The FIA and Formula 1 want to make the world champion Circus safer. Precisely for this reason, the International Automobile Federation is introducing stricter speed restrictions on the track when the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car (VSC) regime is in force in the track areas where the double yellow flags are displayed.
This is a measure that has been designed and will be implemented following research and examination of past accident situations, but also the FIA’s consultation with Formula 1 teams and drivers.
Until the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which was then not held due to flooding in the Italian region, the FIA International Sporting Code provided that in the presence of double yellow flags, displayed when “there is a danger which blocks part or entire track and/or marshals working on or near the track”, required drivers to “significantly reduce speed, do not overtake and be ready to change direction or stop”.
However, things will change starting this weekend, i.e. from the Monaco Grand Prix, the seventh round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship. With the double yellows exposed, the requirements to be maintained for the drivers will be more precise and applied more rigorously . They will therefore have to respect a maximum speed limit in the areas where the double yellow flags will be displayed.
“What we want to do is provide drivers with a tool that helps them during accidents and makes racing even safer,” explains FIA technical director Tim Goss, who oversaw the project.
“For some years, with the Safety Car and the Virtual Safety Car we have used delta times, a reference to a speed limit we have around the track. So when there is a physical or virtual safety car, the drivers are notified of the delta time on the dashboard display and via radio tones and must maintain a positive value, i.e. be slower than the reference lap time.However, there are occasions where cars may legitimately increase speed temporarily to make up for lost time compared to the reference time”.
“What we want to do now is to extend the use of the delta time concept to ensure that cars are rigorously slowed down to the required delta time when double-waving yellow flags are displayed under a Virtual Safety Car or a Safety Car, so we are introducing a dedicated reference speed limit in the area where the flags are displayed”.
Earlier this year the FIA completed an extensive series of track tests – the tests were carried out at different circuits – and it revealed that the reference speed limit for the Safety Car in wet track conditions would allow to take a good step forward in terms of safety.
Olivier Hulot, FIA’s head of F1 electronics, explained how drivers will notice that the restrictions are in place: “In the case of VSC, when a driver enters an area with a double yellow flag displayed, what he will see on the dashboard is zero, so the delta time resets to zero and he will have to drive below the new speed limit. This way he gets a positive or negative delta against the speed limit. So it’s the same principle as before, only it’s specific to a area in which the double yellow flag is in force”.
The restriction introduced will not catch the drivers by surprise, who will be warned both on the dashboard display and via radio of the presence of an area where double yellow lights are displayed.
“We have already introduced a warning system for yellow and double yellow. The pilot receives a warning in the marshalling yard before the yellow or double yellow. This system has already been successful and will help us with the new system.”
Hulot admitted that, occasionally, cars slowed down by a short period of double yellows could suffer a loss of performance, but safety will win out.
“If a car passes through a double yellow but not another and has to slow down, it loses time compared to its rivals. However, for the FIA, safety is fundamental and when there is a danger on the track or the marshals on the track, we have to reduce minimize the risks, regardless of everything”.
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