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31 May 2012, 17:44 (Ref:3082746) | #1 | ||
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Safety Cars!
I've been to Le Mans a dozen times, my dad twice as much. We'd both like to think we know our stuff yet in a recent conversation, it struck us both that we don't have a foggiest about safety cars.
My main question is this: how come having 2 safety cars is more likely to lose you a lap than 1? Surely that's less likely to happen, in that whenever you have a pitstop, you won't have to wait forever waiting for the safety car to do a full lap, you can just join the next one half a lap later. |
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31 May 2012, 20:00 (Ref:3082832) | #2 | ||
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there are two sometime 3 safety cars at le mans due to the size of the circuit, if you are able to pit and get out again before the next safety car goes past that is very useful, saves you a pit stop if you are good, if there were only one it would be easy to do that
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1 Jun 2012, 00:28 (Ref:3082969) | #3 | |
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1 Jun 2012, 04:10 (Ref:3083010) | #4 | ||
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Hopefully we won't see any safety cars, just the odd waved yellows. We don't want it like Sebring 2012.
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"Aerodynamics are for people who cannot build proper engines" - Enzo Ferrari 1960 Vingt Quatre Heures Du Mans |
1 Jun 2012, 07:17 (Ref:3083054) | #5 | |||
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1 Jun 2012, 07:46 (Ref:3083069) | #6 | |
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There's too much pot luck about the whole system which can never be a good thing in a race with such high stakes.
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1 Jun 2012, 08:03 (Ref:3083075) | #7 | ||
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Say the entire field are behind SC#2 and you are alone behind SC#3. You pit, wait at the end of the pitlane to join SC#1, you won't have lost a lap on the rest of the field, simply a couple of minutes (which every loses when they pit anyway). In short, pitting behind the safety car is disadvantageous so it's always worth staying out as long as you can BUT, if the safety car is out for an extended period of time and everyone in the field or in each respective class pits the same amount of times under safety car conditions, everyone will lose the same amount of time by pitting, all things being equal. That's a direct result of being held at pit exit. Sure, the gaps between each safety car will extend or reduce on-track gaps, but there's not really much that can be done about that. The only thing that annoys me is when the safety cars travel at different speeds. The race direction must ensure that they come in at precisely the same time. Don't get me wrong, I think that the SC system could be improved at Le Mans (or even removed and Code 60 implemented instead), but some of the stick the SCs and race directors get is unwarranted. |
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1 Jun 2012, 08:29 (Ref:3083086) | #8 | |
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1 Jun 2012, 08:44 (Ref:3083094) | #9 | |||
#WhatAreHashTags
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That's probably the best that you can get. |
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John Smith Clerk of the Course and MSA Steward Race Director for 360MRC |
1 Jun 2012, 08:56 (Ref:3083102) | #10 | ||
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When we see finishes as close as we did last year, and so many safety car periods, it does make you wonder what impact the lack of safety car coordination may have had. Just my 2p. |
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1 Jun 2012, 09:20 (Ref:3083118) | #11 | |
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I agree; that's the crux here. Hopefully they get that sorted this year. Added transparency, such as a race control radio link like in Spa, would be great too.
As for losing leads or losing time when pitting: "that's racing". |
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1 Jun 2012, 09:21 (Ref:3083119) | #12 | |||
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Given the geography of the circuit and the positioning of the safety car slip roads, I think that perfect and complete coordination of deployment and release is just not possible - I think that the ACO race control is as professional as you can get but nothing, in the midst of a 24 hour race, can be perfect 100% of the time. |
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John Smith Clerk of the Course and MSA Steward Race Director for 360MRC |
1 Jun 2012, 12:32 (Ref:3083216) | #13 | |||
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1 Jun 2012, 12:37 (Ref:3083220) | #14 | ||
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At the end of the day, what do you want, safety cars that control the pace, or a red flag that stops the race? If you red flag the race then you have problems with cars getting cold, and then have to run a few laps behind the safety car anyway just for safety!
Some other endurance series run a thing called Code 60 where everyone has to run at 60kph, not really feasable at this level I don't think, although readily controllabled using something like the pit lane spead limiter mI would have thought. Safety cars may not be perfect but it's not a bad solution, it's just the way they are deployed that can be the issue. |
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1 Jun 2012, 17:46 (Ref:3083382) | #15 | ||
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It would be lovely to think there will be no safety cars out this year but with the way things are now they will bring them out for just about any reason even if a car hits a pigeon, (do they have pigeons in france or have they eaten them all)
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1 Jun 2012, 21:51 (Ref:3083542) | #16 | ||
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Ah, just noticed that this topic is not only discussed in the Delta Wing thread, so I'll repost my opinion here:
The 3 safety car solution at Le Mans is actually quite a good and fair solution, as long as you want/need to have Safety Cars (I'd generally prefer Code 60/100/whatever). With 3 SCs you keep at least some of the time differences that teams and drivers fought for over hours. If you put them all in one queue, any margin except lap (dis)advantages will be lost which is the most unfair it can get, esp. on such a long track! If you do a pit stop under the current safety car rules, you will loose one third of the lap because you have to wait for the next SC - back under green that would be around 1'10. If you do a pit stop under green, you loose more or less the same amount of time! If you loose a lap this way stopping under yellow - well you would in most cases also have lost it under green. What's unfair about that? Beaing allowed to go back into your original queue and losing no time at all by stopping would be far more unfair. |
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