The terrible accident at Suzuka has lead to many a discussion about what safety should be put onto the car. However, in the wake of Charlie Whiting's portrayal of the Race Control reaction as textbook, is it now time to consider what could become of the F1 textbook for future races?
It seems that it is absolutely vital that heavy machinery should not be allowed out onto the track without the drivers slowing down to a long way below race speed. It seems F1 is to experiment with the virtual Safety Car for a section, which is absolutely fantastic.
However, I don't believe I am the only one disenchanted with the Safety Car rules. The necessity for lapped runners to overtake the leaders then practically join up with the back of the field extends Safety Car periods unnecessarily, and is open to abuse as lapped Nick Heidfeld proved in Monaco 2008 by supporting team-mate Kubica's attempt to hold onto second place by failing to overtake. It can provide a 10 minute wait - and all of those laps coming off the race count.
One idea I have is to bin the idea of a Safety Car period. If the virtual Safety Car/slow zone procedure is successful, then it is less likely that the Safety Car is deployed. Anything too serious for the slow zone should thus be covered by a red flag.
The red flag would not be an effective solution if it created situations like Suzuka in 1994 where races are decided by aggregation, which it is fair to say suits no-one. This consideration is now, however, moot. The red flag would remove all risk from the situation by reducing even the slow speed (nonetheless high speed in a road car) circulating of the car. Furthermore, the fans do not lose 10 laps, rather they lose 2 (the lap to grid and then one lap SC). With the interminable length of current Safety Car periods, the red flag period could be cleared up in equivalent time, too.
One additional benefit is that the issue of lapped runners could be solved, as the lapped runners could simply be wheeled to the back of the queue. Best of all, the full race could be run, although that may interfere with the TV window, particularly in Singapore.
I'd like to invite you all to come up with your own Safety flagging ideas, whether to spice up the "show" or not, it would have to at least maintain safety. The best will not ever be adopted, but hey, that's life...
Author's note: This thread is about changes that could be made to F1 in the future. It is not about Jules Bianchi or his accident. Please share your ideas, but I humbly request that we refrain from assigning blame for the incident at Suzuka, or giving details of at which point flags should have been thrown in past races. Thankyou.
It seems that it is absolutely vital that heavy machinery should not be allowed out onto the track without the drivers slowing down to a long way below race speed. It seems F1 is to experiment with the virtual Safety Car for a section, which is absolutely fantastic.
However, I don't believe I am the only one disenchanted with the Safety Car rules. The necessity for lapped runners to overtake the leaders then practically join up with the back of the field extends Safety Car periods unnecessarily, and is open to abuse as lapped Nick Heidfeld proved in Monaco 2008 by supporting team-mate Kubica's attempt to hold onto second place by failing to overtake. It can provide a 10 minute wait - and all of those laps coming off the race count.
One idea I have is to bin the idea of a Safety Car period. If the virtual Safety Car/slow zone procedure is successful, then it is less likely that the Safety Car is deployed. Anything too serious for the slow zone should thus be covered by a red flag.
The red flag would not be an effective solution if it created situations like Suzuka in 1994 where races are decided by aggregation, which it is fair to say suits no-one. This consideration is now, however, moot. The red flag would remove all risk from the situation by reducing even the slow speed (nonetheless high speed in a road car) circulating of the car. Furthermore, the fans do not lose 10 laps, rather they lose 2 (the lap to grid and then one lap SC). With the interminable length of current Safety Car periods, the red flag period could be cleared up in equivalent time, too.
One additional benefit is that the issue of lapped runners could be solved, as the lapped runners could simply be wheeled to the back of the queue. Best of all, the full race could be run, although that may interfere with the TV window, particularly in Singapore.
I'd like to invite you all to come up with your own Safety flagging ideas, whether to spice up the "show" or not, it would have to at least maintain safety. The best will not ever be adopted, but hey, that's life...
Author's note: This thread is about changes that could be made to F1 in the future. It is not about Jules Bianchi or his accident. Please share your ideas, but I humbly request that we refrain from assigning blame for the incident at Suzuka, or giving details of at which point flags should have been thrown in past races. Thankyou.