Ferrari Back Refuelling Despite Incident

Ferrari bosses have backed refuelling to remain part of Formula One despite the incident which could have enflamed World Champion Michael Schumacher during Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

Schumacher's car was briefly caught in flames when the German driver came in for his first pitstop at the A1-Ring but the Ferrari pit crew were quick to extinguish the danger.

Jos Verstappen famously escaped with minor burns after his Benetton car was engulfed in a fireball at the 1994 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim when Ross Brawn, now Ferrari's technical director, was working with the Dutchman's team.

But Brawn is confident the refuelling process is still safe and said: "There's this counter argument with racing cars with 220 litres of fuel on board that's more dangerous as well and I don't think it's a clear cut argument.

"What we saw today is necessarily a crucial event in the decision we make to carry on refuelling or not but the whole Formula One car is a whole technical exercise and the refuelling rig's part of it."

Ferrari team boss Jean Todt admitted he was nervous when he watched the incident from the pit wall but insisted that the sport must continue with refuelling and not renew calls for a ban.

"We should keep it as it is," said Todt. "We have to understand what happened and improve in order not to have the problems again but refuelling is part of Formula One. In fact, I'm full of admiration about the safety we manage to have.

"If you remember, without refuelling, the cars running into fire in the past. Now, since how many years, not one problem occurred because of fire.

"It's a great job that has been done. If you had no kind of refuelling you would go into the race with almost 200 kilos of fuel in the car so it would raise other problems. The simple fact is that motorsport is dangerous."

Brawn played down concerns over the "minor" refuelling incident in which left-over fuel in the refuelling nozzle dripped onto the car and ignited and forced the team to use three extinguishers to put out the fire.

Verstappen's pitlane fire was much more ferocious, and Brawn added: "There was not the same amount of fuel involved this time, it was just a small drip from either the nozzle or somewhere around the valve.

"Even in the one Jos had no-one was seriously hurt and with all the equipment we've got, it is something we can handle. We don't like to have it obviously but it's something that can be handled."