F1

Lapped cars

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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  • #285435
    Dan
    Participant

    Just read in the round up that plans to change the lapped car procedure behind a safety car have been rejected, as it will allow the lapped cars an extra lap of fuel. Current procedure is that when a safety car is deployed, marshals remove any debris/ broken cars etc then the lapped cars un lap themselves. This can take a long time if the circuit has a long lap for example Spa, the rejected proposal was to allow lapped cars to fall behind to the back of the field and affectively lose an extra lap. This would allow the relevant cars affectively an extra lap of fuel.

    My idea is that at the start of the weekend or after qualifying etc the FIA/ stewards take an average of the amount of fuel used per lap (which they are monitoring anyway with fuel flow meters), then allow the cars to fall to the back of the field however inform the relevant team/ driver that they have lost a lap of fuel so the amount of fuel left at the end of the race should be increased by the average amount that they would have used driving around the circuit to catch the back of the pack behind the safety car.

    What are your thoughts?

    #285442
    Sri Harsha
    Participant

    Good idea but don’t you think that also effects the usage of the Engine / Gearbox and hands significant advantage later on considering there will be 4 Gearboxes (needs to last 6 races) , 4 ICE components as every racing lap counts

    #285444
    Dan
    Participant

    I think it might add a small advantage later on in the season but it would only be around 3-4 miles worth of distance that the teams would save, I am sure I read some where that the teams that tend to be lapped each race, are the ones with less money available so tend to make their components differently i.e. with different materials that are more durable, but with Engines/ gear box components etc. I don’t think it would make that much difference

    #285457
    Sri Harsha
    Participant

    @f1fanf1fan
    No it might make a big difference we think it will be minute but for smaller teams it can make a difference which turn the standings.
    Imagine this scenario:
    Out of 20 races next year if we get 5 Safety car conditions and each safety car atleast ran for 5 laps that makes you around 25 laps of difference and if we take out track distance / fuel consumption that will make the backmarker team will get benefit of atleast 100-125 Km which is more than 1/3 of a race distance

    #285461
    Dan
    Participant

    Ah ok when you put it like that I see it could make a lot of difference, it was just an idea but like a lot of ideas/ thoughts in the F1 world on closer examination its only works in theory

    #285464
    Sri Harsha
    Participant

    And you apply this to mid field teams which will be enough to gain advantage , so i dont agree with this idea at all.

    #285465

    It’s a non-problem. You basically never see cars overtaking immediately after a Safety Car period anyway, so filtering lapped cars out of the way is a waste of time and green flag laps.

    Those running the sport have far more important things to talk about than over-complicated new Safety Car rules. Like why we’ve just lost four cars.

    #285470
    Dan
    Participant

    That’s true it might take too long in my view at times in my view , but at least its easy to understand/ explain in commentary etc as well as it gives more time for race control to be sure that any safety issues have been resolved

    #285474
    Dougie
    Participant

    For me there is a simple solution, and I’m surprised that it has never been considered or, if it has, never mentioned as far as I can tell.

    Once the cars are all behind the safety car then the lapped cars just take a trip through the pit lane on one lap, and rejoin at the back. Job done.

    #285475
    hunocsi
    Participant

    @f1droid You’re not the first to think that, sorry :)

    #285476
    Dougie
    Participant

    @hunocsi Glad that I’m not alone in this.

    However, what would be really interesting, is if there is anything about this proposal that makes it unworkable and why it is not being used?

    #285499

    @f1droid There was a good explanation of why sending lapped cars to the back of the field wouldn’t work posted by Andy G – it was Comment of the Day a while ago: https://www.racefans.net/2012/03/09/93-2/#commentoftheday

    And I stick with my original view that this is such an insignificant matter it isn’t worth wasting time on.

    #285516
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    A “simpler” solution would be that, when FIA gives the order to lapped cars to run until they unlap, the rest of cars (the ones still going behind the safety car) reduce their speeds even more, maybe just 20 km per hour. That way the lapped cars would get their place faster.

    #285533
    paulgilb
    Participant

    Surely the best thing is not to wait until the lapped cars have caught the rest of the field up, just bring the safety car in at the end of the lap on which the lapped cars are released.

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