Heidfeld blasts 'stupid' safety car rule.

Absolutely spot on, both Heidfeld and Barrichello have suffered through not fault of their own. Should have been changed after the first incident tbh

The way I see it, the rule is in theory a good idea on safety grounds, but if a team can prove that a car is about to run out of fuel & the driver doesn't gain from the stop, they should not get a 10 second stop go penalty.
The teams could even let the FIA know in advance which lap the cars will be in for fuel, as long as it is secure & other teams cannot see the infomation.

While the safety car rules are understandable, they could be tweaked. At the moment no one knows when a car is due in the pits until the car gets to the pit lane. However, if once the good old fashioned Pit Board has gone out for any particular driver to pit for fuel and then there is a safety car incidence the driver should be permitted to pit for fuel. Meaning that the intention was signalled and not opportunist move. The stop should be compulsory, to stop any spoofing.

There is a simple solution - teams should ensure that their cars have sufficient fuel onboard to cope with the number of laps during which they are not allowed to pit (I presume this is a fixed number or could be made a fixed number?). This strategy would then become another item in the team's armoury that other teams will need to judge (i.e. it would not be a regulation - merely a way for teams to avoid running out of fuel or having to take a penalty.) Teams that run a car to the last possible lap before refuelling do so at the risk of the safety car being deployed. That is the measure of the risk - BMW took that stategic risk and lost the gamble.

Dave, do you realise what you are saying?
Teams don't play safe on the chance that a safety car may be deployed! Why would they, knowing that their closest rival might not be playing safe and gaining precious seconds over them.
Wake up m8, smell the coffee!!

There's an even simpler way of avoiding this problem altogether - do away with fuel stops - as it use to be. To many races have been won or lost due to pitlane strategy becasue of re-fuelling rather than on track action. What excitement is had from watching a potentially close race spoilt because one of the drivers has had to come in for fuel?

A solution to this situation is quite simple, as soon as a car is filled, the team notifies race control as to the predicted lap of their next pit stop. Should this occur during a saftey car period it would then be allowable. An allowance of plus or minus a lap should be built into the regulation. This takes away the gamble that a saftey car will prevent a fuel stop, thus eliminating the "ban Luck factor".

Completely agree with 190mph, do away with pitstops and the drivers will have to attempt to pass on track instead of hanging around until the stops before banging in a couple of quick laps to get ahead.

only pit stops to change a punctured tyre or to replace broken body parts and fuel tanks big enough to fuel to the finish...............sorted

Had it been Kimi caught out by this and not scored any points, how quick would the FIA have changed the rules for their best friends at Ferrari?

I generally hate that US open wheel is doing something better than F1, but in this case, it's true. The should go to the IRL rule... you can come into the pits to add a splash of fuel, but can't do a full refueling, change tires, or do anything else to the car.

Having to stop twice (the second time for the full service) is a fair enough penalty.

The solution is even easier Im afraid. No pace car at all.
All the cars hav standard ECU's & all have pit lane limiters, & pit to car telemetry is old news. Add a 'safety limiter' programme of 80km/h to each car that can be activated by race control in a normal safety car situation, that way all cars come down to a max 80km/h together so even hard worked for gaps arent lost due to someone else's accident. Once the track is clear race control turns the system off & everyone has control of their cars again.

AHS has suggested the perfect common-sense solution, that could easily be implimented in time for the next race if the powers-that-be see fit.

perfect common sense??

Lets see ... full service pitstop = 7 seconds stationary, stop & go penalty = 10 seconds stationary ... 3 seconds better ... what diffs wud that hav made?
Even if made under the safety car it wud hav dropped him down behind many more cars that were all queued up behind the pace car. In IRL that is not a problem coz the cars can & do actually pass ... in F1 even a much faster car cant get past a slower one until a pitstop ... so AHS's solution wont work for F1.

one positive thing abt this rule is that gives the backmarkers a chance to score some points

I agree with 190mph... do away with pit stops and re-fueling altogether.

Think of the benefits... races won on the track not in the pits, tyres developed to last a whole race which will save money for the teams and improve the spectacle for the race fans... imagine the leaders dueling it out on track with worn tyres near the end of the race!! And also the engineers will have to design more fuel efficient engines which must be a good thing all round.

I get a little frustrated when I see races won on pit lane strategy, I want to see the best drivers in the world dueling it out on the track and may the best man win.

I'm not so sure about doing away with pitstops. I know that it might promote better on-track overtaking, but it's got too many negatives.

1. Changed car dynamics because tanks will have to now be at least 3x bigger.
2. Tyres. One set per race? Not a good idea...
3. Viewer action: Theres a sense of excitement and urgency during the pitstop windows, and I dont want to stop seeing that.
4. In a race like Monaco or Hungary, the pitstops are probably the only place you CAN overtake!

I think this rule is pretty stupid. Who said that it was unsafe to pit with the SC out? Did we hear the teams ever complain? The drivers? The pit crews? Why create a rule for a non-issue???

I'm old enough to remember when there were no pit stops in F1 and it was just as exciting if not more so than it is now.

But I agree with you Ghost on the main point... it is a stupid rule. The pits should be open all the time during the race.

They don't need to get rid of pit stops just the refueling. The tires should be soft and supersoft so they will need to make at least two stops. They could still require that they use both tire compounds during a race. This way they can close the pits and no one will run out of gas. No matter what if there is a safety car on track it will effect some people negatively. At least this way it is mimimized.

I would love to see sub five second pit stops again. They could get rid of fire suits and go back to wearing shorts too.

Are you trying to tell us you like men in shorts Mark???
Only joking.