10 replies to this topic

[Tomecek]

Hi folks!

Please, I am sure you would be able explain me the rear light issue of England Grand Prix:

Car must have red rear light illuminated all time when car is on wet tyres.

Then I have some questions:
1. Why Mark Webber's car had blue?!
2. I ever thought that rear light is lighting on wet tyres outside pitlane (not flashing as they were during Sunday's race) and start to flashing in pitlane when speedlimiter is activated. Souldn't rear lights light invariably when car's outside pitlane? And start to flash in pitlane?
3. Why williams cars, when they forms a line on starting grid right before start, have flashing rear light even if they are on dry tyres? Suppose software related issue (as it is not directly forbbiden)?

Thanks a lot!

[confucius]

Perhaps Mark's was blue to signify he was a rookie. In CART they used to (not sure if they still do) make the rookies turn on their rear lights. Perhaps the rear light may also flash when launch control is activated.

I'm not sure what you mean with your other questions.

[Bill949]

There are three teams trying out the blue rear light.
Jag
Minardi
and Toyota (I think)

The FIA Technical Group are testing to see if a blue light can be seen more clearly than a red.

Bill

[conplan]

FIA asked Jaguar, Minardi and Toyota to test blue rear lights to see if the were more visible in the rain.

[Garagiste]

You're partly right with the flashing bit too. Until TC and the rest were legalised again last year, there was a rule that the light used to flash when the pit limiter was activated. This was to prevent teams from using the pit lane speed limiter as a form of traction / launch control undetected.
Now it's all legal again, so the light can either flash of stay steady - I think both are being tried - again to see which works best.

[Liam]

AFAIK, it's up to race control to decide when the cars need to have their rear lights on, and is not decided by the tyres they have on. Once it's wet and their is spray RC tell's the teams to tell the drivers to put the lights on.

As for the lights themselves, the FIA changed the rules a few years ago to make them flash instead of being steady as this was more noticeable, apparently. They also flash when the pit lane speed limiter is on, no matter where the car is, so I presume the Williams cars pit lane speedlimter is connected to their LC system hence the flashing light on the start line.

The reason Webber's light was blue was part of a test the FIA were running to see if blue lights are even easier to see, presumably as the red ones are a bit blinding to the driver behind.

[tinman]

MW's rear light is blue (AY is the primary reason for this) to indicate that he is aware of the blue flag that is being constantly waved in front of his car. That way, the red, blue/white car driver will know that MW/AY is aware of the situation.

[Tomecek]

Guys, thanks for replies to all of you!
And sorry my poor English

[Peter]

First time I'd seen this, now we know why!

It was great watching down the pit entry from Luffield during qualifying. All the cars accelerated out of Luffield going down the pit entrance, upshifting at least twice before standing on the brakes just before the line and you could see the lights come on as the passed the line. Very colourful!

[pRy]

I actually saw lights flashing all over the place, even during the race on the track itself. For a while I thought it was linked to the brake.

[Dudley]

Ferrari run brake lights occasionally.

I was at Silverstone too. When they had them on Friday Blue lights were on both Jags, both Toyotas and Mark.