It has been reported that the testing of the possible safety car rule change could take place next weekend during the French Grand Prix weekend.
The rule to close the pitlane on deployment of the safety car has angered many teams and drivers who need to pit or face the possibility of running out of fuel.
The potential new rule is believed to involve special software for every car and Steve Nielson, the Renault Sporting Manager, explained that instead of the drivers facing a closed pitlane, each driver will be required to record a minimum lap time for the first tour after the deployment of the safety car, the minimum time has been suggested to be 20 percent slower than than the average from practice.
Mr Nielson said “He will get a time displayed on his dash, which he is not to go faster than. Then they have five seconds to press a confirm button to show that they’ve seen the signal and from that stage onwards they’re governed by the target lap time. That will ensure that all the cars go at a relatively slow speed” he said to Autosport.
He also put out a warning to the team bosses that they should not actually applying the rule to early. He said of the France trials that it “is purely an experiment to demonstrate to the drivers how the system will work. And if that’s successful we will then go on and incorporate it into the rules as a proper regulation. Honestly, I think it’s something that should perhaps be done for 2009.”
1 comment so far
1 Joy Ryder // Jun 16, 2008 at 3:03 pm
The new Safety Car rules sound a bit complicated. I’m not sure this will be an improvement. I say leave the lane open regardless. When the car comes out and who it benefits is always the luck of the draw. These stupid red lights are taking too many cars out of the race unnecessarily.
Great story!
Mark