F1 Virtual Safety Car

F1 Virtual Safety Car. The drivers follow the safety car at a reduced speed while guiding them away from the dangers F1 racers are not allowed to pass any vehicle while the safety car is on the track Virtual safety cars are another measure that the race car drivers have followed in F1 since 2015.

Following the fatal crash of Jules Bianchi at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix Formula One developed and introduced a new virtual safety car system the next racing season which slows drivers down.

Here's How Virtual Safety Cars Work In Formula One

Virtual Safety Car (VSC) is regulations that has been adopted in Formula 1 since 2015 In case it is not enough to deoploy the safety car but it is necessary to slow down significantly at certain point on the course VSC is deployed.

What Does A Safety Car Do In F1? One Stop Racing

On the end FIA and Formula 1 teams have agreed to introduce the Virtual Safety Car for 2015 debut The Virtual Safety Car [or VSC] sees all the cars slowing down a speed limit in what would effectively be a fullcourse caution however this would be done without deploying the actual Safety Car in order to better control the speed of the cars at any given point.

F1 Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car, Pace Car, F1 Safety Car Speed

The History of The F1 Safety CarThe First F1 Safety CarF1 Safety Car SpeedF1 Safety Car ModelsThe Virtual Safety CarThe Future and The Virtual Safety CarFor any given Formula 1 race we generally know who was on pole who led the pack and who passed the chequered flag before everybody else However there is one other ‘leader of the pack’ who usually goes unnamed and is maybe not always appreciated either by drivers or fans the F1 safety car driver In fact since the year 2000 there has been one official F1 safety car driver and his name is Bernd Maylander The impact the car has on a race outcome can be significant the impact it has on race safety can be controversial but the principle of an F1 safety car makes sense when it is unsafe maybe due to weather conditions or ontrack events it provides a maximum speed for all drivers thus enabling the race to continue as soon as the dangers have been cleared up In this article we look at the history of the F1 safety car and as we do so take in some detail about F1 safety car speed F1 safety car models and the future of the F1 safety car including aspects about the virtual safet The F1 safety car did not have an auspicious beginning During the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix it caused results mayhem when it identified the wrong car as leader and gave some drivers an inadvertent lap advantage This also caused issues for the timekeepers who still relied on less technological timing solutions and everyone had to wait several hours before the race results were actually verified and announced This debacle meant that the car did not make an official introduced appearance until 1993 following trials during the 1992 British and French Grand Prix The F1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander has a difficult task he is required to drive slow enough to avoid accidents but fast enough to ensure that the pack retains adequate speed If the F1 safety car is too slow the F1 cars forced to follow it can lose tyre pressure and brake temperature There is some suggestion that Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash at Imola in 1994 might have been caused by lowered tyre pressure and a subsequent ground touch as he rounded Tamburello corner It is interesting to note that Senna himself had earlier in the race clearly indicated his dissatisfaction with the safety car speed by pulling alongside it and gesticulating to the driver With F1 safety car speed being so important it is only fair that the F1 safety car driver gets his own practice session This happens on Grand Prix Thursday each weekend and also includes the medical car There is said to be fierce competition between the medical car and safety car drivers but in reality the practice sessi In the early days each circuit provided their own safety car and driver This naturally led to a rather unpredictable and sometimesdangerous roulette in which it was not always clear whether or not the F1 safety car model met the speed and safety standards required for control The F1 safety car model that made the inaugural appearance at the illfated 1973 Canadian Grand Prix was a Porsche 914 This variation has led to some interesting disparity in style for example at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1980s the car was a glamorous Lamborghini Countach and the one whose use preceded Ayrton Senna’s crash in 1994 was a high performance version of the considerably more mundane Opel Vectra Since 1997 MercedesBenz have been the F1 safety car official supplier and it was agreed that in order to ensure consistency and enhance safety the same F1 safety car and driver would travel to each Grand Prix The F1 safety car model has changed eight times since then with the current AMG GT S being After Jules Bianchi suffered fatal head injuries following an accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix the FIA trialed a VSA (Virtual Safety Car) system designed to slow cars down without the implementation and related effects of a physical F1 safety car Due to leaps forward in track technology these trials were successful and the 2015 Formula One season saw the formal adoption of the VSA procedure The virtual safety car is implemented whenever there might be a level of danger to those on or around the track that doesn’t warrant the use of the safety car itself When the virtual safety car is indicated via double waved yellow flags the instruction ‘VSC’ is displayed around the track on marshaling light panels While the virtual safety car is indicated drivers are not allowed to enter the pits (unless they are changing tyres) and they have to stick to minimum section times Whilst the idea of driverless motor racing for example the Roborace Series is still struggling to gain momentum the F1 safety car does perhaps offer the future opportunity to introduce some autonomous technological influences to a Grand Prix weekend A driverless F1 safety car would probably be bad news for Mr Maylander but would give engineers an excellent opportunity to perfect some of the current developmental autonomous driving technology The question remains however as to whether or not fans would appreciate a driverless safety car The appearance of the current F1 safety car model on the track adds another element of excitement and another driver to a race this impact might be lost if the vehicle was driverless Only time and trial will tell whether or not a driverless car is a viable alternative to the current F1 safety car which is perhaps a more loved element of Formula One Grand Prix than any of us are prepared to admit All motorsport includes an element of danger Phone 01992 568737.