[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by wnut

Indianapolis ran a pace car in 1911.
1973 F1 introduced a pace car following the outrage that they kept racing while Roger Williamson burned to death.
The first pace car was run in Canada in 1973 when Scheckter and Cervert crashed into one another blocking the track. The officials then picked up Ganley who was running 6th instead of the leader Revson, causing a rumpus about who had won the race.
Apparently there was a pace car on hand at the 81/82/83 Monaco GP, but it was not deployed.
The next use of a Pace car or "Safety car" as F1 likes to call them was in the 1993 where the cars used were found to be too slow and blamed for Senna's accident. The car was significantly upgraded in 1994 to ensure a quick enough car was used, and the use of a professional racing driver to drive the car came about much later. (????Date)

So in effect it took F1 at best 62 years to try and copy American racing's proven use of the pace car, 82 years to use one on a regular basis, 83 years to get the right car as a pace car, and longer to find out a professional driver was needed to competently drive the thing.
All these teething troubles would have been solved for them by the SCCA if somebody had thought to ask!

Not an impressive timeline, just pure bloody mindedness and arrogance!

Tiny correction - the car was upgraded for 1995. 1994 they used saloon cars like the Opel Vectra. 1995 they used Diabos, 911s and things like that.