F1 » Heidfeld blasts 'stupid' safety car rule

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.