Safety car


In motorsport, a safety car, or a pace car, is a car that limits the speed of competing cars or motorcycles on a racetrack in the case of a caution period, such as an obstruction on the track or bad weather. The safety car aims to enable the clearance of any obstruction under safer conditions, especially for marshals and/or awaiting more favourable track conditions weather-wise. By following the safety car, the competitors' tyres remain as close as possible to operating temperature while their engines do not overheat. A safety car is also preferred over stopping the race and restarting, as the latter takes longer.
During a caution period, the safety car enters the track ahead of the leader. Depending on the regulations in effect, competitors are not normally allowed to pass the safety car or other competitors during a caution period, and the safety car leads the field at a predetermined safe speed, which may vary by series and circuit. At the end of the caution period, the safety car leaves the track, and the competitors resume normal racing. The first reliance on this safety measure occurred with the deployment of a pace car during the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

Effect

The use of a safety car has the effect of bunching competitors together, such as to eliminate any time and distance advantage that a leading driver may have had over the remaining field of competitors. This effect can make racing more competitive upon full race resumption; conversely, it has also contributed to faster leading drivers being negated just rewards for their efforts prior to the caution period.
Subject to the racing regulations in force, it is not uncommon for drivers to be allowed to make pitstops during safety car periods. This situation may provide a strategic advantage since any scheduled refueling, tire change or maintenance may be carried out while other competitors are lapping at lower speed, and the drivers who pit then simply rejoin a queue of cars all running together. During normal racing conditions, such interventions would typically involve losing significant terrain over those drivers that remain on-track.
Another notable effect of safety car periods is that racing cars consume less fuel until full race resumption, which can allow competitors to run longer distances on a tank of fuel than would otherwise have been possible and/or reduce the number of pitstops required for the duration of the race.

Formula One

Procedure

In Formula One if an accident or inclement weather prevents normal racing from continuing safely, the Race Director will call for a "safety car" period, which would see marshals wave yellow flags and hold "SC" boards, pending the car in question entering the track. From 2007, all Formula One cars must have LEDs and/or displays fitted to the steering wheel or cockpit, which inform the driver which flags are being waved. A yellow LED is illuminated when the safety car is deployed.
The safety car is driven by a professional driver, accompanied by a co-driver to assist with operations and communications. The safety car has both orange and green lights mounted on its roof in the form of a light bar. The green lights are used to signal that it is possible to overtake the safety car; this is only done until the race leader is immediately behind the safety car and at the head of the queue of race cars following.
Until 2014 the safety car was required to wait until all backmarkers have caught back up to the queue. When the safety car is ready to leave the circuit, it will turn off its orange lights to indicate that it will enter the pit lane at the end of the lap. Drivers must continue in formation until they cross the first safety car line, where circuit green lights and flags will indicate they are free to race again.
The safety car must maintain a reasonable speed to ensure that the competitors' tyres are as close as possible to operating temperature and their engines do not overheat.
For incidents during the first three laps, the safety car also has an advantage over the traditional red flag; with a red flag, it would take a minimum of fifteen minutes to restart the race, and the two-hour limit would not start until the cars were ready for a second formation lap. With regards to the time limit, the race is being scored and the time is also counting while the safety car is on the track, and the race resumes.

History

The first use of a safety car in Formula One is reported to have taken place at the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix, where a yellow Porsche 914 was called for duty following various incidents under treacherous weather conditions. Controversially, on that occasion, it took several hours after the race to figure out the winner and final results since the safety car driver had placed his car in front of the wrong competitor thus causing part of the field to be one lap down incorrectly.
Formula One officially introduced safety cars in, after trials were conducted at both the French and British Grands Prix during the preceding season. From through, this saw cars of different brands being used as the safety car throughout the season and depending on the track visited; for example, they included the exotic Lamborghini Countach for the Monaco Grand Prix in the 1980s, or the Lamborghini Diablo for the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix to the more mundane Fiat Tempra used at the rain-affected 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix, and the high performance version of the Opel Vectra used at the infamous 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. In particular, the Opel Vectra was criticized as it had a low top speed, which was insufficient to keep the competitors' tyre temperatures high, and the Vectra's brakes faded on the first lap causing its driver to go slowly. Since, in order to standardize the safety car type/performance and also as part of promotional arrangements, the main supplier of safety cars has been Mercedes-Benz, with Aston Martin sharing the duties with them from onward.
From, new procedures were applied for the first time during the Bahrain Grand Prix. The pit lane was closed immediately upon the deployment of the safety car. No car could enter the pits until all cars on the track had formed up in a line behind the safety car, they passed the pit entrance, and the message "pit lane open" was given. A ten-second stop/go penalty was imposed on any driver who entered the pit lane before the pit lane open message is given. However, any car which was in the pit entry or pit lane when the safety car was deployed would not incur a penalty. This was infamously exploited during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix when Nelson Piquet, Jr. wrecked his Renault shortly after teammate Fernando Alonso had exited the pits in what was later discovered to be an intentional crash designed to trigger a safety car and subsequent closure of the pit lane.
From, however, this procedure has been dropped, and replaced by software that calculates where a car is on the track and a minimum lap time it should take the car to get to the pits. Cars that enter the pits before this time limit has expired are penalised.
When the safety car and the drivers behind it are on the start/finish straight, there is a red light at the exit of the pit lane. Drivers who go past the red light are penalized. In the past, the penalty was disqualification; this has happened to several drivers during the years, such as Juan Pablo Montoya at the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix and Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. At the same race a year later, Lewis Hamilton failed to notice the red light and slammed into the back of the car of Kimi Räikkönen, who was waiting at the end of the pit lane alongside Robert Kubica. However, disqualification is no longer the standard penalty; as of, the Formula One penalty guidelines recommend a 10-second stop/go penalty for running the red light.
From, once cars were lined up behind the safety car, lapped cars were no longer allowed to unlap themselves before the race was restarted. This rule was abandoned from the season onwards, with cars now allowed to unlap themselves before the race resumes. However, since, the safety car does not need to wait for the backmarkers to catch up with the leading pack before returning to the pits.
The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix infamously became the shortest race in Formula One World Championship history and the first World Championship Grand Prix in history to be run entirely behind the safety car with no running taking place under green flag conditions, with two full laps completed behind the safety car before the race was red flagged on lap 3 and not restarted thereafter with results taken from the end of lap 1 with Max Verstappen declared the winner of the event and half points awarded to the top 10 classified drivers.
In response to the controversial safety car restart at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the FIA reworked the safety car restart procedure: instead of waiting for the last lapped car to unlap itself, the safety car will now be withdrawn one lap after the instruction to unlap is received.
Since 2021, F1 has featured two official safety cars, both the Aston Martin Vantage and the Mercedes-AMG GT R that was already used in previous seasons. Since 2022, Mercedes provides a Black Series variant of the GT. Since 2026, Aston Martin stopped providing safety cars, leaving Mercedes as sole supplier.

Chronology of Formula One safety cars