Apparently the RBRs can't get up to 100km/h by this white line
In today’s FIA drivers’ briefing at Silverstone there was some discussion about the new pitlane and its entrance, with Sebastian Vettel repeating claims he’d made to the media that the tight righthander is dangerous.
Vettel was keen to see the pitlane speed limit kept at 60km/h for the race, rather than raised to 100km/h, as is the plan.
Christian Horner repeated those fears earlier today: “If it’s conditions like today, if the speed limit goes up to 100km/h I think it could be a tricky down there. Yeah, it’s part of the track, at the end of the day it’s the same for all teams and all drivers, but I think they probably need to have a look at whether we – because the pit lane tapers as well – remain with 100km/h, or whether it would actually be better to look at a 60km/h speed limit.”
Intriguingly it emerged during the briefing that Red Bull has other reasons to seek a reduction in the speed limit. The team’s pit is so close to the end of the pitlane that when they accelerate out of their pit box the drivers cannot get up to 100km/h before the end of the limited zone. And that means they will be at potential time disadvantage at every pit stop.
One source told me that Vettel claimed at the briefing that the RBR cars face a loss of 0.5s at each stop, although an apparently better informed Charlie Whiting told him he’d heard it was closer to 0.29s.
So far the FIA has no plans to cede to RBR’s request…
Adam Cooper F1 
Cannot understand how, with all the money spent on the new Silverstone pit complex, that you end up with the pits being hidden from sight from the paying public.
The exit looks like a car is coming out of a carpark, or, did the designers try to copy the pit exit from that glittering monstrosity in Abu Dhabi?
Unbelievable !!
I believe that the stand which is in place is only temporary and that the new stand will be lined up correctly. It’s just they couldn’t do it all in the time scale.
RBR has already won both championships this year. FIA has now given them further advantage by allowing them to continue off throttle diffuser blowing while banning it for the other teams. Now they want them to tweak race rules. How much less interesting can this season get? If the FIA is going to do their cheating for them, at least they could be subtle about it.
Seems to me that, given the acceleration profiles of F1 cars are more or less similar, given engine restrictions, this problem (of reaching the top speed) would affect *any* championship-winning team, not just RBR, in the future.
My preferred stop-gap solution, though, is to just let RBR choose which pit garage they want to use. I’m sure one of the lower-ranked teams would not mind getting bumped up, sod the 0.29 seconds per stop 🙂
How can a supposedly world class redeveloped track have a situation where the world champion team is disadvantaged by 3 tenths because the pit exit design is so poor? Astonishingly embarrassing.