Pace car concerns

[Andrew Palmer]

The speed the Safety Car can achieve is irrolvant. It's job is to slow the cars down and bunch them up so we marshals can deal with an incident in some form of safety and not jumping out of the way every 10 seconds when the next car pass us that has not slowen down. 2006 Safety Car should be a Trabie. The problems all steams from the drivers not looking at the signals around them both external and internal to their cars.

See a yellow flag or a Marshal track side slow down. If you are overtaken under the yellow flag the other driver will be punished. Unless of course his lawyer is better than your . If this starts to happen the Safety Car will not be needed and after you have past the incident you can quickly be at race speed and the tyres have not cooled off.

Most driver know the handling of their cars and can soon tell if the pressure has dropped in one tyre so with four it must be very easy. Time to visit the pits or drive a few laps to increase the tempature and so the pressure.

I'm begin to feel like a parrot with the phrase "DRIVER EDUCTION" they know the problems and so should be able to drive around them.

[Andrew Palmer]

A thought just hit me which is a solution to the tyre pressures changing with tempature.

I know that I'm not allow many thought in a year and I should not go wasting them on F1 but this is the solution.

Solid tyres



I must now go and lay down in a dark room.

[Gridlock]

Much better than solid drivers?

[djinvicta]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

Boots, true stuff. These guys are RACING drivers, surely they must realise you cant go "balls out" for a lap or two after the pace car. Professionalism or what?

Thank you; I can only reiterate what Ive said. These guys are supposed to be professional. How did Webber get "voted" or chosen for this role after a couple of years in F1?

[Snrub]

Originally Posted by Andrew Palmer

A thought just hit me which is a solution to the tyre pressures changing with tempature.

I know that I'm not allow many thought in a year and I should not go wasting them on F1 but this is the solution. Solid tyres

It's also about getting the rubber up to its optimal grip temperature. I know you were joking, but I don't know that the idea is completely without merrit. Rally cars have some sort of wierd foam in their tires when they get a puncture so that they can continue on. Apparently it doesn't slow them down. I don't know that it would be inconceivable to run that foam in F1 tires with no air at all.

I think Webber is complaining because of things like MS's tire coming off. The new tires are so hard that they take a long time to get up to heat. Recall that earlier in the season McLaren was struggling to get the tires to run at their proper temps at any point in the race, let alone with a safety period.

Why couldn't they run a faster pace car? It doesn't have to be a street car, it could be a proper race that would run fast enough to avoid problems with F1 cars/tires, but slow enough that everything is controlled and safe for the workers.

[Andrew Palmer]

Solid tyres would stop a lot of problems, but then again bring some more, next drivers will be complaining their teeth are being shaken loose due to the vibrations from the track surface.

I heard about the foam used in rally tyres, I have also heard of and seen vehicle with the capability to inflate their on tyres while still on the move, i.e. the Hummer.
This might be the answer and it would give the drivers another knob to play with on the steering wheel.

[N I Tram]

I didn't realise that Webber was on the GPDA - very stragne decision considering his inexperience. He may ahve a point here though - when the pace car is used we are usually in a situation where 95% of the track can be ran at full speed, and as long as the drivers are briefed and clued-up, the car probably doesn't need to slow down as much while covering most of the track. Another advantage of this would be to see the teams save less fuel under the pace car, thus reducing the impact of luck on the strategies. One possible outcome would be that a Bridgestone driver leading the line would want to go faster than a Michelin one, as their cars take longer to get heat into the tyres - remember the situation at Silverstone 2 years ago.

[Gridlock]

N I Tram
I think you have missed the point. No matter how well briefed or well clued up they are they just cant be trusted to slow down when they see a yellow flag.

[Andrew Palmer]

Gridlock is correct N I Tram, the whole problem is the drivers do not slow down unless forced to.

The GPDA should really being telling its members that there is to be no overtaking for two laps after the Safety Car has been used. The same can be said for Yellow flags the GPDA should tell its members that when the Yellow Flag is being shown your maximum sector speed or revs should be. They have access to the data from each car and information from race control so they should be able to piece the evidance together and take action as required.

[djinvicta]

No sorry guys; these blokes are supposed to be professionals. Theyre racers. If they cant realise their tyres aint up to pressure and drive accordingly they shouldnt be in it. Im all for "safe" racing but as it says on your ticket " motor racing is dangerous" . ALL you Marshalls do a sterling job, but, come on, your in danger ALL the time a race is on. You know that, you take the risk. some of these red eye racers WILL go for it, you know that. Surely we cant control racing by saying, no overtaking??

[BootsOntheSide]

Telling racing drivers not to overtake is ridiculous, especially when safety car laps aren't added back onto the total. Drivers should be able to use their judgment on this. Once the safety car is out there, drivers know what they have to do, and they do it. People are talking as if incidents through drivers not slowing down enough for yellow flags are commonplace.

[Gridlock]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Drivers should be able to use their judgment on this. Once the safety car is out there, drivers know what they have to do, and they do it. People are talking as if incidents through drivers not slowing down enough for yellow flags are commonplace.

Drivers know what they have to do and do it? You must be joking. Many do but it just takes one to cause an incident.
The reason why the incidents are not commom place is the fact that Safety Cars are used.

[Logrence]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

some of these red eye racers WILL go for it, you know that. Surely we cant control racing by saying, no overtaking??

That's fair enough in a race situation, but if there's an accident or people have to be near the track then it's completely unacceptable for people still to be driving at race speeds.

As I said before - this is a tyre issue, not a safety car issue. It's race control's responsibility to make sure the track is as safe an environment as it possibly can be.

[johnh875]

Speaking of safety car concerns, I was surprised they didn't use it when recovering Sato's car at the hairpin of all places. We saw the Minardi run wide at the corner while still under yellows a couple of laps later which really illustrates the point.

[Logrence]

Yeah, that did surprise me too. Especially with the marshals so in the way.

[Menelaos]

The Minardi would have to receive at least a good penalty for that.