Should Gravel Traps Return?

[steveaki13]

In all reality you're right Taz.

Coupled with lack of gravel traps these days, is the increase in use of SC. Go back 20 years an hardly ever a SC once it was introduced. Instead cars just ran round the circuit while marshalls dug cars out of the gravel.

Thus today with a return of Gravel, it would lead to SC's 4 or 5 times a race.

[ShiftingGears]

I would like to see their return. It feels very artificial when the racetrack is painted onto the road, and there is currently no significant consequence for running off the road besides the arbitrary penalties applied.

[Tazio]

Of course I meant street courses!

[D-Type]

Has anyone else read David Tremayne's The science of safety? It gives a very good history of the development of safety consciousness and also explains the advantages and disadvantages of different wys to stop an errant car.

There are two separate but not mutually exclusive safety aims:
(1) Protection of spectators
(2) Protection of the drivers

Protection of spectators has seen concrete and Armco barriers which have the prime objective of keeping the car on the circuit away from the spectators. Add a debris fence on top to stop flying bits including wheels. The other method is to move the spectators away from the action.
Protection of the drivers follows two routes: Modify the tracks to somehow slow a car down gradually, which is the key objective: straw bales, tyre barriers, catch fencing, gravel traps, run-off areas. Modify the car to have energy features to protect the driver such as: rubber bag fuel tanks (for fire), rollover bars, wheels with suspension that tears off, crumple zones, HANS devices.

Taking improvements to the cars as a given, the circuits are anywhere between two extremes: a street circuit entirely lined with Armco or concrete barriers (Monaco comes close), a flat patch of desert with a race track marked out on it ( some of the latest Tilke-dromes come close). Showing characteristics of both we have the Las vegas circuit of a few years ago - it was essentially a track marked out in a car park in the middle of the desert, but it was marked out with unyielding concrete barriers.

So where are we now? Most circuits have extensive run-off areas which a driver can run into without damage - just like a Playstation game. So we have to produce artificial rules "Two wheels over the line is ok but four isn't" or whatever the rule is.

What we need is a track that penalises the driver that goes off.

Why not give each corner a solid apex? A kerb, a wall, posts, or anything that hurts if you hit it. That would stop corner cutting. Don't cut the corner and you'll be ok.

On the outside of corners you've got to have something that penalises a driver but won't injure him if he does leave the track, whether from his own volition or not. Smaller run-offs backed up by barriers allows spectators to be nearer but as it's still an artificial barrier it needs enforcement by officials. How about a shallow kerb topped with a rumble strip and a rough run-off area? It would slow errant drivers but shouldn't injure them.
Or go back 100 years, make the run-off zones something like 300-600mm lower than the track and fill them with water - a driver goes off and the car is stopped before it reaches the spectators and the driver doesn't get hurt. To stop a car aquaplaning across you could provide gravel islands in the water which would be enough to make the car sink but not to flip it.
Or simply grease the run-off areas. Put a wheel on them and you spin off.

[anfield5]

Fly paper.

[Storm]

Definitely a need for some gravel traps...all these tarmac runoff areas mean people aren't that worried going into a corner.
On some dangerous spots, they do the job, but do we need them on every corner? nope.

[denkimi]

gravel traps don't need to be very wide. just 1 meter will stop them from going off the road, but will not flip the car.

put a narrow gravel or sand trap on both sides of the circuit, with big asfalt run-off areas after them, and everybody is happy.

[N. Jones]

How about if we bring Travel Graps back and call it a day?