Under the proposed changes, when the Safety Car is called the pit lane will close and the first full lap under yellow will be run with the the field reduced to 80 km/h, begining 15 seconds after the deployment.
After that first lap is completed at the prescribed speed, the pit lane will reopen and the speed limit will be lifted such that the field can catch the Safety Car.
However, the micro sector at the scene of an incident will remain speed-limited to 80 km/h.
It’s hoped the move will reap the biggest benefit at the Bathurst 1000, where concerns have been raised about a circuit-wide 80 km/h speed limit.
The controversial Safety Car measures have undergone several revisions, and the proposed changes will go some way to avoiding the scenes at Queensland Raceway recently.
At the Ipswich Super440, that allowed three drivers – Cam Waters, Kai Allen and Andre Heimgartner – to leapfrog the field after completing their compulsory pit stop. Shutting the pit lane would prevent teams gaining a so-called unfair advantage.
The slowdown is designed to avoid cars racing back to the pit lane and putting trackside officials at risk. A consequence of the slowdown and there being no prescribed time on when the 80 km/h speed limit is lifted is that cars are spaced out.
In the case of Queensland Raceway, drivers complained that the Safety Car procedure took too long because recovery crews couldn’t find a space in traffic to get onto the circuit.
There is still some debate over the proposal. Team 18 driver David Reynolds said the mooted changes have pros and cons.
“What we do [now] is not too bad, it just gets really bad when you go to a super long track,” said Reynolds about the 80 km/h slowdown.
“That’s when it becomes quite boring for everyone watching at home. It’s not a bad idea.”
On the pit lane closing, he said: “That’s probably not a bad idea. There are pros and cons no matter what you do.
“The con is obviously that you can’t get an advantage. It doesn’t allow any variation. The pro is the person who is leading the race is still leading the race.
“I don’t know. They should try it and see what it looks like. We try a lot of things, why don’t we try something like that?”
Dick Johnson Racing driver and 2023 champion Brodie Kostecki said closing the pit lane is not the way to go.
“We might as well just not even have pit stops to be honest, because that just removes the whole strategy point of the races,” said Kostecki.
“We’ve seen a couple of results this year where a couple of teams have just stayed out and hoped for a VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and that’s happened and the finishes have been okay, but that’s two to three races a year where it’s been good.
“Unfortunately, the rest of the racing is terrible because of not having strategy options, because of the VSC risk.
“Closing the pit lane, it sounds like a great idea, but it just removes all the strategy options from it and you’ll see follow-the-leader racing because we’ll obviously be the last car to pit again.”
He added that adding slow zones is “great in theory” but racing to the slow zone comes with its own issues.
“If I don’t maximise what I have out on track and I don’t do everything to the time limit, I’m not doing a good job,” Kostecki explained.
“That’s what it all comes down to. We’ll just have to see what happens. But I think so far, these systems don’t make too much sense.
“It’s way too over-complicated. VSC should be used for instances where it’s a quick clean up to go back racing, and use the old system like it used to be.
“If there’s a critical wreck, it’s red flag anyway. It shouldn’t be that hard.”
Blanchard Racing Team driver Aaron Cameron said he is open to modifying the Safety Car procedure but doesn’t want the option to gamble completely taken away.
“QR was especially a shame when I was running behind Andre [Heimgartner] at the time. We seemed to always pit two laps before the Safety Car,” Cameron told Speedcafe.
“I have no issues with definitely modifying it a bit, but I don’t want to see that loophole completely closed off just because it does mix it up.
“As a team that’s not necessarily a front-running team all the time, we take those opportunities.
“That’s how JC (James Courtney) got his podium this year, so it’s always good to have those little loopholes that you can sort of still go for.
“It probably just needs to be modified a bit because we are all getting to the point where we’ve figured out you just keep driving around until that Safety Car eventually comes.”
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