Why Don't F1 Cars Refuel? 

Watching a driver allow himself to be overtaken in order to save fuel has to be one of the most depressing scenes in modern F1.

Correction - refueling was actually banned in 1984. They allowed it back in 1994, to again ban it in 2010.

Totally agree with the safety considerations you documented... Totally understand why refueling was eliminated... Totally want to see it back.

last time i watched Formula 1 was when i was a kid and Schumacher was driving for Ferrari battling with Hakkinen, good old times

“Love of my life, Schumacher”. Charles Leclerc will remember that

Everytime I think refuels I just see Jos Verstappen

In Argentina, when Irvine started the race on extremely low fuel, shot off in front of everyone so he could allow Michael through, after his pit stop, and then hold up the pack. It made for an exciting race to see if they could pull it off. I don't think refuelling should return, but there needs to be an element added that creates another kink in the way teams think about strategy, that can be kept secret from all their competitors, and isn't revealed until the race is already under way.

I liked the strategy back then. NASCAR has something called compression cautions which kinda help but are designed moreso to get the cars bunched again for a restart, but still have other pit windows. Fuel strategy had always been apart of all circuit racing, so I'm just used to it and it does hold an element of drama.

It's been so long since I've watched F1, that I never knew they were NOT refuelling anymore. :o

"The scream" Nice move. Kinda like VETTEL

When I came back to watching F1, it didn't take long for me to notice the absence of refueling. IMO not only safer, it is actually a better way to judge driver's performance overall, reducing the overwhelming maths theorycraft the engineers have to do, whilst giving more of an equal plain field for the drivers to show their capabilities, which are almost overlooked as the championship develops to which team has the best chassis and engineers.

There was also a period of time from 1984-1993 where refueling was also banned. Where (during the 80's turbo era) they were made to work with an increasingly restrictive fuel tank size to slow down the cars during the races, force them to conserve fuel. It was reintroduced in 1994 and at the time there was understandable anxiety with the implementation. Jos Verstappen's pit fire at Hockenheim was what the teams had feared (a big fire in the pit lane) so as soon as the fuel splashed, they were reaching for fire extinguishers to douse it even as the fire ignited on the ~800°C brake discs. This is why the fire was contained so quickly and why there were no serious injuries

Fun fact: During the F1 opening titles, when Max Verstappen comes on screen, the fuel incident of his father Jos is shown in the background.

I always think about Massa from Singapore 2008 when I think about refuelling

I started watching F1 in recent years and I don't categorize myself as hard-core but something like refueling which adds another dimension to team strats would be fun to watch. We all love chaos.

The monetary and safety arguments against refueling in F1 seem ludicrous when you consider every other major racing series pulls it off using lower budgets and without cars turning into fireballs all the time. As for it making less of a difference because of smaller tanks - less difference is not the same as no difference. With the 0.3 sec per 10 kg rule of thumb a car with half a tank would still run 1.5 seconds faster per lap than one with a full tank and that's pretty significant. Lastly, saying it's confusing to casual fans is funny when you consider all the other craziness F1 implements. So you mean to tell me putting gas in a car is more confusing to a spectator than some weird aerodynamic gimmick to allow overtaking that sometimes is available to a driver and sometimes not? I'd like to see refueling back myself to add to race strategy and make things more unpredictable but one subtle argument against it that wasn't spelled out in this video is the environmental side. F1 made the switch to hybrid cars for environmental concerns despite most everyone knowing that the cars themselves are a drop in the ocean compared to the pollution moving the whole F1 circus around makes. By banning refueling F1 keeps up its image of environmental consciousness by not showing nasty, polluting gasoline being put in the cars during a race. Politics and image ultimately are two of the biggest factors in modern F1 and that environmental aspect will keep refueling out of F1 forever now.

I love the blistering speed of the current pit stops. Somehow watching them leisurely change the tires while waiting for the fueling to complete doesn't have the same feel of precision and skill adding to the team effort to win...

Just add a switch that disengages the clutch when the hose is in the car. Bam, no early runaways

First time I see a video from this channel and ... wow! Very good video. Informative, entertaining and brilliant editing. I subscribed for those reasons.

I grow up with refuel was allowed and it was amazing to watch it and gave so much thinking of what strategy will a certain team use

The moment when Massa likely won his one-and-only title End up in leaving the box with fuel pipe unplugged

Loved the pit stops when they could refuel. It made the races a little more dynamic.

Yes! I just re-watched the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix - multiple pit stop strategies, Michael starting last and finishing 8th! Overtaking galore! Not to mention Kimi retiring from the race and walking directly to the marina and into his leased Yacht. Caveats: 1. Maximum 110KG per car for the entire raceday. 2. Each car has a 25L Fuel Cell, (guaranteeing a minimum 3 stop strategy, up to 5). 3. Car must start with Q2 tyres. 4. In Q3, remaining 10 cars fuel their car once at the beginning of the session and are not allowed to add fuel. The more laps they do to try to get pole position, the less fuel they have to start the race. Lots of strategy possibilities there! What about Maximum 7 - 10 people allowed to service the car during a pitstop?

The reason for banning after 2010 was, Ferrari had bad refuling incidents for the past 2 seasons, so FIA (Ferrari International Assistant) called them off

Narrator: "Why don't F1 cars refuel" Me: *having flashbacks of Jos Verstappen in Vietnam War*

Everyone keeps bringing up the new regs as if Mercedes aren't going to be 3 seconds faster than everyone else in Australia in 2022.

I think the reasons for getting rid of it were all valid and it's probably for the best but I still miss it quite a lot. Because yes, it opened up the strategy to something other than tyres.

At the isle of man one team (Hector Neill? I think, not sure) checked the rules for replacing the fuel tank during a pit stop. Nothing in the rules regarding it. So on the pit stop, empty fuel tank was removed and replaced by a full fuel tank, and was out of the pits really quick. The main rival to that team I believe was Philip McCallen? Who saw his rival leaving pits, told his crew to hurry up, left the pits with not the right amount of fuel, ran out of fuel and had to retire. The team who replaced the fuel tank won the race. The rules were changed after to prevent this happening again.... However the point I am getting to is, what about a fuel tank that is primed and ready to go to be slotted in like a cartridge after the empty tank has been removed during a pit stop.

Since they banned refuelling, I love the emphasis the teams have had to put on changing tyres as quickly as possible when they come in for a pitstop. The mechanics have done so much practice to get it down to the ~2 seconds we see today and it would be sad to see that made obsolete by bringing back refuelling.

Tbh the only reason I'd want refuelling back is to allow Williams the space in their car to use flywheel energy storage that they developed. That shit is so cool

F1 races are short enough to not need refueling. I would like to see some long races as well.

Hell ya, refueling was amazing, gave so much complexity to the race.

Me: doesn’t remember Jos Verstappens pit stop Cool guys don’t look at explosions

I didnt even knew there was no refueling anymore lol

I am a casual F1 and would def like to refueling added to races. The first lap of a race is breathtakingly exciting. Then it's just the two black and silver cars out front followed in order by the teams with the most money. I would think any variable would be good and more passing (whether in the pits or not) would be better, imo.

1:01 - More like "There was constant push towards saving as much money as possible on things that provided excitement for the spectators, in order to allow Bernie Ecclestone to extract an ever increasing amount money from the sport each year!"

one of the problems with refuelling was that, although there was a lot of overtaking, pretty much all of it was done off track

It could be simple. Keep the rule that f1 use two different compounds during the race and refueling must be completed before tires can be changed. Same as road racing series. It would make races much more interesting

Based upon the logic behind refueling, not allowing tyre changes would make it even easier to follow for the casuals and save even more money. Having gears adds unneeded cost and complexity as well. All of those curves and turns probably confuses casuals and drives up costs as well. For that matter, a single course would cut back on travel expenses, and the casuals would arguably not notice anyway.

I don't remember it quite the same way. I remember refuelling being one of the anchors around F1's necks, dragging strategy to the point where more of the overtaking was done in the pits during fuelstops.

WTF1 see to be reading my mind lately, I question or think about F1 then the next day they upload a video about it

1994 was the last dangerous moment with refueling. It was 100 % safe. I would love for it to come back. The uncertainty was magic. Seeing a driver push like crazy in the stint-end was great. Overcut was great to see. With how strong undercut is now, it would be even better

Refuelling is not just dangerous to the driver and pit crew, it’s also dangerous to others. This got proven when, as pictured but not mentioned in the video, Kovalainen took off with the hose still attached and sprayed Räikkönen (driving behind) with fuel that then ignited, giving Kimi a nasty surprise.

Every year they say the changes will make it easier to overtake!

Mean while I'm here just finished watching a replay of the V8 supercars goldcoast 600 where the fuel strategy help win the race. Fill up with less fuel to undercut their main rival for position, then race on a leaner setting and race defensively to hold off second place who was racing on max fuel use. Differing pit strategies make the racing more exciting, instead of just changing the tires. It also allows for much longer races including enduro events.

So i'm new to f1 and i think the best way i learn things and catch up all about is f1 is your channel thank you!

Like any sport, Formula 1 is an evolving story. Strategies change, regulations change, training changes, technology changes, the fans change. I for one find all of these interactions fascinating. I think the sport should pivot away from passive aero and embrace active aero. Not in the form of shape shifting aerodynamic surfaces or suspension set ups, but in the form of a single fan with a regulated max power output. Play with the shape of the underbody, play with the placement and control of the fan and do away with wings. Implemented wisely this would not only lessen the downforce penalty of following closely but it would also keep F1 on the very cutting edge of technology.

If it's that dangerous why do they still refuel in indycar? IndyCar has plenty of both on track passing and strategy overtakes, why doesnt f1 take a lead out of there book?

I miss refuelling. James Allen in the pits with his stop watch trying to work out how many laps Hakkinen could go after a 7 second stop...

I'm not that up to date with all the tech but the suspense and strategies the refueling added to the event was great in my memory. But I can understand the safety aspect..

I had no idea that they didn’t need fuel stops anymore. Well done video I will check out a couple more and possibly subscribe. Cheers

It would be more exiting if they actually got out to put it in themselves. The skills involved would entail: , getting the girl on the till's attention to activate the pump, making sure they didn't put in diesel and paying for it in the kiosk (could always pick up a kitkat too). I'd enjoy watching that anyway.

I wasn't even aware refueling was banned. That's how much F1 has lost it's appealing for me. (a Brazilian btw)

If refueling was back I am sure they could setup a safety feature where the refuel hose had to be a safe distance away before the car’s computer would allow the driver to depart. Since they stopped the refueling I only watch the highlights after the race, I used to watch all the races live.

Pitstop was always about refueling in my head. Then you change the tires if needed. I remember doing it in an old F1 videogame eons ago.

Refueling means entertainment when something happens because someone didn't get enough fuel for what they was trying to do... No fuel stops means you can predict the race results from the start

I watched Verstappen's incident live (wow I'm old) and it's certainly memorable. Verstappen's incident wasn't as scary as the "invisible" fire that occurred during refueling in Indycars which used methanol as fuel back in the days. You don't even see the flames, you just see the heat and the driver panicking. It's remarkable that someone even approved the concept of using methanol when the apparent danger was so clear. Here's a video of it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ku7TdLeEGsQ.html

I sometimes like to compare and contrast differences in sports. So now I'm pondering how it'd look for Formula One if they had a Nascar-style gas can for refuelling. Those hold a little more than forty litres of fuel, and apparently weigh in full at about thirty-two kilos. To fully fuel a Cup car, it takes two of these (and the second one usually has some fuel left in it of course). Would this be considered safe?

The use of strategy in terms of the amount of fuel in the cars is soo cool tho wow, as a new F1 fan i’ve never thought of that before

It would be nice to see refueling come back to F1, especially since FE is planning on bringing in mid-race recharging... But I understand why it'll probably never happen.

Indy car seems to get refuelling done reasonably well... same with V8sc... as for the cost element, supply a standard rig to all teams that has updated safety systems in place. Fuel tank sizes (and therefore car sizes and weight) would be reduced, which should help the spectacle a bit. I would like to see it return IMO. As for the safety side - Grosjean crashed with the better part of 150kg of fuel onboard and the fireball was massive, surely the scenario would be improved if he only had 50kg of fuel onboard?

With all the tweaks to F1 regulations over the years the 2022 season looks like they might have actually made the right changes to make the sport more competitive. Hopefully what we saw in Bahrain will carry on throughout the season.

I think anything that could add another dimension or variable for strategy would be a plus for F1. It’s all about who has THE car today. It’s more or less just two people that are competitive if that. There was a lot more unpredictability back in the day, just look at how often the top drivers would DNF back 25 years ago versus the last decade. Parity would be refreshing.

A modern version could be to fast charge the batteries, for a big YEET to get fastest lap, or make up for a bad stop

From what I remember, it was mostly centred around reducing costs

As a time traveler from 2023 the racing didn’t get much closer at the sharp end

Thanks for the clarification!

Ohhhkay. I guess that shows how long i've been away from F1 (watching MotoGP and SBK instead). I had no idea they'd stopped refueling. I'm only a few years out of date!

That pulp fiction wallet made me laugh out loud

I love the 90s 2000s raves they were so many variables, different options, two tyres in some seasons, refueling, strategies from not stopping at all if you wanted or stopping as much you want, remember fisicella in spa changing just rest tyres because front ones felt amazing according to him, so he finish the race with the same set on the front but changed on rear Missing that old style a lot now I feel that everything it’s too precise, at least drs gave us something but feel like not enough on strategy terms

You fail to mention that fuel is always part of f1 strategy even if there is no more refueling.

Wait, i thought they still did refuel ... has it really been 10 years since i last watched a full F1 race? wow.

As someone just getting into the sport, these videos are very helpful.

f1: we cater to the causals casuals: we want overtakes, drama, and chaos! f1: aight so the most hyped races is gonna be monaco

i'm in favor of no rules in f1 apart from budget cap and safety related stuff on the technical side. ofc racing rules still apply but it would be mental to see what the engineers could come up with if we would let them. thats what made f1 really good in the past, it was always a playground for the weirdest ideas, many of them didnt work, but some revolutionized the way racecars were built forever.

Current heavy high DF cars are very demanding on tyres. Refueling would reduce weight, and make it possible to push harder for longer, so the best drivers will make more of a difference. So indeed, refueling is a bad idea :)

I think fuel and tires are about the only thing fans can speculate on during a race, if you aren't trying to figure out who has good tires and enough fuel then you are really just left to watching cars go vroom.

There were many Pit fires with 'Hot refuels' then. I'm a UK Armed Forces Veteran and I remember 'Hot refuels' with Helicopters in the field; the difference is that the fuel F1 cars had had a high octane rating, therefore any static electricity would spark a fire because the vapour is more combustible than the fuel itself. Nowadays I've no idea what the Jetfuel is like for the Helicopters so I'll take a critisism on the chin

What about the fact that they had to introduce rubbish tires in 2011 to help prevent utterly dull races that happened in 2010 due to the lack of refueling. They went from authentic variety to artificial variety that also ended with drivers not being able to push at all, meaning fewer mistakes are made, making races more predictable. Not to mention lighter cars having more nimbleness meaning a lower need to rely on aero for performance, meaning able to follow more closely. Refueling has only really made f1 worse for me. Not saying f1 was amazing beforehand, but even a dull race was more interesting with refueling due to the additional element that Brought and the fact the tires actually used to work for more than a few laps

LOL, "Hey let's fuel under pressure from mobile rigs, what could go wrong. NASCAR: Yeah we got gravity feeds, not cost, transportation or safety issues at all.

I have no say because I'm not even a "casual" and don't watch racing that much anymore, but now my favorite part of F1 to watch is qualifying. Closest to pure driving. No fuel strategy sideshows, no pitlane speed violations, no checkered flag under caution. Best of all there's (generally) no traffic: no passing/blocking etiquette & roadrage, no first-turn-redflags. It's all about getting around the course the fastest. Boring? maybe. But there's a lot of rally fans. A lot of Alpine Downhill skiing fans. I don't mind seeing one car at a time. I might enjoy equal-timed refueling in an endurance F1 race, which won't happen, but boy F1 races are awfully short affairs. Maybe they can slow the cars down a bit, so the main event lasts a little longer. Probably save fuel too.

Make the fuel tanks smaller, so they have to come back in often, and make pit stops part of strategy.

2:52 "With a 4 stop strategy" Damn, how times have changed

reintroducing refueling could have a massive influence on strategy, as long as it is coupled with a fuel tank capacity limit. Lets say every driver can use 100L of fuel per race, but the tank in the car can only hold a maximum of 35L. That way every driver would be forced to make at least 2 pitstops. But more importantly, this would completely change how tyre management works, because the tyre degredation would not match up with the fuel windows, forcing the teams to always make some compromise. They could go flat out on the hard tyre, since they would need to stop for fuel long before the tyre gives up anyway. Whereas on the softs they would have to stay out and hang on with a worn out tyre long enough to get into their fuel window. Pitting to soon would mean you need an extra stop, because you can't take enough fuel to make it to the finish. Unless you switch to a 3 stop strategy, so that you can do 2 short stints on the softs and go flat out all the way. Works perfectly well in Indycar, they have some amazing strategy battles simply because they have limited fuel tank capacity.

They could had a minimum of 5 seconds or so rule everytime a car goes to refuelling on a race for safety reasons. But what do i know? It's like almost 15 years since i watched a full race

Hang on. When I started watching Formula 1 in the mid-eighties there was no refuelling, and then it was introduced in the mid-nineties. OK, technically it was RE-introduced, sure, but it hadn't exactly been a major part of the sport historically, and that's a decade of iconic racing from Lauda, Piquet, Prost, Senna, Mansell, (etc, etc, etc...) that happened with no refuelling permitted.

Matt’s voice makes me want to eat soup with a fork

as a younger fan who doesnt remember back in 2010 when they did refuel i do wanna see it back

Best racing time ever. Today it's just kids driving around while being nourished from the box radio with all their high-tech sensors.

It took like 4 minutes to look up, first refuel ever was Fangio with Maserati on the German GP (Nürburgring) 1957, I dont get why people keep saying the first refuel was in 1982.....

instead of refueling they designed tyres that failed sometimes that went really wrong and tyres would go off in a handful of laps forcing cars to slow down during the race or they would go off at all and we get boring 1 pit races, I personally liked refueling but the biggest problem for f1 is cars cant follow each other (been the same for years) DRS has helped sort of

I miss refueling. Made for a more interesting race at times. Let's be honest, F1 for the last 6yrs has been boring.

I think they should make cars available to refuel in qualifying because it could add a lot of suspense of teams trying to figure out what amour of fuel will make the cars last a lap but also be the lightest but one other factor is that if the teams put to little fuel in the cars they could run out so it would be a safety hazard but it’s general possibility but we will see throught the coming years

Bringing back refueling means that pit stop would get a LOT slower. With the satefy standard they'd need to set up to make it really safe, we'd end up with teams having to deal with long pit stops and making sure that they refuel early enough in the race so they can climb back any lost position. We'd end up with everyone going to refuel in the same 2-3 laps. If people want more strategy, then we should allow for more adjustment on the cars during a pit stop. That adds a huge element that teams can decide to either use to create an advantage and hope that the time lost in the pit will be worth it, OR hope they can handle the race with their current setup. That would be a lot better IMO than rushing to refuel an f1...

Me: “they must be short races if they aren’t allowed to refuel”

Meanwhile NASCAR figured out how to refuel safely, to keep it in the mix.

While I wouldn’t bring back the old powered 12 litres per second re fuelling I feel 2 second pit stops are almost pointless and wondering if they had a indycar/nascar style gravity feed can system that you could fine tune the speed off it could really work as you could still keep it so cars are at their heaviest still at go start off the grid off the race but at the same time by topping up slightly at each pit stop you would bring down the average weight during the race increases the speed a tap and you bring in a bit off fuel strategy too if you get it in the right sweet spot.

"No no no Gas just Tires" - Reverse Mcqueen

When the cars were refuelled the pit stop time was effectively the length of time taken to refuel. The sub-2 second pit stop is where the team can become part of the race. Having more pit stops can create possible drama, but like deploying the safety car, which can often seem to unfairly penalise the front runner who has built up a commanding lead, it depends on how much you want to driver championship to be decided by driving skill or chance.

I miss refuelling so much