FIA confirms safety car rule change

Source: http://f1.gpupdate. net/en/news/ 2009/01/27/ fia-confirms- safety-car- rule-change/

FIA confirms safety car rule change

F1's safety car rules will be changed ahead of the 2009 season, the FIA has confirmed, following a successful test of new software during the course of last season.

The move comes amid calls from teams and drivers not to have to close the pit lane immediately after the safety car is deployed in a race, but this would only be safe if a way could be found to ensure drivers would not race back to the pits while there was a danger out on track and potentially risk a major accident.

The new software will tell drivers what the maximum speed the are allowed to be doing once the safety car is deployed and anyone exceeding this.

"The rule introduced in 2007 was a bad one, and we've gone back to the 2006 regulations, " said FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting. "The only difference is we intend to implement a minimum time back to the pits. When we deploy the safety car, the message will go to all the cars, which will then have a "safety car" mode on their ECUs. As soon as that message gets to the car, it'll know where it is on the
circuit, and it'll calculate a minimum time for the driver to get back to the pits. The driver will have to respect this and the information will be displayed on his dashboard."

"If you remember, the reason we closed the pit entry was to remove the incentive for the driver to come back to his pit quickly," he added. "That's gone now, as you won't be able to reach the pits any quicker than your dashboard display allows you to."