Catch fencing

[Valve Bounce]

They had catching fences on my copy of the 1976 Italian Grand Prix too. Never saw them before. I didn't think it looked too safe.

I think that when the cars hit the fence, the poles holding the fence used to go crashing down on the cars and proved quite dangerous. I think that kitty litter is probably the safest option, apart from an extensive paved runoff; the latter would prove to be even more effective if cars then had to go back to where they spun off before re-enterring the track.

[ClarkFan]

I think that when the cars hit the fence, the poles holding the fence used to go crashing down on the cars and proved quite dangerous. I think that kitty litter is probably the safest option, apart from an extensive paved runoff; the latter would prove to be even more effective if cars then had to go back to where they spun off before re-enterring the track.

Or they could follow the practice of amateur lapping days. When you spin out, you have to go back to the pit, explain to the marshals what happened, and convince them that you won't do that again. That should prove an adequate penalty.



ClarkFan

[D-Type]

I think that when the cars hit the fence, the poles holding the fence used to go crashing down on the cars and proved quite dangerous. I think that kitty litter is probably the safest option, apart from an extensive paved runoff; the latter would prove to be even more effective if cars then had to go back to where they spun off before re-enterring the track.

People seem obsessed with the poles breaking. They were supposed to break - it was part of the concept of energy absorption. If a car hit a post, it would tend to push the pole over and it would break in the direction the car was going, i.e. away from the driver. The woven mesh would wrap around the car keeping the post away from the driver. Likewise, the continuity of the fencing would prevent the poles on each side of the car from hitting the driver. If a pole hit a driver it had to be due to some freak circumstance or to incorrect installation (that old bugbear again!).
Historic racing has shown that kitty litter is not that effective with narrower rims - the wheel digs in and turns the car over.

[ArrowsFA1]

Or they could follow the practice of amateur lapping days. When you spin out, you have to go back to the pit, explain to the marshals what happened, and convince them that you won't do that again. That should prove an adequate penalty.

Andrea de Cesaris would have spent more time chatting to the marshals than lapping the track :

[BDunnell]

It seems to me that one of the big disadvantages of catch fencing was that it meant that the cars that got caught up in it were in dangerous positions for far longer than they are now. You can see that in the 1975 British GP video. Admittedly, those were freak conditions and much has been learnt about safety in the intervening three decades, but it takes ages for the cars and drivers to be disentangled, with vehicles on the track, people running around trying to help and so on.