word was shocked and it robbed the FIA World Council of its credibility. Sounds familiar doesn’t it! Benetton had been caught cheating for the second time and was let off again, which led most people to believe that some sort of FIA manipulation had taken place.
It later turned out that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley met with Benetton’s lawyers before the World Council hearing, and had conspired to win the World Council’s vote.
Formula One was going through an extremely difficult period following Ayrton Senna’s death, and it was imperative the season finished with as little disruption as possible. Excluding Benetton, and Schumacher (Senna’s replacement as top dog) would have had massive repercussions on the championship and would have damaged the sport commercially. They had to work out a way to get the team off scot free, so Mosley convinced Benetton’s lawyers to plead guilty, ask for leniency, and he would back them up himself in the World Council meeting.
It worked and Benetton finished the year as World Champions.
Controversy about the whole ordeal still rages to this day, and those connected refuse to talk about it.
The fuel rig failures we saw yesterday won’t spark anything as serious as that!