[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[Mirek]

Why? They have to slow for a chicane. Chicanes seem to be riddles with problems. They have the same effect without the hassle, so what's the problem?

Because with physical chicane You actually have to break to go through some given fixed object on the road and do that as fast as possible. It's not possible to do that with virtual chicane. You can't make them all brake on the same spot. How would that work? In my understanding You can get some signalization to slow down on certain speed but for that You need to give also some time window do so which means the virtual chicane is not a fixed obstacle but a variable one. It can work on very long boring straights but for what? There's no danger there. You usually need the chicane to be at some very dangerous spot but on such place You usually don't have the luxury to create a 100 meters long zone in which they need to slow down because You would need to give the signal for example in the middle of the turn which is of course bullshit and a dangerous one on top.

Also how do You give the crew the information that it slowed down enough? In a real chicane it's clear. You either pass clear or don't pass and You need some skill to do so. Nothing to argue about (with proper rules not those which are present in WRC). But with a virtual chicane? Would You give a sound or light signal that the braking was enough and they can accelerate again or how is that supposed to work? This is not an F1 where You simply activate a speed limiter for driving through boxes.