Ferrari completes review into F1 pit stop incident

Ferrari has completed its review along with the FIA into the incident during last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix that left one of its Formula 1 pit crew team members with a broken leg.

Francesco Cigarini was hit by Kimi Raikkonen's left-rear wheel following an error during the Finn's second pit stop on Sunday in Bahrain, with the green light being given for the driver to pull out of his pit box before the tyre had been removed.

Cigarini was immediately transferred to hospital in Bahrain where he later underwent surgery, and has since returned home to Italy, as confirmed by Ferrari F1 chief Maurizio Arrivabene in China on Friday.

Arrivabene explained that Ferrari had completed its investigation into the incident along with the FIA, revealing that an electrical reading error had caused the green light to be given before the left-rear wheel had been removed or refitted.

“Just to make it clear, once and forever: first of all, the team was hurt that a person was injured so it was in our interest to review the overall procedure,” Arrivabene said.

“We have done our review, together with the FIA I have to say, because they are caring about safety as we are caring about safety, and we went through all the procedure.

“We have a procedure to make sure the pit stops during the race are done in the safest mode. In this case we have three factors: one is human controlled, one is mechanical and the other was an electronic device.

“What’s happened there is that we have a mishandling of the rear left and it was not perfectly read by the electronic device to give the green light.

“Again we went through all the procedures, together with the FIA, and making sure this thing doesn’t happen again.

“It is our interest because we care about our people before anything else.”

Ferrari was fined €50,000 for the unsafe release of Raikkonen, with the incident leading to questions about the speed of pit stops and whether a new process may be required in F1.