How to fix restarts?

[NaBUru38]

Yesterday was a bit silly, with so many first turn crashes after restarts. How should IndyCar fix them?

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

I think it was the nature of the circuit, which caused plenty of incidents, then creating restarts. Widen the circuits. The size of the tyre walls is massive, so get rid of a couple of layers in certain areas, and move the walls back. I'm not a fan of run-off, but that would make sense to me.

[fieldodreams79]

Single file restarts are the way to go on street circuits and road courses. I am perfectly fine with them on speedways.

[The Happy Track Fan]

Single file restarts. Everywhere.

For that matter, start all the races single file. They are all single file after the first couple of corners anyway.

Sure would eliminate a lot of crashes, heartaches, headaches, endless yellow flags, etc.

[Purist]

Biscuits, Baltimore is already WIDER than several of the classic road courses: Road America, Mosport, Watkins Glen (other than the start/finish straight). The Turn 1 barrier was pushed back for this year. However, because of the speed and direct impact angle, those tire barriers have to be thick to absorb the energy sufficiently.

Frankly, the initial race start all three years has PROVED that they CAN get through Turns 1, 3, and 4 cleanly. Part of it this past weekend was the forming-up procedure they used because of the chicane on Pratt Street. Since they don't line up until after the chicane, you have guys rushing to get in their rows behind the first few drivers who are holding some sort of pace speed. It isn't in the extreme, like the botched start in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix, but this does introduce a built-in compression going on in the field as they head down the straight toward Turn 1. It would be better if they could form up the rows earlier.

Corners that have persistently been the scenes of incidents have been so regardless of whether the restarts were single or double-file.

The race starts should remain double-file. As for restarts, I don't know. For chronic trouble spots, I don't think it particularly matters.

And just as a reminder, the widest track in CART, Cleveland, had a pretty awful record for Turn 1, Lap 1, bedlam. (You can have too little room, or too much temptation. Finding that balance often isn't easy.)

[Salamus]

Maybe drivers need to learn to stop dive-bombing every corner and realize that the car in front needs some space to turn...especially on a restart.

I say keep double file restarts.

[icemachine]

Keep em, single file restarts represent a dumbing down of the sport that's not needed

[mdaro]

Originally Posted by icemachine

Keep em, single file restarts represent a dumbing down of the sport that's not needed

I agree. Keep them. Single file restarts will create Dixon/Power type accidents as drivers try to pop on each other into turn 1.

[Paradise City]

Double file all the way.

[Beetle]

I say if you want to fix restarts, don't hold the Baltimore GP ever again.

Originally Posted by Purist

Biscuits, Baltimore is already WIDER than several of the classic road courses: Road America, Mosport, Watkins Glen (other than the start/finish straight). The Turn 1 barrier was pushed back for this year. However, because of the speed and direct impact angle, those tire barriers have to be thick to absorb the energy sufficiently.

All of this is true. However, if you look at Road America and Watkins Glen, they have a huge runoff area in their respective turn 1. Mosport doesn't have quite as much in the way of runoff but you can still get onto the grass and be OK. However, with Baltimore, there is no room for error. Yes, the track itself is plenty wide, but there is no runoff room. Therefore, one small lock up and cars will snag those big front wings on the tire bundles and the whole field can be stacked up for 10 rows back. It isn't a matter of how wide the track is at turn 1 - it's a matter of how much room for error you have at turn 1. In Baltimore, there's no room for error ---

--- and that doesn't equate to safe starts or restarts.

Also as the corner is relatively about 110 degrees it classifies as a hairpin which compromises accuracy and safety when putting the power down mid corner if you are racing with other cars.

If they could erase that small island and turn it into a much more gradual run-off area/island like you see in the Singapore F1 circuit that would vastly minimize carnage, I think.

[mdaro]

Originally Posted by Beetle

I say if you want to fix restarts, don't hold the Baltimore GP ever again.



All of this is true. However, if you look at Road America and Watkins Glen, they have a huge runoff area in their respective turn 1. Mosport doesn't have quite as much in the way of runoff but you can still get onto the grass and be OK. However, with Baltimore, there is no room for error. Yes, the track itself is plenty wide, but there is no runoff room. Therefore, one small lock up and cars will snag those big front wings on the tire bundles and the whole field can be stacked up for 10 rows back. It isn't a matter of how wide the track is at turn 1 - it's a matter of how much room for error you have at turn 1. In Baltimore, there's no room for error ---

--- and that doesn't equate to safe starts or restarts.

Also as the corner is relatively about 110 degrees it classifies as a hairpin which compromises accuracy and safety when putting the power down mid corner if you are racing with other cars.

If they could erase that small island and turn it into a much more gradual run-off area/island like you see in the Singapore F1 circuit that would vastly minimize carnage, I think.

I love street circuits. Baltimore has some problems but even the drivers really like it there! It is a great atmosphere, a great place for fans and I know I'm biased living in MD but I want it to stay. Fix the chicane and it will be a fantastic course. There are so many places to pass. It is a lot of fun to watch.

[Purist]

The island is what provides that escape road option at Turn 1. Anyway, I can't see the city allowing them to remove the island. Besides, if they did, the drivers would just rush the corner that much harder, plow into the tires on the far side, broadside to the road, and create a stack-up regardless, just in a slightly different spot.

And this misses the whole point. If the drivers INSIST upon going for the same, prized piece of road all at once, it doesn't matter how wide the track is, or how much grass verge there is to the side of the track. BTW, drivers very rarely, intentionally run off the road, even to take avoiding action. Also, if you go off the road at a high-speed corner, like Turn 1 at Mosport or Road America, there is quite a good chance that you will hit something, regardless of the run-off. Turn 1 at Watkins Glen is a fairly slow corner, and despite the run-off there now, I'd still rather have gravel to arrest me BEFORE I plow head-on into the wall, if something goes wrong on the way in.

If you need further illustration of what I'm getting at, go look up the two recent FIA GT races from the Slovakia Ring. That track is 15m wide; the front straight is at least 18m wide. It's a permanent road course with verges and run-offs, but there were still accidents at Turn 1 on Lap 1 in both races.

Back to IndyCar, they red-flagged the initial start of the 1999 CART race at Road America for a four-car incident at Turn 1.

NASCAR red-flagged the 2006 Sears Point race for a Lap 1 incident in the lower part of the esses. I mean, the area with the wide sweep to the right, and then back to the left to line up for Turn 10. It's an area with plenty of room since they took out that hillside back around 2001-02, added that extra stretch of road, and the chicane for the bikes.

Before I saw that race, I would have thought it impossible to have a red-flag-inducing incident at that point on the track.

[Paradise City]

They've been stacking up at Long Beach for years and years. It's not a pretty sight but it's not that big a deal either.