fjwagner

I believe F1 has additional safety precautions.

Rudy

I agree... Comparing the F1 refueling with normal cars is similar to comparing the filling up of a car while talking on a cell phone to the igniting an aluminum foil ball soaked in gasoline by aiming the antenna of a cell phone at the ball.

I'm not saying I don't sometimes refuel with the motor running, I'm just saying that the F1 analogy really isn't very accurate in this case...

Iceman

It is safer to refil a regular car at a gas station with its engine running, than refilling a F1 car with a running engine.

Rudy

You're right, but not because the two processes are similar...

Iceman

They are.

It's just a bigger hose and a more powerful pump. Everything else is just the same.

Rudy

I'm considering more than fuel moving down a hose. The more powerful pump is what I was referring to as pressurized. The F1 fuel flows very fast with a high volume (large diameter) hose. Also, the F1 rigs don't have an automatic shutoff that works off of vapors like regular gas pumps use.

The other thing I consider different (but certainly very critical) is that in F1, you're fueling the car very close to the engine and other hot surfaces (exaust manifold, etc.) that can ignite any spilled/splashed fuel very quickly and very easily. In other words, I can't remember the last time I needed a fire retardant suit to fill up my E60 safely...

Iceman

Correct. So, it's more dangerous to fill up an F1 car, and they use all kind of communications while they fill the running car up. If they can do it while the engine is on, everyone can do, and can be on the cellphone at the same time.
If you have the engine running and fill up, with less power, more far away from the engine than in F1... it'S safe, isn't it?

Rudy

Right, which is why I agreed with you in the first place about the regular car being safer. My point was that other than the fact that fuel is being filled into a car with a motor, the comparison between our cars and an F1 car is not really "apples to apples."

Iceman

Now I see...
We have a little misunderstanding here.

I never said those cars are equal, or the same. But the principle is the same, they have engines and burn fuel.
I just said, that "even F1 does it", meaning that even F1 refills cars with running engines. Now, we agree that refilling an F1 car is more dangerous, and that's why I said that even they do it, so everybody can. Because if they do it in these dangerous conditions, it is OK to do so on a regular car. And that is the original question I have answered.

So, the cars are not apples & apples. And the refilling process is much more dangerous in F1, so if they can refill with running engines, we can do it too.