Slow zones ...

[G'day Mate]

Better or worse option that safety car, and how the hell does virtual safety car work anyway?

I liked how they were implemented for Le Mans - seemed like they crammed in as many as possible (reasonable) between slow corners.

I've often imagined a system that lets race control press a button that cuts everyone's engines and limits them to a certain speed as well. That would be cool. "Speed limiter in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...".

Of course, there'll be times when the safety car is still necessary, but I like the way these new options protect the integrity of the gaps.

[G'day Mate]

Aha, just read on Wiki that F1 drivers actually see a speed limit on their steering wheel and are not allowed to exceed that, which is cool. I've lost touch with F1 a bit lately ... does it apply to all cars on the track or just within a particular sector?

[Kchrpm]

I like the slow zones, it's a nice halfway between a local yellow and a safety car, which is definitely needed for a track as long and fast as Le Mans. The change to having them start, whenever possible, after slow turns just makes them even safer (if a little long in places).

[Drachen596]

Better or worse option that safety car, and how the hell does virtual safety car work anyway?

I liked how they were implemented for Le Mans - seemed like they crammed in as many as possible (reasonable) between slow corners.

I've often imagined a system that lets race control press a button that cuts everyone's engines and limits them to a certain speed as well. That would be cool. "Speed limiter in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...".

Of course, there'll be times when the safety car is still necessary, but I like the way these new options protect the integrity of the gaps.

Gokart tracks!

I didn't get to see any of Le Mans due to work this year but its got to be a hell of a thing on a track that size to try and figure out yellows and safety cars. I can only imagine if they required one at the 24 hours of Nurburgring race.

[Freude am Fahren]

Definitely great for a place like Le Mans that is so long. Better than the three safety car thing, and safer than just one.

F1 does something a bit weird with also maintaining time gaps rather than just a speed limit for the VSC, I think, though maybe they've updated it. I remember lots of yelling on the radio when it first implemented like "he's closing the gap, blah blah" I'm not sure why they don't just have an 80 km/h like Le Mans. I don't think you need zones though for shorter tracks like on the F1 schedule.

[Rare White Ape]

I think they're fantastic, like the old days before we had safety cars all the time making the proceedings boring. It used to be if there was an accident there would be a local yellow, cars had to slow down and not pass each other until they passed the next green flag. But of course you can't trust drivers and they always push the boundaries and now we have safety cars if a paint chip falls onto the track.

It's good that technology these days can enforce a slow zone on a long track and still allow the cars to race outside a local yellow. But we will still have to consider the bag of meat in the driver's seat which will still try and make silly decisions to gain an advantage.

[Alan P]

When I was watching they said they'd identified where the cars are at the closest to the slow zone speed and implemented the slow zones starting in those areas so there was no sudden deceleration and potential for rear ending the car on front.

[G'day Mate]

Yeah you don't want them having to throw out the anchor in the middle of a 300km/h straight

[Reynard]

Aha, just read on Wiki that F1 drivers actually see a speed limit on their steering wheel and are not allowed to exceed that, which is cool. I've lost touch with F1 a bit lately ... does it apply to all cars on the track or just within a particular sector?

It's the complete circuit and as they're all supposed to be going the same speed at the time, that's why you'll hear complaints of gaps closing that shouldn't be.

[Freude am Fahren]

Yeah, at Le Mans last year they had that problem of slow zones in the middle of the straights or something.

The downside this year was that some zones were very long when they otherwise might not need to be. So if there was an accident right out of Mulsanne Corner, the slow zone went all the way down to Indianapolis (or maybe Arnage). I think the sector before would be a waving yellow to get cars ready for the slow zone.

Maybe in the future, they can look at having the same starts to slow zones as they did this year, but allow them to go back to green earlier. So an accident coming out of Mulsanne corner would have the same start as an accident in Indianapolis, but the former would get green flags a couple hundred yards down the straight, the latter not until Arnage.

[Alan P]

Yeah, at Le Mans last year they had that problem of slow zones in the middle of the straights or something.

The downside this year was that some zones were very long when they otherwise might not need to be. So if there was an accident right out of Mulsanne Corner, the slow zone went all the way down to Indianapolis (or maybe Arnage). I think the sector before would be a waving yellow to get cars ready for the slow zone.

Maybe in the future, they can look at having the same starts to slow zones as they did this year, but allow them to go back to green earlier. So an accident coming out of Mulsanne corner would have the same start as an accident in Indianapolis, but the former would get green flags a couple hundred yards down the straight, the latter not until Arnage.

I think the plan is that each slow zone started where they were slow anyway and as they were fixed it sometimes meant that they were slow well past the accident.

[Kchrpm]

And sometimes well before the accident. The slow zone for Indianapolis started way back at the exit of Mulsanne Corner.

[Freude am Fahren]

I think the plan is that each slow zone started where they were slow anyway and as they were fixed it sometimes meant that they were slow well past the accident.

I know that, I'm just thinking they can get around having such a long slow zone after the accident issue. I think the idea of having them start out of slow corners is a good one.

[G'day Mate]

After, yes, but not before (as you say).