Rule changes for 2012

[jens]

How far ahead does a driver need to be to have the right to return back to racing line before the corner? I have been fine with the rule we have had so far. I mean if a driver is more than a car-length ahead, they should have the right to return to the racing line before corner. Only some misjudgements (Hamilton at Spa) have caused collisions, when driver wasn't a car length ahead, but was expecting to be so. But now if you are a by a clear car length ahead, it is considered as "defending position" and you can't return to racing line any more? Even if you are well clear you can't race through the fastest route on the circuit?

[wedge]

Won't be long till F1 copies the Americans with double file restarts.

[Mark]

I'm sure this was actually allowed a few years ago.

It was. There would come a message from race control "lapped cars can now unlap themselves" and we had a situation where safety car periods were made longer than necessary to carry out this procedure. It undermines the entire premise of the safety car!

[Mark]

And , will it tempt any to sacrifice a car , to get a safety car , when it not only brings the pack together , but removes any road blocks in between ? It sounds pretty tempting , and could easily be done with more finesse than the the way Flav and Jr. went about it .
If you worked it right , it could work .

15 laps before the end. Vettel is 45 seconds ahead with 6 lapped drivers between him and Button who has just put on fresh tyres. He could overtake but not make up the 45 second gap. Get the secondary driver (Hamilton) to crash?! Surely not.

[airshifter]

How far ahead does a driver need to be to have the right to return back to racing line before the corner? I have been fine with the rule we have had so far. I mean if a driver is more than a car-length ahead, they should have the right to return to the racing line before corner. Only some misjudgements (Hamilton at Spa) have caused collisions, when driver wasn't a car length ahead, but was expecting to be so. But now if you are a by a clear car length ahead, it is considered as "defending position" and you can't return to racing line any more? Even if you are well clear you can't race through the fastest route on the circuit?

I can understand the reason for further clarification. Making two moves one very quickly after another is essentially breaking the old rule, yet people have pushed it more and more. Schumacher and Hamilton at Monza was probably the final straw. MS was moving early to cover the inside, then moving outside at the last second so that Lewis couldn't set him up for a pass on either line.

A driver can stay on the fastest racing line, but that generally isn't both the inside and outside of a corner, it's one or the other.

[truefan72]

How far ahead does a driver need to be to have the right to return back to racing line before the corner? I have been fine with the rule we have had so far. I mean if a driver is more than a car-length ahead, they should have the right to return to the racing line before corner. Only some misjudgements (Hamilton at Spa) have caused collisions, when driver wasn't a car length ahead, but was expecting to be so. But now if you are a by a clear car length ahead, it is considered as "defending position" and you can't return to racing line any more? Even if you are well clear you can't race through the fastest route on the circuit?

That's a fair point Jens
the more i think about it, the more that particular rule seems worrisome
I expect some controversies in the early part of 2011 and perhaps the FIA abandoning this rule midseason or earlier

[wedge]

It was. There would come a message from race control "lapped cars can now unlap themselves" and we had a situation where safety car periods were made longer than necessary to carry out this procedure. It undermines the entire premise of the safety car!

Pffft

Safety car, pace car same thing.

[Ranger]

Won't be long till F1 copies the Americans with double file restarts.

And the phantom yellow flags.

They should just ban DRS and that should be enough.

[DexDexter]

And the phantom yellow flags.

They should just ban DRS and that should be enough.

Why should they ban DRS when most fans and drivers think it's a good idea?

[Wim_Impreza]

I stopped with watching F1 since there is DRS.