Too much safety car?? any need for full wet tyres??

downforce

Race Winner
Once the race did actually get sarted, and I mean really started and not dominated by bernd maylander it was spectacular and full of action, not to mention those two stunning last lap overtakes by Button on Vettel and particularly Massa on Kobayashi over the line with under a second of the race left.

But do you think safety cars are used to freely in the wet now?

In the past wet races actually were races in the wet and not crusing around behind a safety car. I mean some had safety cars in them but not untill the tracks had dry racing lines, only for the worst parts. And these races for me were thrilling.

Races like Fuji 2007, Silverstone 2008, spa 2008, monza 2008 etc.

But these days the safety car seems to run untill the conditions require intermediate tyres, leading me to ask is there any point in full wet tyres?

Any track conditions that require full wet tyres seem to be held under the safety car. Yesterday they literally ran the car untill the drivers requred intermediate tyres and as soon as the green flags were shown they flooded into the pitlane.

Surely that is a little OTT?

The same was true for Korea, don't get me wrong I know they couldn't race with a river flooding over the track but as soon as there is some rain now they bring the safety car out - so frustrating.
They bring it out when there hasn't even been any incidents and people are still on inters.

When was the last time an F1 driver died from a crash in a grand prix? And how many crashes have there been since? Too many to mention.

I just think they are taking it a bit too far now, what are your opinions on this?
 
I agree that running the safety car until inters were needed was a farce, the only justification I can think of was that there is so little experience of what the Pirellis are like in the wet. If this becomes precident though I would be pretty upset.

For the pre-emptive sc I can see that they worry here due to the proximity of the walls to the track, but I enjoy watching drivers having to keep the car on in the wet - it is a different skill to be tested. Many previous great drives have been in the wet when a driver shows this other skill, I would hope this is not to disappear from F1.

So to answer the question, yes they took it too far but this one time I can understand a little over caution - but please don't repeat.
 
As Jake Humphrey said on the coverage, F1 may be becoming too health-and-safety conscious. There is such a thing as wet racing in f1, they:

a) red-flagged the race for too long
b) after the red flag, they left the safety car out too long. These are 24 of the finest drivers in the world, surely they can handle a little bit of rain? Jerome 'custard' d'ambrosio pitting for inters BEFORE the SC came in on lap 34 said it all.

Rant over.
 
As Jake Humphrey said on the coverage, F1 may be becoming too health-and-safety conscious. There is such a thing as wet racing in f1, they:

a) red-flagged the race for too long
b) after the red flag, they left the safety car out too long. These are 24 of the finest drivers in the world, surely they can handle a little bit of rain? Jerome 'custard' d'ambrosio pitting for inters BEFORE the SC came in on lap 34 said it all.

Rant over.

Didn't Jerome get a penalty for changing tyres aswell? Probably for making the stewards/race director look silly. Change from wet tyres to inters when the safety car was still making it safe to traverse the track without sliding off? What was Jerome thinking!?! :rolleyes:
 
I thought that the Canadian marshals were a little slow to react to several incidents during the race. The amount of carbon fibre littering the track at certain parts was rediculous and there were some big chunks that could have been removed (such as on the outside of turn one) with little problems. The length of time it took to remove stranded cars and generally get the safety car out of the way seemed to take forever.

I seem to remember in the past that the race wasn't stopped or the safety car brought out until the conditions were almost un-driveable. By un-driveable it generally meant that a good number of cars has started to wizz of the track at various points. I can understand the thought process of bringing out safety car before this happens and therefore preserving the number of runners but there really has to be some allowence for sorting the men from the boys. There were and still are, many drivers who come alive in wet weather conditions so why hamper them.
 
The title pretty much summed up the race, boring and again Ferrari are wondering why on a strong weekend we walk away with nothing.

To many round abouts with the Safety car, not enough event for a wet race(thinking of the spectacular affair in Korea last year) and well the race finished near midnight my time....really not impressed at all.
 
The title pretty much summed up the race, boring and again Ferrari are wondering why on a strong weekend we walk away with nothing.

To many round abouts with the Safety car, not enough event for a wet race(thinking of the spectacular affair in Korea last year) and well the race finished near midnight my time....really not impressed at all.

Only a Ferrari fan could call that race boring.
 
No safety car at all, no red flag - just full wets and tyre swaps whenever they like and even if they have to race at 30 mph for a couple of laps, so what? When I can't see in torrential rain I slow down until the visibility improves. And if the ride height has to be increased to clear the water under the body, again, so be it if you want to win the race. You do whatever it takes.
 
Oh I am sorry I am not my normal ray of sunshine today, but I will feel better tomorrow.:tea:

Not much to be happy about as a Ferrari fan so yeah, the weather is as miserable as the season......

Massa looked very much on form yesterday, even challenging alonso. And that overtake of his over the line........
 
It was refreshing, hopefully a real fire burning result to kick start his season and hopefully Ferrari's, right now the team is in limbo

No it isn't. For Ferrari we've just seen two races where they've matched Red Bull. They've just scored their best qualifying of the season, they've only lost out because of rain. They're close. They're doing fine.
 
No it isn't. For Ferrari we've just seen two races where they've matched Red Bull. They've just scored their best qualifying of the season, they've only lost out because of rain. They're close. They're doing fine.

Touch wood it is right.....we need a little more red on the winners step and more red on the podium.....
 
No safety car at all, no red flag - just full wets and tyre swaps whenever they like and even if they have to race at 30 mph for a couple of laps, so what? When I can't see in torrential rain I slow down until the visibility improves. And if the ride height has to be increased to clear the water under the body, again, so be it if you want to win the race. You do whatever it takes.

I can't imagine enjoying that... I'd rather have a safety car and/or a red flag than watching them going 30 mph. Di Resta said they were getting caught out even behind the safety car so obviously it was too dangerous to continue racing.

Personally I don't think anyone can say they should 'just get on with it' - a formula 1 car is a wee bit different than your average road car, we don't know what it's like, I have massive amounts of respect for most of them even if they are unable to drive the car in the rain (which isn't really their fault anyway).
 
If is too wet to drive without a safety car then do not drive. Wait until it is dry.
If fans paid to see a 70 lap race, then they should see a 70 lap race. Not a 50 lap race and a 20 lap parade.

If it is deemed safe to race but not safe enough for a standing start, just do lap 1 under safety car.
I cannot fathom a rational reason for the first 5 or so laps to be SC laps. After the first it makes no difference. It's just a frustrating waste of time and race.
 
Yeah, I'm not saying they did it 100% right - I thought the safety cars (especially in the beginning) were out for too long, I'm just saying that safety should always come first, and if the drivers don't deem it safe enough (even Button in 10th thought it was unsafe, so it wasn't just a case of Vettel wanting an easy win) then it simply isn't safe enough.
 
I wonder what Schumacher's and Barrichello's opinions were on the conditions? They have been racing the longest and most likely to have experienced heavy rain starts such as Spa '98 and the many wet Brazilian GP's we've had over the years.

If they thought it was safe to race then maybe the new crop of F1 drivers just don't have the confidence to race in the trickier conditions.
 
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