55 replies to this topic

[Charlieman]

Not entirely, IIRC in 2006 Robby Gordon was fined $15,000 and docked 50 Drivers and Owners points for throwing a bit of roll cage padding out the window and creating a full course yellow at Atlanta.

On Sunday when the F1 drivers were pulling away from their pits, I noted that they were ditching visor pull offs. It seemed a funny time to do it, but of course, there is no other time. The drive into the pit is too busy for the top drivers and they can't just lose it on the straight as in years past.

[Charlieman]

I would go back to good old grass. Sand traps stop cars from getting out and can flip them if they go in at the wrong angle.

When considering run off space, we have to think about what works well for cars and bike riders. For a big circuit, the organisers may be able to afford changing the run off surface between events but that is not going to happen at the majority of places.

A hard surface stops/slows off track cars that are spinning or have brakes. If the hard surface is too generous -- too much like the racing track -- minor mistakes are insufficiently penalised. Thus hard-ish surfaces have two jobs to do -- to provide a safe-ish landing place for bikers and cars, whilst not providing advantage to those re-entering the track.

[Mal9444]

Converting several of the sand traps at Goodwood (e.g. at Woodcote) to hard surfaces has allowed off-track excursions that would have embedded the car and at the least yellow-flagged that corner, one of the best overtaking spots for drivers and spectators alike, for the rest of the race to recover quickly, with the loss of a place or two as penalty, and the race to continue unabated. I can recall several races that were red-flagged when the sand trap there became too full. I can also recall at least two overturnings in the sand trap, neither being of narrow-bodied high single-seaters. One an XK120 coupe, the other a saloon.

[Nigel Beresford]

From the citation of the FIA Centre of Excellence Award to Paul Ricard:

Gravel traps have been replaced by three types of asphalt surface. The first, on the outside of the track and painted blue, is more abrasive than the track itself. The second, painted red, continues on from the first and is ultra abrasive. The third type is a white asphalt surface, which is thought to be more effective at slowing the cars than the grass layers used at other circuits. The surfaces are varying blends of asphalt and tungsten, designed specifically to intensify the slowing down and stopping effect on cars. This type of run-off system increases safety, reduces the intervention time of the rescue teams and reduces damage to the car.

[D-Type]

I did have a look at the 1975 Yellow book and there isn't really anything to add.

One interesting aside: The newly introduced Pace Car regulations specifically excluded the Nurburgring.

[scheivlak]

Indeed. A safety car should imho only be deployed if there is an obstacle *on the track*, not somewhere beside the track, and if there isn't one single bit of car sticking out on the asphalt, even if it's right beside the track, it should *stay in*. Now it's way too often used for no good reason, imho.

Yes, maybe too often - generally speaking.
But give me a specific occasion when that happened in Formula 1!

I'm often amazed how often a SC is not used in F1 in conditions that are nearly always trigger SC use in other formulas and competitions (GP2, F3, touring cars, sportscars), especially when there's a lot of carbonfibre on the track (during at least the last 2 Formula 1 GPs just yellow flags were waved while there was quite a lot of debris on track).

Edited by scheivlak, 24 September 2012 - 22:51.