WRC events are not driven at full speed before the event, and are usually a bit long to memorise in one drive. But I long for the days hen real rally cars return, and drivers with balls and no co-driver. They were the days, and modern rallying is crap in comparison.
F1 cars are fast. Safety cars are slow. If fast F1 car hits walking marshall then result is stretched men. If slow safety car controls speed of F1 then drivers have more chance of avoiding marshalls, marshalls have more time to clear the track of debris and wrecks (or provide first aid), and everything is generally safer. The boring stuff only lasts a few minutes usually.
WRC stages aren't always the same from year to year, they may be in a different part of the country, use different roads, or simply make different turns @ junctions.... A driver can't be expected to learn all the possible routes and memorise the correct one with one drive through @ slow speeds.....
Smaller Rallies keep the same configuration, so you will see some drivers without a co-driver (But there has to be a passenger, Sometimes they offer rides to spectators at their own risk!)
I doubt that F1 drivers need the safety car to keep slow and/or their relative positions (not distances, only relative places). I bet when the safety car is in front of them they are thinking "for %^&#'s sake... why the @#$%^& don't they just tell us thru the intercom 'wreck at T3'"
It is impossible to know all the corners by heart, and still be 100% focused in driving so fast.
It is impossible to remember the level of detail about the special stage, that the co-driver provides.
And it is impossible for the driver to provide all the paperwork to the marshalls by himself, and look at the maps simultaneously while driving between special stages and from/to the service park.
This post really shows how underrated the co-drivers are. They do half the job. The drivers' and co'drivers' lives depend on each other.
And many co-drivers, I have heard, were somewhat disturbed when their names were axed from the side window by FIA. And rightly so, IMHO.
In F1 this really isn't needed. They doing it because otherwise they would loose so much temperature in the tyre that the tyre pressure would start to drop, and that's something they don't want to have, cause the cars would handle not pretty good with too cold tyres.
They could keep the tyres in Temperature in F1 while driving with ease
That's something I don't really understand. I mean, for what reason did they do that ???
On the other hand... Who understands the FIA anyway ? It's ruled by old people who should better be in old people's homes.
Cause I sometimes doubt their mental health.
F1 drivers will want to make up as much time as possible so will push as hard as they can no matter what. The safety car will force them to slow down. Hence why F1 drivers often put there hand up when they see a yellow flag to say they've `achknowledged` it.
Marshals work for free. Would you want to be standing on the banked corner at Indy in 04 where Ralf is sitting in the middle of the track looking rather dazed while other cars fly past you at 200mph ? If a F1 driver hit a marshal it would kill the marshal instantly and could even kill the driver.
Judging by the smilies in his first post i wuld say he was joking lol. The good old british sense of humour which no one seems to get on forums lol.
WRC drivers need co drivers as even if they run the same course every year for 10 years, they may have more knowledge of the rally eg - may be really loose gravel so they know when to push and when not to etc. But they still wouldnt know the course as some are 10 miles. Try remembering 10 miles of road near you, every corner, how sharp it is, has it got any camber? is there loose surface anywhere? how wide it - especially for bridges etc. Do the corners narrow or open out. All the elevations in the road that could cause cars to jump, or unsetlle, or even break the car if taken to fast, what gear and speed to take the corners. the lists goes on and that is just one stage where there are around 14 stages to a rally and alot of rallys in one year ( im not sure how many)
Formula one drivers will push as much as possible and take risks as that is what they are dong every race but when puts other people in danger eg marshells, then they need to be slowed down. Also with the cars behind the safety car the marshells have more time to clear the stricken car.
Well all forms of racing have either a safety car or more common in club racing red flags are used to stop a race. I hope no one seriously can't understand why sometimes yellow flags just aren't enough.
As for co-drivers I'd like to see much longer rallies again where the co-driver actually navigates more than calls out corners, longer rallies in much more standard cars are true endurance events and safer than the current style of WRC cars being driven flat out everywhere through short stages.Frankly a return of Group B cars on longer stages with less co-driver notes would force people to use common sense and push less hard and it would magically be safer and none of this overcrowded stages bullshit.
in WRC, the average length of stage is about 20km, but some are even longer (upto 60km iirc) and it can take more than 30 minutes to complete it. And imagine there is about "unique" 10 stages per one rally. How the hell would someone remember that?
and FIA`s explanation for removing codriver`s names from windows was "to make it easier for noobs, so they recognize who is the driver if there is only one name on window"
So who would decide when the speed limiter is required to go on and off ? The driver who wants to make up the time to the driver in front ? The speed limiter is going to go slower than what they are doing behind a safety car. Speed limiter will let them hit 60mph or what ever it is, where as in a straight line the safety car is going to let them hit more than that.
The safety car is a very effective way of controlling the pace, end of story. You don't put marshals lifes at risk when they don't need to be.
Every form of racing has a way of brining a race down in pace in the event of an accident. Be it a red flag or a safety car.
I've seen someone get thrown out of a kart in a huge accident where the kart cart-rolled about 6 times, at a very fast part of the track. The marshals were so busy watching that they weren't waving the red flag, are we going to race with a kid lying at the side of the track ? Yes, if the officials don't bring the race to a stop who's going to ? We all want to beat each other so who's going to ease off and maybe let another driver pass you ?Just as we reached that corner again a marshal waved the red flag.
Racing drivers are looking to take every advantage possible so a safety car is the only way to make sure no one is pushing through the dangerous zone at racing speeds.
The safety car is great, it adds to the tactics when there are full course yellows (in my view only minor F1 crashes should be single waved, the rest should be full course). NASCAR is made extremely more tactical (and interesting) by their system of yellow flags. And I am not exactly a big NASCAR fan, (look at national flag).
As for co-drivers, scrapping them would be STUPID.
You obviously don't know very much about professional racing, do you?illepall
As said, courses change. Plus, co-drivers give other important info during stages, as well they are the navigators between stages.
A caution period is not meant to be interesting. A caution period is meant to increase safety for the marshals cleaning up a wreck.
They most likely do already, but the saftey car slows the drivers down so that they do not fly through sections of the track where marshals are working - usually volunteers working for free.
Those are to keep the car under the pit speed limit, it does not affect on-track performance.
That was unecessary. TBH, I would never get in a car with you either as you obviously don't know the rules or why they are in place.
What!? Another case of the FIA doing something incredibly assinign for absolutely no reason. Man I hate them...
It has happened before. I can think of two crashes in F1 where a marshal was hit and killed before safety car periods were put in place. In one of them, the marshal's fire extinguisher hit the driver on the head, killing him instantly as well.
George - I know I may sound like a jerk in my post towards you, but in all honesty - how can you have such little regard for people's safety? I have no respect or tolerance for such things. You really need to think before you post.
I claim that F1 drivers have both the ability and common sense to drive SLOW and safely, without the addition of the safety car. I am possibly wrong, but you gotta admit that F1 drivers do have the ability and common sense to slow down. They slow down when entering the pits. They obey that. A similar thing could hold for the case i am describing. It seems that they decided that the safety car is something like a "failsafe".
i do not want comments about people getting in or out of my car, whether they are funny or not.
MAGGOT, i appreciate your honesty and well-meaning and i wholeheartedly agree with what you say, except for one thing: I have a great regard for safety and anyone who has ever been in my car will tell you so. I know about accidents that happened like the one you described.
jtr99, jakg and anyone else : Does it make you feel nice making these comments? Ok, i admit i do not know much about professional racing, as MAGGOT noticed. Indeed i do not know ziltch about pro-racing: i do not care to know, because i only enjoy driving. LFS taught me the blue flag. Does that make you feel nice now that you made these sarcastic comments at me?
because what you said had a tone to it, and it sounds negative... and it still does; and no one made sarcastic comments
its not about the name "safety car".. at the beginning of the race its called a pace car, for a lap or however many to warm up tires
safety cars are there to slow the pace down during a lap its needed on after a large crash so the people can remove all the fragments and shrapnel from the track before cars get there
plus... you expected this kind of attitude from everyone i can guess due to your *rant* *rant* *rant* in your first post
^^ It's still a grey area if you just wave yellow flags, do you stop racing, or do you stop racing and slow right down, doing that in itself can cause pile ups. And don't rely on F1 drivers to slow down, Alonso had that big crash at Interlagos after hitting debris when he didn't slow enough. Drivers slow for the pits because they know if they speed in them they will get a bollocking and far more importantly they will get a time penalty, the pit speed limit was only added because people didn't use common sense and reckoned it was perfectly safe to stroll through the pit lane at 120mph :doh:
illepall 
The speed limiter is going to go slower than what they are doing behind a safety car. Speed limiter will let them hit 60mph or what ever it is, where as in a straight line the safety car is going to let them hit more than that.