Go with the flow

Refuelling our cars is something most of us do as we go about our days and weeks without giving it much thought. Tank hits empty, we add fuel. Simple as that.

True to form though, by adding an element of time pressure, motorsport takes what are seen as inert tasks and adds some flair and science to them.

The fundamentals don’t change – you add fuel while evacuating air from the tank. In principle, this is not dangerous, but trying to achieve that process as quickly as possible takes us into risky territory.

As time spent in the pits equals time lost on track, there’s a clear motivation to deliver the required fuel as rapidly as possible, a motivation which has resulted in some famous refuelling accidents involving technician or driver error and equipment malfunction.

In efforts to improve the safety of motorsport, regulations have been updated and adjusted over the years in various ways. Refuelling is no different.

Significant investment

Using Formula 1 as an example, in-race refuelling has featured in the championship on and off many times over the last decades, before most recently being abolished in 2010 for both financial and safety reasons. Up to that point, it was an area of significant investment, culminating in a six-person operation using equipment adapted from the aerospace industry.

Being aircraft technology adapted for motorsport, the refuelling equipment was designed to a different set of engineering requirements, and featured a long stroke to reach full engagement. ‘This could cause issues as, during disconnection, it was susceptible to jamming, with the probe not fully disconnecting from the car side receptacle,’ comments Matt Hawkins, motorsport specialist in the connectors division at Stäubli. ‘There were some incidents where the lollypop man set the driver off whilst the equipment was still coupled.

‘Some of the earlier refuelling systems also suffered from deterioration of the seals due to the bio-ethanol content of