It is called e-Gun and will be the big news that we will see in the Formula 1 paddock in 2022. It is an electric screwdriver produced by the very Italian Dino Paoli, the specialized company from Reggio Emilia, which will have the merit of revolutionizing pit stops during GP from the next championship.
Mercedes made the first tests in the last round in Abu Dhabi with an experimental cordless gun that was seen in Yas Marina, but the all-Italian innovation that is about to arrive will have a very important effect not only in the effectiveness of tire changes. , but in general it will offer a great advantage to the teams that will convert to the electric system, because it could eliminate the flashy equipment in the pit lane necessary to operate the four pneumatic screwdrivers complete with cylinders and the carbon and titanium “castle”.
Will the pit stop equipment disappear next year?
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
In the sustainability that F1 is looking for it would be a big leap forward, reducing the material that will have to be transferred from one circuit to another for the world, but the advantages will also come in terms of performance, because the mechanics assigned to the gun will have greater autonomy. of movement and, therefore, a more precise aiming of the wheel nut.
The e-Gun is being developed which will be an electric screwdriver that must have the performance of the Hurricane, the gun in use up to now that each team has customized in the electronic management of the “release” of the car once the four nuts of the wheels.
In spite of the Hurricane, for example, there will be a great simplification because there will be no need for an inverter: the electric control will allow the immediate inversion of the rotation (unscrew and tighten) and will be able to stop the screwdriver when the torque is reached, avoiding the ‘excess power sometimes due to stripping of the nut thread.
The image of Giorgio Piolaalso shows how the gun has been redesigned to access the 18-inch rim nut which has a very different offset and, above all, features a carbon fairing that certainly makes pit stop more complicated, requiring precision from the mechanic. to the screwdriver even greater than this year.
Therefore, the experiments to customize the e-Gun should not be surprising when each team has fine-tuned its system. Each screwdriver will have the necessary charge to guarantee coverage of a GP without recharging the battery, but it is clear that this is a system that will have to be developed with experience.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, makes the pit stop: in 2022 we will no longer see the pneumatic structure for tire changes
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
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