11 July 2011

Autosport: British F3 teams drop mandatory pitstops

From Autosport magazine:

The British Formula 3 championship will not feature mandatory pitstops this season. Pitstops were trialled last year in the reversed grid races at Rockingham and on the Silverstone Bridge circuit and were due to take place for the first time this season at the Nurburgring last weekend.

Further pitstop races were planned for Paul Ricard and Rockingham, plus the season finale on the Silverstone GP circuit. AUTOSPORT understands the teams have vetoed pitstops on safety grounds. Formula 3 Teams Association (FOTA) spokesman Peter Briggs said: "The cars aren't designed for tyre-change pitstops. You can have failures on certain components and it's not what we want to see. It's no fault of Dallara, but this year's car is a bit fragile for quick pitstops." Series Manager, Lisa Crampton said: "Safety is the key and I don't want to force something on the teams that's going to cause a safety issue." Crampton and Briggs suggested pitstops could return with the next generation of chassis in 2012.
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