Safety Car not safe?

[Get Karter]

It struck me from reading an article about the Safety Car (in the BBC pre-season Top Gear F1 'guide') that it is unsuitable for the job!

The driver (ex-racing driver) says he has to drive it on the edge of traction just to avoid the F1 cars tyres getting dangerously cold.

From the evidence of Trulli and Glock sliding off the track under the Safety Car at Melbourne, it seems that it perhaps isn't the best tool for the job.

Surely a quicker car that doesn't require the driver to drive on the edge, and that could go quicker when not going past the incident (to keep tyre temps up in the F1 cars) would solve the problem.

No danger of Safety Car binning it.
Less cooling of F1 tyres.
Still able to control the speed past the incident.

Any suggestions on suitable replacement?

[garycat]

335d (mapped) of course.

It's a good point though, Ayrton Senna's death was attributed to the slow pace of the safety car (an Alfa 33 I think) which made him lose temp & pressure.

During the wet, the safety car has to slow down otherwise it pulls away from the F1 cars.

I thinks there are few cars that could keep up with a Merc CL AMG V12 but maybe they should have two and fit one with trackday tyres.

[Eric Mc]

I think that the Safety Car has many dubious aspects to it. On the whole however, its main aim is to allow track workers to clear wrecked cars and debris from the circuit in safer conditions than otherwise. However, it arguably makes things LESS safe for the drivers.

[NathanE]

Bugatti Veyron

[E30M3SE]

Zonda R

[anonymous-user]

There is no need for a car at all. All they need is to have a mandated safe speed window through the danger zone which starts a couple of corners before and ends a couple of corners after the incident point, then have some double caution flags at the incident point to illustrate the exact point of danger, let them continue to race for the rest of the lap.

[hornetrider]

Something 4WD that grips like a limpet, but with class?

RS4? Possibly even Lambo or R8?

[Hut49]

These always seem to be able to keep up, whatever the speed and whatever the conditions

[spend]

The whole SC scenario seems unsatisfactory from all points of view IMHO. Was it some kind of concession to attract US viewers?

Maybe an LM car might at least be able to keep the cars at safe operating temps for 80/90% of the lap and just slow down to pass the 'danger' areas?

Personally I think it would be better to let everyone have a free pit and then restart in track order when the track is clear? 2 laps to get up to temps and must then cross start/finish line in previous track order. At least all teams have the opportunity to start equally (tyre/fuel wise), no temp problems, no danger on the circuit, none of that unfair running out of fuel scenario, viewers also have time for Pee/Tea..

[LordGrover]

^^ Beat me to it! Same thing really:

[Bill Carr]

Why not use one of those 2-seater F1 cars that Minardi had?

[SamHH]

spend said:

The whole SC scenario seems unsatisfactory from all points of view IMHO. Was it some kind of concession to attract US viewers?

I believe safety cars were introduced in F1 in the 70s in order to reduce the need to red flag races.

BTW, the "unfair running out of fuel scenario" has been eliminated.

[SamHH]

My guess is that the situation will be improved when tyre warmers are disallowed.

[rocket]

There was no way that Sunday's safety car was anywhere near the limit of traction...I thought is was going at a ridiculously slow pace. If I was Jenson I would have been on the radio asking what the hell the SC was playing at!

Sure sounds good though...(the SC, not Jenson).

[CommanderJameson]

spend said:

The whole SC scenario seems unsatisfactory from all points of view IMHO. Was it some kind of concession to attract US viewers?

Maybe an LM car might at least be able to keep the cars at safe operating temps for 80/90% of the lap and just slow down to pass the 'danger' areas?

Personally I think it would be better to let everyone have a free pit and then restart in track order when the track is clear? 2 laps to get up to temps and must then cross start/finish line in previous track order. At least all teams have the opportunity to start equally (tyre/fuel wise), no temp problems, no danger on the circuit, none of that unfair running out of fuel scenario, viewers also have time for Pee/Tea..

Ah, your ulterior motive is revealed!

[StevieBee]

Would also create one hell of a slipstream

[White-Noise]

Merc SLR? Since I guess it has to be a merc. Would be amusing if it was the McLaren F1

[Eric Mc]

SamHH said:

spend said:

The whole SC scenario seems unsatisfactory from all points of view IMHO. Was it some kind of concession to attract US viewers?

I believe safety cars were introduced in F1 in the 70s in order to reduce the need to red flag races.

BTW, the "unfair running out of fuel scenario" has been eliminated.

There was no standard use of Safety Cars until the 1990s. One GP in the 1970s (Canadian GP at Mosport in 1973 I think) where a safety car was deployed for the first time. It caused utter confusion and no one is absolutely sure to this day who really won that race.

I think the modern use of the safety car began in the 1994 season (with tragic consequiences at Imola).

[SamHH]

Eric Mc said:

There was no standard use of Safety Cars until the 1990s. One GP in the 1970s (Canadian GP at Mosport in 1973 I think) where a safety car was deployed for the first time. It caused utter confusion and no one is absolutely sure to this day who really won that race.

I think the modern use of the safety car began in the 1994 season (with tragic consequiences at Imola).

Oh, my mistake. I though they had been used uninterrupted since that first race.

[Muzzer]

garycat said:

It's a good point though, Ayrton Senna's death was attributed to the slow pace of the safety car (an Alfa 33 I think) which made him lose temp & pressure.

Cavalier GSI saloon wasn't it?

Using a road car does seem a bit futile if the F1 cars are going dangerously slow.

But then surely the onus is on the teams to make the cars safe to follow the safety car at low speed and the drivers to compensate when re-adjusting to race pace? After all, the whole point of the SC is to slow everyone down because of an incident. Having a faster car and increasing the speed would raise a question mark over safety...