61 replies to this topic

[Kalmake]

If a safety car "messes up" the race, why are NASCAR races divided into stages with safety cars coming out at predesignated laps? 

 

It seems to suggest NASCAR organisers think safety cars improve the race, rather than mess it up! 

Because NARCAR wants to mix up the race. Even before stage racing they had "competition yellows".

[SenorSjon]

I'm afraid that slow zones in F1 would add an element of danger and only benefit the most disrespectful drivers who are "brave" enough to brake later than the rest for the slow zone.

That is why they finetuned them to start at points the cars are already slow. The first implementation had what you mentioned and could start halfway through straights.

[Victor]

No, in modern Formula One the Safety Car was introduced in 1993.

Actually the Safety Car was introduced for the first time in Canada 1973, not in 1993. And it started very badly, as victory was assigned to the wrong driver due to the safety car's presence.

I am sure there would be a way to have only some kind of even safer VSC instead of the terrible SC which takes away all the truth of the race.

[Pingguest]

From an ethical standpoint, it would be better to red flag a race and it be decided on aggregate time. But that would make race very difficult to follow.

[Kalmake]

VSC could slow the cars to a stop out on the track. Some technical issues with that, but they could be fixed with 2021 rules.

[ExFlagMan]

I have to admit that I have considerable difficulty trying to understand why some posters on this topic appear to believe the 20 or so drivers in the top echelon of the sport require/deserve special procedures and dispensations to enable them to conform to the basic rules of the sport - those that the majority of the other 99.999% of drivers seem reasonably capable of understanding and complying with.

[Marklar]

From an ethical standpoint, it would be better to red flag a race and it be decided on aggregate time. But that would make race very difficult to follow.

I've actually been wondering if it would just make more sense to park them in the pits and then they leave the pits one by one based on the gaps before they red-flagged it.

But then again I guess that having the option to bunch up the field and create more exciting situations out of it is not exactly unwanted.

[Cornholio]

If a safety car "messes up" the race, why are NASCAR races divided into stages with safety cars coming out at predesignated laps? 

 

It seems to suggest NASCAR organisers think safety cars improve the race, rather than mess it up! 

 

It's all opinions really isn't it. I guess a big chunk of fans and certainly the majority of casual viewers* would likely agree.

 

Personally, if each race is its own story, then to me an SC always feels like one of those "it was all a dream sequence, 90% of what you've just been watching and paying attention to is now irrelevant, sorry" plot points.

 

*Although one time I got an ex to watch a race with me some years back, an SC came out and her immediate observation was along the lines of "hang on, he was 15 seconds ahead and now everyone's right behind him how is that fair?" or words to that effect.

[PayasYouRace]

With today’s technology it would be entirely possible to give each driver their own unique delta time on the first green lap after the safety car comes in, restoring all the gaps to what they were before.

[Blue6ix]

For someone whose Forum Profile gives their occupation as 'Motorsport Researcher and aspiring Author', may I suggest you do some further research regarding the use of the Red Flag.

 

Unless there has been a fundamental change in the regulations in the very recent past, it is still the case that - in the UK at least - Race Control are the only ones with authority to call for a Red Flag. 

 

Although each flag post does indeed have a red flag, they are not permitted to display it without permission from Race Control, either via radio or via post-to-post visual transmission initiated from display of the red flag at the Start/Finish line.

 

Any flag marshal who displayed the red on their own initiative would need to have a very persuasive argument as to how/why it happened, when they received the inevitable invitation to attend Race Control.

 

Maybe my words and their meaning were in something up to the waywards when they were meant to be for another purposes.

 

I just meaned that in older times there was different views for a complete race stops, less equipment and many other hindering things which of course were providing mostly non-stop racing even in potentially disturbing instances of the lethal crashes.

 

And in some instances Race Control and Clerk of the Courses had their differences about the matter and situation get better eventually up from the 1970s.

 

And of course in different countries they had their own laws for some things in motorsport.

 

I remember only one instance where marshall actually displayed red flag on their own initiative and if I'm not mistaken dearly, it was in the 1997 Argentine Grand Prix.

 

That one of course is for the F1 side of motorsport.

Edited by Blue6ix, 22 August 2019 - 08:00.

[SenorSjon]

With today’s technology it would be entirely possible to give each driver their own unique delta time on the first green lap after the safety car comes in, restoring all the gaps to what they were before.

 

When half the field pits, that would get messy.

[PayasYouRace]

When half the field pits, that would get messy.

Just add the time they spent in the pits. That’s easily done.