F1 Commission - Grabbing at straws

[Mia 01]

As long as the rules are the same for all teams and driver I don´t complain much. It will be interesting to see what the standing start after a safetycar period will bring us.

[schmenke]

...I've said it before, I'll say it again: the way to deal with restarts to prevent one driver bolting is to actually conduct them properly in the first place. As in the States, control of the race goes with the starter (flagman) rather than the leader of the race. Only when the starter is satisfied that the field is aligned closely enough does the restart get given. ...

That solution works only on oval, or similar, circuits where the entire field is in view all the time.

[inimitablestoo]

Maybe for the whole field, but they can usually get the first few cars together closely enough.

Incidentally, watching the Formula 4 highlights from Snetterton at the weekend, it seems a similar idea may be in place there. Rather than the Safety Car pulling away half a lap from the pits and letting the leader speed up/slow down/brake test the chasing pack, it had the leading cars right with it until the moment it pulled into pit lane. It made for a close restart with some overtaking.

[AndyL]

Incidentally, watching the Formula 4 highlights from Snetterton at the weekend, it seems a similar idea may be in place there. Rather than the Safety Car pulling away half a lap from the pits and letting the leader speed up/slow down/brake test the chasing pack, it had the leading cars right with it until the moment it pulled into pit lane. It made for a close restart with some overtaking.

Interesting, I wonder why the leader didn't drop back from the safety car in order to give himself a chance to get a jump on those behind. Maybe the youngsters in F4 are too naive Or could it be to do with a relatively smaller performance gap between an F4 car and the safety car - I guess there would be less risk of someone getting the jump on you if the train is already travelling at something approaching race speed, so less need to play games on the restart.

[Tazio]

Charlie Whiting has revealed that a discussion with McLaren resulted in the concept of standing restarts.
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3...ding-restarts/

There you go, brought to you by "The Dons" of the Anglo-Mafia.

[steveaki13]

Jeeeeezussssssssssssssssssssss

[Tazio]

Seriously, for Charlie to say he doesn't see a down side to this is majorly toolish. Guys ahead on more worn tires are standing a good chance of being jumped, and then stuck behind slower cars and losing valuable time to the leader(s), where as a rolling restart they would at least stand afair chance of maintaining their position and strategy (although safety cars always have some effect on strategy). No integrity in F1 any more, as “The Show” is massively more important than the competition.

[Bagwan]

Easy , Tazzy bear , let's look and see if there's any bright side here for a minute .

On the surface of it , it would seems that it could take less time to bring them all around , stopping only those in correct order , and letting backmarkers by , who would catch up far faster to a stationary pack .
That's better , if it works that way , as it alleviates the need for endless safety car laps .

There will , of course be the tires at different stages of wear , racing towards the first corner , but at the initial start you have that anyway , with guys on different compounds , and often there isn't any carnage , as these guys are pros .
And , given they'll be stationary for a while anyway , waiting for the right order , they will all have cold tires , so will be knowing they need extra care , without a warm-up lap .

And , all you've got now is a system that can be controversial and reactive , with a leader able to either string them out , or even back them up with potential for acordian accidents farther back in the order .
If it's a standing start , the only real potential for stewarding screw-ups are things like not noticing a Ferrari not in the box at the start and having to penalize him half way through it as they did to Zo last race .

I don't know if I'm for it or not , but a few things about the idea kinda make sense , don't they ?

[donKey jote]

I know...

how about standing starts behind the SC...

best of both worlds

[airshifter]

Easy , Tazzy bear , let's look and see if there's any bright side here for a minute .

On the surface of it , it would seems that it could take less time to bring them all around , stopping only those in correct order , and letting backmarkers by , who would catch up far faster to a stationary pack .
That's better , if it works that way , as it alleviates the need for endless safety car laps .

There will , of course be the tires at different stages of wear , racing towards the first corner , but at the initial start you have that anyway , with guys on different compounds , and often there isn't any carnage , as these guys are pros .
And , given they'll be stationary for a while anyway , waiting for the right order , they will all have cold tires , so will be knowing they need extra care , without a warm-up lap .

And , all you've got now is a system that can be controversial and reactive , with a leader able to either string them out , or even back them up with potential for acordian accidents farther back in the order .
If it's a standing start , the only real potential for stewarding screw-ups are things like not noticing a Ferrari not in the box at the start and having to penalize him half way through it as they did to Zo last race .

I don't know if I'm for it or not , but a few things about the idea kinda make sense , don't they ?

Baggy,

I did myself try to think of any positives, and there are a couple really. But in my mind the negatives simply outweigh the positives, mostly due to putting the pack even closer together than they were with the safety car restarts. For me safety is a really big conern, even when I weigh your good points. We might have drivers at the end of a long stint, competing with drivers who just changed tires and are fresh. Starts are wild enough as it is, and beyond the safety factor I think these restarts would just further level the playing field and create too much of an unknown at restarts.

I'm hoping it works better than I am predicting. First turn madness with that many levels of tire wear just seems very risky to me.