Flagging

[F1Yorkshire]

Red flag would mean the engineers having to return to the grid to maintain the cars. Still have the issues of crashes on the grid too. I don't think we'll be able to find a single solution to cover all eventualities.

 

[cider_and_toast]

oh, for some reason I though there was. What happened back at Monaco a few years back where they all went back to the grid and there was that kerfufal as they all changed tyres leaving the race as a six lap follow the leader? That was a standing start wasn't it ??

 

[teabagyokel]

There was a Safety Car start there, although I've often not noticed when the Safety Car pulls in at Monaco either.

 

[The Pits]

I thought that part of the purpose of the safety car was to group the cars up to give the marshalls time to work on the track where necessary, not just to slow everyone down?

 

[gethinceri]

Keep the rules as they are with severe penalties for transgression, lapped cars through pit lane on first opportunity after safety car collects all cars.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Like the lapped cars through the pit lane idea.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The problem is at Silverstone they would probably come out in front of the safety car..

 

[teabagyokel]

Not if you red light the end of the pit-lane until the last (lead) car has passed, as in a pit-lane race start.

Or designed a sensible pit lane...

 

[Bill Boddy]

Not Abu Dhabi then.

 

[Mezzer]

As we've got this thread I'm dragging over my comment from the 9th on the Canopy thread:

More realistic is a mechanism that controls the speed of the cars whilst not penalizing drivers who have built up leads etc. How about an FIA-controlled speed limiter that engages after a 5 second warning period (so that the driver does have time to prepare for the loss of performance)? Cars remain, more or less, with the same gaps and their ability to have an incident at lower speed is reduced for the duration of whatever the incident is. The switching off of the limiter would also have the same 5 second warning period so that the drivers could, again, prepare for the change in performance. Boom, no fundamental car redesign, just a software update. This solution to be known as MezCon (TM) from now on.

The point of the above is that it would be applied whole course, not just a problem sector, so that no-one gains an advantage simply by being in the right sector at the right time.

 

[Bill Boddy]

But there is an advantage to a driver pitting for new tyres unless the mechanics are slowed down by the same ratio.

 

[The Artist.....]

One thing everyone seems to have forgotten is that from 2015 onwards, ALL safety car periods will have a standing restart....

 

[teabagyokel]

I thought that had been thrown into the landfill of rubbish F1 ideas?

 

[The Artist.....]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/6/16003.html - however, I know that Bernie wants to get rid of it...

 

[teabagyokel]

I guess I'm guilty of thinking if Ecclestone wants, Ecclestone gets. Although if that happens, they may as well red flag it and form up on the grid for a race start than send around a Merc.

 

[The Artist.....]

Yes; teabagyokel - agree completely! I can't believe that the race will go...

1. Accident
2. Send out safety car for n laps, whilst accident is cleared.
3. Accident cleared
4. Safety car pulls off, cars stop on the grid
5. Five red lights and go go go... crash crash crash...
6. Send out safety car for n laps, whilst accidents are cleared
.... Repeat!

 

[teabagyokel]

But there would be a rolling start if it is within 2 laps of a race start. You can't say that it is well thought through!

 

[The Artist.....]

Ah, so provided n<2, then we get a rolling start... Um... what utter, utter excrement. Just throw out a red flag instead of a safety car, and announce that any car that needs to be repaired/tyres changed must start from the pitlane, unless the red flag is within the first two laps of the race, in which case, the race is reset.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I've heard a rumour that the FIA may run a test of the virtual safety car in one of the FP's at Austin I guess they will have to make sure all of the cars are on the track at the same time driven by their regular drivers and it will also eat into the teams set up time.

 

[Bleu]

For the lost racing time behind SC, how about increasing race distance by one lap for each two laps behind SC? Take an example of the Hungarian GP which was listed with six- (Ericsson+Grosjean) and four- (Perez) lap SC periods. Ten laps behind SC would have meant a race distance being increased from 70 to 75. With smaller fuel consumption behind SC anyway, I don't think it would make much difference on that.

Partial reason for fuel-saving in Sochi was teams' anticipation for safety car which never occurred.