Comments on: New safety car rules catch teams out

By: Drivers will not get penalties for pitting during a safety car period in 2009 « g

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:56:54 +0000

[...] New safety car rules catch teams out [...]

By: Paul Simpson

Paul Simpson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:59:22 +0000

This rule change certainly justifies McClarens actions in Monaco. It is true that cars racing back to the pits during a Safety Car period is dangerous particularly if the accident is towards the end of the lap however if these rules stay maybe the teams should be required to declare their routine pitstops for fuel & tyres 2 or 3 laps before they are due, then if a Safety Car comes out the FIA still allow the pitstop as it was “pre-planned and declared”.

By: Robert McKay

Robert McKay — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:10:49 +0000

The old safety car rules were fine. The vast majority of the times the SC is needed it would be silly to stop the race entirely and insufficient to wave a yellow flag, and the vast majority of the time the SC is only needed for one, two laps. And to call the SC a recent introduction is incorrect in my view. How long has it been used? 13 years or something? Maybe not huge in terms of number of years of the sport but substantial in fraction of total World Championship Grands Prix run. Full race restarts are needed in my opinion only when the SC has to be out for a significant number of laps, though the FIA has in recent years made a considerable effort to avoid red-flagging races and keeping Safety Cars out for too long in order to try keep to TV schedules, which is pretty ridiculous.

The new rules are a bit daft, I agree on that. Letting backmarkers go through isn’t a cardinal sin, but if you built a 20 second lead before the SC then maybe you deserve a couple of Spykers between you and the second place driver at the restart. The pit rules are pretty indefensible in their stupidity. But at least now the rules have been made clear the teams can build this into their strategies. Don’t leave a pitstop till the very last moment whe your drivers tank is bone dry. It’s the same for everyone. And it’s not like you have to wait for several laps to pit again, the pitlane is generally open not that long after the SC was deployed anyway – it’s just one more slow lap, roughly.

By: Andro

Andro — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:52:36 +0000

new Champ Car-style safety car rules
NEW RULES – FULL OF ****

By: Clive

Clive — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:11:52 +0000

True, Keith, I snuck in Massa and Fisichella for added emphasis – naughty, I know. My only excuse is that I was thinking of doing away with the safety car completely, in which case the red light wouldn’t have been on…

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:50:27 +0000

Not wishing to constantly nit-pick but two drivers races were ruined. Massa and Fisichella had only themselves to blame. The red light was on, other drivers had the good sense to stop and it happened before under the old rules (Montoya in ’05).

But I agree with you to a point – this smacks of rule making by constantly adding new layers onto rules that aren’t right to being with. Getting rid of the faulty rules in the first place would have been better instead of constantly over-complicating things.

By: Clive

Clive — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:46:18 +0000

Okay, that’s one but no harm done – and that’s in sixty years. So far we have had one safety car race under the new rules and four drivers’ races ruined. Not an encouraging start, is it?

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:49:13 +0000

There were some very lucky misses at Brazil in 2003. Both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso crashed under double waved yellows and, frankly, both should have gotten into more trouble for it than they did. Schumacher nearly ended up underneath a car recovery vehicle which would have been horrendous.

By: Clive

Clive — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:37:36 +0000

I suspect that the NASCAR and IRL drivers don’t complain because the fight is long over for them, Journeyer. My point is really that it’s an unnecessary addition to the rules, intended to solve the minor problem of drivers having their races slightly spoiled by lapped cars getting in the way after the safety car pulls off, but instead creating the possibility of drivers having their races completely destroyed by the luck of the draw. Of the two, which is better for F1?

And I don’t think tweaking the rule, as suggested by Keith, is the way forward either. Complication in the rules always leads to disputed and dubious decisions – simplification should be the aim. Let the FIA go back to the drawing board and try to get it right next time.

It may be that the safety car itself is the problem. It is a recent introduction to F1 and still an experiment therefore. In my humble opinion, the old system of waved yellows while the track was cleared and a restart (with the grid as it was at the time of the accident) if the track was completely blocked was better from just about every angle. Yes, it was marginally more dangerous in that it required the drivers to behave responsibly while under the yellows – but have you ever heard of a serious crash during such circumstances?

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:16:37 +0000

That is the argument that they use to defend the rule in American racing – but is it really fair in F1 where safety car periods are far less common? I’m not sure.

Perhaps a compromise solution is needed – close the pit lane when the safety car is out but guarantee that it will be open on the following lap? That way, everyone knows to build an extra lap of fuel into their strategies.