F1 plot rule changes to end pit-stop disasters

Formula 1 will introduce measures to prevent the raft of pit-stop errors which have marred the beginning of the 2018 season. No fewer than five stops have been botched already this year, including the ill-fated service that left Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini with a broken leg.

Kimi Raikkonen ran over his team member after Ferrari's systems failed to recognise that his rear-left tyre had not been removed, the Finn speeding off and knocking down Cigarini.

Haas suffered a double DNF in Australia due to cross-threaded wheel nuts - robbing them of what could have been their best F1 result.

"We can introduce a few things to improve, to decrease the likelihood of mistakes," said F1 race director Charlie Whiting.

"We have learned something. We need to again analyse things to ensure things that we do, we do it precisely to make sure everyone follows that.

"[The challenge is] deciding which bits needs to be automated and which bits needs to be operated by a human. I think I have a clear idea on what we might need to do for the future but I will be discussing it with the teams in the coming weeks I say."

The raft of incidents have prompted suggestions that F1 should move away from the pursuit of the perfect pit-stop, with teams often changing all four tyres in close to two seconds.

Whiting added: "I don't think there's any reason to standardise [the system]. We need to make sure among other things that there is no possibility for the guy to give the OK until those two conditions have been met.

"Some teams have a torque sensor on the gun and they have a position sensor. If you only have the torque sensor, you can gun the nut on and it can be cross-threaded and it'll show the required torque but it won't be tight, which is what happened to both Haas cars for example and the McLaren on Friday [in China].

"So some teams have got that as well as a position sensor, so if it gets to the required torque and it hasn't moved the right amount, then it says it's not done.

"So you're using two sensors in order to tell the operator that it’s actually done up. Then he presses the button, the jack drops and the car goes."