Quote:
Originally Posted by peckstar
John
all i am trying to say is that the integrity of the race is relevant to the deployment of the safety car.
I am arguing that the system we currently have works much better the the blanket closing of the pits no matter what
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Ok. I would contend that safety is more important than the integrity of the race - eg driver injured or car on fire. You have to gear safety precautions (including SC procedures) around a reasonable worst-case situation, not a minor incident like picking up broken cars. Drivers have been seriously injured (& killed) many times in V8SC in recent years so there needs to be a system to get medical (& fire) response to them as quickly as possible - it can't wait a couple of laps until all cars are in the SC train. How can you reasonably ask these officials to on track with cars going 99-100% pace?
Secondly, any use of the SC under any system affects the integrity of the race, so who cares what the effects are, they are the same for everyone and you win some and lose some. I'd say that a quicker, more effective SC procedure would help the racing by having fewer laps under SC.
Under the current system there is an issue with cars continuing to circulate at race pace under the SC - there is incentive for them to do so! The current system could work if there were any (enforced) penalties for not slowing sufficiently under the SC (or any yellow flag). As Stealthy said - the rules are the problem, they ask the drivers nicely to slow down... Other systems are being suggested to remove the incentive to continue at speed, which is the main objective. A 'Code 60' as implemented overseas is one way of doing it.
Peckstar the "near miss" at PI is an entirely separate issue to the SC stuff-up, it only meant the closing speeds involved were slightly higher than if the train was moving. As dmcl said, the SC boards had been out for a considerable time, as well as the SC itself being on track. What were the drivers doing at full race pace over the crest in the main straight heading into the back of the train? I don't see why they shouldn't be pinged for overtaking under yellow/SC when they slid past the other cars.