Changes to the safety car procedure rejected
A modification to the regulations related to the safety car, particularly for cars more than one lap down, was mentioned a few days ago, but according to the British press, the issue raised has been rejected by the teams.
The F1 teams met in Brazil to discuss sporting changes for the 2015 Formula 1 season. One of the changes mentioned was the modification of the rule allowing cars one lap or more behind to pass the safety car to regain a lap on the leaders.
The information had been revealed by Autosport but the British publication announced that the measure did not appeal to the teams and was therefore rejected.
The objective was to reduce the time taken to restart the race in case of a safety car intervention, but adding a lap for the drivers would pose a problem with the live timing provided by the FOM. It would also give these drivers a “free” lap in terms of fuel, while drivers are limited to a maximum of 100kg of fuel per race. The teams would thus oppose this last point, as it would disadvantage the leaders compared to drivers more than a lap down.
