Monday 4th April 2011

Video: Safety Car Error Causes LMS Pile-Up

Safety Car lesson number 94: don't always trust the green light...

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There was more than a spot of chaos at the six-hour Le Mans Series race at Le Castellet this weekend after a safety car cock-up caused a multiple pile-up on the start-finish straight.

The green lights went on to restart the race, but the safety car never left the track. Which would have been fine were it not for the hump in Paul Ricard's pit straight, which meant the GT class, running behind the sports prototypes, couldn't see that the pace car was still on track. The result was a front half of the pack continuing at safety car pace, with the GT field accelerating up to race pace behind them.

The resulting carnage was more or less inevitable, and the ensuing demand for Porsche and Aston body parts was predictably brisk.

Fortunately the works Aston Martin AMR-One LMP1 managed to avoid the pandemonium behind it, and completed its first 'test' race, although several lengthy stops meant it only completed 50 per cent of the laps of the winning car.

 

[joe_90]

It was not the SC.. The SC was still out, and someone flipped the green.

[scubadude]

"D'Oh!" followed by "HA HA" (both in a Simpsons stylee) comes to mind.... what a monumental CF.

I'm curious about the potential for teams claiming against the race organisers, clearly if you crash racing that your issue but I'm not sure any of the drivers are really to blame for this, the cars who went for it must have thought they'd got a jump on those infront only to meet a wall of slow moving traffic over the hump.... tricky.

[KrazyIvan]

Ouch, thats gonna be embarrasing for whoever hit the green.

[Chunkychucky]

How ridiculous, you would have thought with all the red tape surrounding motorsport nowadays for safety reasons they could at least get the bloody starting sequence right - that could have been alot worse..

[MMC Andy]

The SC had done the Green Flag lap - it didn't come into the pitlane as required. Then the lights were turned to green in error.

[jake15919]

Audi driver hogging the middle lane and not getting out of the way of faster vehicles.

Bit of a cliche.

[anonymous-user]

joe_90 said:

It was not the SC.. The SC was still out, and someone flipped the green.

I think the SC was meant to come in because they'd already done the out lap.

[busta]

jake15919 said:

Audi driver hogging the middle lane and not getting out of the way of faster vehicles.

Bit of a cliche.

[anonymous-user]

Yep, SC lights were out so he should of pulled into pits?

[XJR500bhp]

Bloody RS drivers, never getting out the way, think they are goods gift

[gtdc]

It confused me. Presumably the SC was instructed to complete another lap (I'm assuming he didn't just forgte to come in) in which case Race Control would have to be extremely dim not to tell the starter to keep the lights red.

[Luca Brasi]

Woops!

Can't wait until they come to Spa in a month.

[TonyHetherington]

So what was the safety car driver's reason for staying out?

[FourWheelDrift]

gtdc said:

It confused me. Presumably the SC was instructed to complete another lap (I'm assuming he didn't just forgte to come in) in which case Race Control would have to be extremely dim not to tell the starter to keep the lights red.

No doubt it's all automated to prevent any human error causing accidents.

Doh.

[Man-At-Arms]

FourWheelDrift said:

No doubt it's all automated to prevent any human error causing accidents.

computer says 'no' !

[MarkOlley]

TonyHetherington said:

So what was the safety car driver's reason for staying out?

The safety car stayed out an extra lap to allow the marshals to clear up a car that had stalled out on the track. The marshals along the pit straight kept waving the yellows and holding the SC boards out indicating another lap under the safety car.

[TonyHetherington]

MarkOlley said:

TonyHetherington said:

So what was the safety car driver's reason for staying out?

The safety car stayed out an extra lap to allow the marshals to clear up a car that had stalled out on the track. The marshals along the pit straight kept waving the yellows and holding the SC boards out indicating another lap under the safety car.

Ah I see - thanks. So it was whoever turned the lights green that confused matters then.

[MarkOlley]

TonyHetherington said:

Ah I see - thanks. So it was whoever turned the lights green that confused matters then.

It would seem so yes, but it doesn't explain why the lights on the Safety Car weren't on.
Bit of a balls up from Race Control I think.

[nouze]

what is it about Audi drivers, eh?

[FourWheelDrift]

They should have put up a few speed cameras, that would have prevented the crash.