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The category trialled the Virtual Safety Car-style (VSC) system during the final two events of 2023, on the Gold Coast and in Adelaide, after a trial of a two-stage limiter in Shane van Gisbergen’s car went awry earlier in the year at Hidden Valley.
The VSC and similar systems are used as a means of bringing the race under the control in an orderly fashion before implementing a full Safety Car – by preventing a rush to the pits and/or back of the ‘train’ – or sometimes as a substitute.
As was widely expected, Supercars has now added the FCY to its Operations Manual for 2024, confirming the finer details of how it will operate.
An FCY period will be deemed to have commenced from the moment an FCY countdown is indicated by waved yellow flag signals and accompanying FCY boards at all flag posts.
Drivers will then have 15 seconds to reduce their speed to a maximum of 80km/h and engage the FCY/SC limiter, as was the case during the Gold Coast trial, whereas a 10-second slowdown was used in Adelaide.
Prior to the end of the FCY period, there will be a countdown of 15 seconds, after which the waved yellow flags/FCY boards will be replaced by waved green flags.
The FCY may be upgraded to a full Safety Car period and, if they have not done so already, drivers would have 15 seconds to reduce speed to 80km/h under the full Safety Car.
As is the case with the Safety Car, pit lane remains open during the FCY and all laps count as race laps.
An FCY-to-Safety Car transition should ordinarily be safer than going straight to Safety Car conditions because the yellows may not be used as ‘catch-up flags’.
The Race Director may, though, allow drivers to turn off their limiters and catch the train during a FCY/SC period.
There are, of course, benefits in (safely) bunching the field up, including that it allows more time for recovery crews to attend to an incident without cars driving past.
Supercars drivers expressed their support for the FCY after the Gold Coast trial.
The system will be used only in the Championship, with existing Safety Car rules applying to Super2.
