F1 Fanatic

you cannot get rid of the safety car. I have made these points before, the safety car acts to slow cars down and even stop them in areas where it is needed, It also allows the marshalls a timegap of about 2 minutes to clear up the mess, while the pack of cars is assembled behind it. The safety car also has direct communication with charlie whiting and the marshalls on scene, so it knows the correct route to take the cars along. Without a safety car incidents like Rubens Barichello’s crash in monaco would involve red flagging the race, because it would not be safe for the marshalls to go out onto the track. All that needs changing is the safety car rules, cars should banned from entering the pitlane until a full queue of cars has formed behind the safety car. The safety car should pull up and wait at the end of the start/finish straight until it picks up the leaders, one it has picked up the leaders an orderly queue of cars should form up behind them

I partly agree with your points newnhamlea1 but I think they can all be worked around. If the safety car had to get to the point of stopping then surely this should be a red flag situation anyway.
I do see the advantage of the car making a train which gives the marshalls lots of track time but does this really work in practice. When cars pit under the SC they are still spread out so it’s never completely a clear track.

I think if the SC sitatuon was such that nobody would lose or gain anything the drivers would be sensible enough to keep clear and give marshalls room as they would have to no reason to try anything silly when there is nothing to gain (if that makes sense)

In the Rubens example you gave I don’t think you would need to red flag it, if you look back at it the cars slowed down themselves and picked their way around the mess to avoid punctures (other than the stearing wheel!). They were nowhere near the safety car – I think F1F posted a video for it somewhere.

I know my point is a very basic one and clearly lots more thought would be needed, but I just think with all the technology we have now there must be a way to neutraliase the race or ‘suspend’ the action for a few laps without having to have the lottery that is a SC deployment that we have now.

What is frustrating about the safety car is that the rule needs to be changed and fixed so that drivers do not benefit nor lose when the safety car is deployed. This has been a problem for a very long time, and they almost got it right a few years back when they introduced a rule to prevent cars from entering the pits under the safety car. I think this rule needs to be reintroduced and perhaps modified to prevent cars from running out of fuel – i have a few ideas how that is possible. Or, as newnhamlea1 stated above:

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“cars should banned from entering the pitlane until a full queue of cars has formed behind the safety car. The safety car should pull up and wait at the end of the start/finish straight until it picks up the leaders, one it has picked up the leaders an orderly queue of cars should form up behind them “
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On the end of the day, lets be realistic, the safety car will never be removed, and the safety car will never be fair. The drivers who build up a lead will always lose out when the safety car is deployed. But what is extremely annoying is to see cars from pos 10-15 all of a sudden go 2nd, 3rd or 4th… etc, and to see some drivers go to pits, change their wing, have a cup of tea and read the daily telegraph, come out without losing a position. Totally ridiculous.

I think, for reasons others have pointed out, that the safety car must remain. BUT should the safety car be used to escort the Doctors car.
In the recent incident if the Safety car had pulled onto the track (i.e. not driven up the pit exit lane) in front of Lewis he probably would not have passed it and the Doctors car would have had an empty track in front of it all the way to the accident site.

well you could also change the rule so that the lead car slows so the safety car can overtake it, that removes any random elememt. The rules need to be simplified and re-thought, thats all.