Can yoy penalise the Safety Car driver...

[IanP]

...for causing a serious accident?

WTCC at Pau in France today, the Safety Car was released (late, by an apparently clueless pit lane marshal) directly into the path of the race leader in Race 2. The white line is on the right, inside a tight, blind, right hand corner on a street circuit.

The safety car then swings across immediately to the left side of the track at about 40mph, directly into the path of the oncoming >100mph BMW 320Si, which has nowhere to go and slams straight into the armco and the Safety Car in sequence.

The race, predictably, was red flagged and restarted after they had picked up lots of bits of car from the various collisions that caused the SC deployment in the first place. That was damned dangerous, though, and IMO someone needs a rocket up their exhaust pipe. This being the FIA, though, I doubt anything'll happen. :monkies:

[Ferry_vO]

Missed it myself (Only saw the last few laps)but it wasn't the first safety car accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHf3qgmvMNc&feature=PlayList&p=0908BF552D6BBB2B&index=2

BTW I wonder how long the WTCC will survive with the current issues regarding the Seat TDi's... :monkies:

[IanP]

As the first reply to this one says, "That was quick"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vVkvNlu3_I

It also shows the numerous prangs that led up to the SC deployment (footage looks like Eurosport (edit: It is. That's the British Eurosport interviewer).

[wombat666]

Even us 'Convict Colonials' know how to deploy a Safety Car, the 'Big Board with SC' writ large is a fixture at all the marshals posts, along with radio communication.
Come to think of it, usually the drivers get a Safety Car warning via their own Team radio immediately race control makes the decision.
Then again, this did take place in France .......................:icon34:

A PS:After viewing the U-Tube footage it appears the 'Safety Car' was driven by an idiot ............. nice one that, swing straight out into the middle of the circuit!!!!
I'm driving the Safety Car, I'm invulnerable!!!!!!!

[IanP]

The Safety Car needed to be about a good five seconds earlier, so Engstler would have met it up to speed, going down the straight towards the first corner. What I didn't see in that footage was the pit lane marshal waving his arms around in an "I don't know!" manner, then waving the safety car out. As Wombat says, they should have had prior warning that the SC was being deployed, but the manner of it's deployment was atrocious.

Nice dodging by the rest of the field, though. I wonder how many rude comments were said between the various BMW teams that of the top six BMW cars, four had hit each other (two put out of the race) and one had hit the safety car, before the end of the second lap!

[wombat666]

I must say that IMHO there was some VERY poor driving manners throughout the field!
The Supercar drivers (Aussie V8 Series) and (dare I say it!) NASCAR types tend to be far more courteous .................... :kilroy:
Then again, a street race like Pau is pretty unforgiving.
Way back when I had a couple of F3 outings at the original Pau circuit, those concrete slabs didn't exist, and most of us were sensible enough to avoid 'wheels within wheels' incidents.

[IanP]

Touring Cars have always been "physical" races, where the second race prep tends to consist of a lot of duck tape and pulling broken bits off cars. To be honest, though, I would say that as a circuit Pau is rather too tight. There's nowhere at all you can overtake, as Priaux/Huff showed in that second race yesterday.

When I used to run cross country, I was told that courtesy came second to beating the other guy in competition and, to be honest, I have no problems with that. The cars are built (and designed) to take those knocks, to trade paint and keep driving after losing bits. The Formula Masters cars had already been around that track before the WTCC went out, and they took serious damage too. People like the street tracks purely because of the carnage - I don't. I'd rather see wheel to wheel racing, yes, with paint exchanged, but without the ability to just put your car in the middle of the track and keep the entire field behind you. That's why I prefer the dedicated circuits, in any motorsport, to street tracks.