F1: Is the safety car sytem seriously flawed/unfair?

[mmj_uk]

Is it right that a totally meaningless (in terms of the race result) accident at the back of the field can have such a detrimental affect on the race result for other drivers?

Take for instance Silverstone yesterday where Webber in 1st place had built up a several second lead over Hamilton in 2nd, one of the tailenders cars falls apart all over the track the safety car comes out and as a result Webbers hard work up until that point is completely undone and Hamilton is right up behind him again, what if Hamilton (who should really be several seconds behind) had overtook Webber and won the race by a car length? is it fair?

How about Vettel who was at the time over a minute behind the leader, should he be allowed to close a 40 second gap just because there is a little bit of debris on the track? had it not been for the safety car yesterday Sutil, Scumacher, Hulkenburg all would've finished a place higher and Liuzzi would have earned a valuable point.

Lets not also forget Renault who were already caught 'abusing' the safety car in order to influence the outcome of a race in their favour.

Would it not be fairer to have a system whereby all drivers pit under the safety car and are then released from the pit lane based on the most recent split times before the accident?

What are your thoughts? and is there a better system that could be implemented?

 

[mmj_uk]

No, as 90% of the cars would die, from overheating. As well as crap from a spectators view.

Racing incidents, it's the luck of the draw.

They could turn off the engines and put all the cooling gadgets on the car as they do on the grid until the time is close to releasing the car, obviously it will take more organizing and they would need some sort of release system in place.

Is entertainment for the spectators really more important than fairness and an accurate result?

Should a sport of skill be influenced so much by luck? for example if Vettel wins the championship by 2-3 points he will have won it thanks to the safety car coming out at Silverstone allowing him to close an otherwise impossible gap and secure some points.

 

[mmj_uk]

That.

If you're quick enough to be in the lead on merit, and the pace car comes out, then you're surely quick enough to retain that lead when you go back to green flag racing.

But a driver may just make one mistake due to worn tyres which costs him 3 seconds and because of the safety car eradicating his lead he loses a position, if he had his original 10 second lead then the 3 seconds wouldn't have mattered, how was he to know thrashing his tyres early on to build up a 10 second lead would be a total waste of effort?

If you do that you may as well go further, and not have individual race results on the tracks, and just total up all the time from all the races on the calendar and then work it out. In fact, there's no need for the cars to even be on the same track at the same time.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of changing it....

There's no need to change the points system, it just seems flawed that a safety car being deployed for tiny things such as debris on the track should have such a massive/game changing influence on the outcome of a race.

There must be a better way?

 

[mmj_uk]

It is accurate, it is part of the rules and just one of those things a racing incident. If someone takes you out, do we bring everyone into the pit, get the guy a new car and send them all back out again.

What's accurate about a driver who drives without fail 1 second a lap faster than his closest rival and only having a 0.5sec lead after 30 laps? sure it's in the rules but they are by no means perfect.

New cars aren't allowed the only difference is the remaining runners start from the pit lane (or maybe they stop on the grid?) and are released with the previous split times intact similar to WRC.

 

[mmj_uk]

Why this debate? Just because ferrari have been shafted in a couple of races? Its a saftey measure and should be there to help the stweards clear the track.

Nope not a Ferrari fan just think the current system needs improving, it's a bit silly how a driver can give everything and be screwed by the safety car and vice versa.

Especially as it now comes out practically every other race and for sometimes over-precautious reasons such a little bit of debris.