New Safety System

[m3_lover]

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/en/headlin ... 0354.shtml

interesting to say the least.

[Saribro]

It's definitly worth a closer look. You'd have to be somewhat carefull balancing between making it obvious enough but keeping it from interfering, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

[Tp]

Makes you wonder, why teams haven't used this system before. Especially when you get penalised if you ignore them. They should have one for blue flags, because during a race when the drivers are concentrating on their race the flags can be the easily ignored.

[johny]

that's it, if you make a system like that, why don't use all flags

[Saribro]

that's it, if you make a system like that, why don't use all flags

Well for one, yellow and red flags are global, so much easier to manage.

[pyry]

global? blue flags arent then?

[Str8up]

Given the technology in F1, having a short range transmitter at each flag station should be achievable. The race controller could have control & select the appropriate sections similar to the pocedure now.

This could also be used for blue flags as well. For example, once an overtaking car is within a pre-determine time (eg 1 sec) when crossing the sector spilts, blue light automatically illuminate on the lapped car. Again overseen by the race controller.

[mcdenife]

Pyry wrote:

global? blue flags arent then?

Saribro meant the waving of blue flags is selective as they only apply to cars being lapped and therefore not as easy to manage. Red and yellow flags apply to the entire field (global if u like).

[theSuit]

This system is actually in the next set of technical regulations.

I suspect the reason it hasn't been seen before is that there's no way to sent the track status to the car without violating the pit to car telemetry rules.

[zac510]

Ferrari used to have a yellow/red flag LED on the steering wheel in 2000. It's in the Ferrari F1 book by Peter Wright.

[Tom]

Well, if ITV viewers, and I'm sure many more, can instantly see when the yellows are waved why not the drivers?

[Saribro]

Well, if ITV viewers, and I'm sure many more, can instantly see when the yellows are waved why not the drivers?

Because it requires signals to be sent -to- the cars. If there is no official system that is managed by race controllers, it would have to be sent by the teams' pit crews, which is currently not allowed.

[DaveKillens]

It's a good thing to have additional warning devices. My concern is the driver would tend to rely more on them than being vigilant for problems. As well, the time delay in relaying a problem from the specific corner to race control, to the drivers would be longer than the marshalls, who are right there.
And then there is the issue of sabotage. An unscrupulous team would know the frequencies and commands, and who knows, at some specific time or corner, give some opponent a false signal. Some dude sitting on a grassy knoll with a parabolic dish, low power, and the correct commands could direct the signal to an unsuspecting car? Most likely they could mask the dish in the book depository, oops, a van or tent instead.

[kimi_khodr_raikkonen]

yeah man, this will be a more professional move, lights r more reliable than flags, and they insure more safety and rule abidance, specially the blue flags, and yeah this idea should've been applied a long time ago, so it's about time to get things setteled

[Saribro]

And then there is the issue of sabotage.

If it is managed by the race stewards (as it should), a simple encryption of the connection would make it safe enough from sabotage (compare it to WPA encryption on wireless internet for example), even an unscrupulous team would have to invest a lot to get by it. Change the encryption parameters and/or passwords on a race by race, or even day by day basis and even the most paranoid should feel safe.