Quote:
Originally Posted by Greem
Agreed. Making the tracks themselves less dangerous to *all* who might race on them means that compromises are reached in so many ways - spectators are further away, run-off can be used as track, etc etc. Speaking from personal experience as someone going out to a club driver who's just dropped it into the same gravel trap for the third time that day, it can be pretty annoying for them (as Peter will no doubt attest!) to lose your hard-paid-for track time due to a fairly minor mistake. I was in no doubt that day how angry the driver was with the world!
It is, however, the (in)consistency which matters. As mentioned above, Donington, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch (definitely) plus Snetterton (possibly?) have sensors with cameras pointing at them at the major track limits zones. In Donington's case - exit of Redgate, exit of the Old Hairpin, exit of Mcleans and I think at the exit of the final corner, Robert's. There is no disputing the photos - they're available to the clerk within a few seconds of being taken.
If that can be applied at a historic meeting or in a novice's race at a club meeting, plus in the BTCC, I can't see it being too hard to adopt internationally.
Saying that... HM's words have been very carefully chosen. He's making it look like the FIA have deliberately taken positions/points/wins and therefore money away from his team by the application of a rule with which he (at this time) disagrees. If it was Mercedes being penalised, I expect he'd be rather quieter about it...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Mallett
Difficulty, as highlighted by CH the tracks have to cope with bikes and cars so the kerbs can't be too much of a penalty. Also the lack of grass or gravel is due to the possibility that a car leaving the circuit at speed will become airborne and/or roll. I don't think bike like gravel either.
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What do you guys think about applying a 1.5m strip of low grip surface directly next to the kerb, it being grass, gravel astroturf or whatever is found most suitable?
1.5m would seem barely seem enough to flip a bike over, especially when a suitable surface is chosen. I would see the following advantages:
1 Automatically penalized without need to for the director to intervene or us or teambosses to get upset about anything.
2 Does take much room
3 Is not unsafe for bikes
4 Does not brakes cars like Austrian sausages
5 It's cheap to realize.
6 Errors are penalized but are not directly race ending (might be seen as positive or negative depend of ones POV.