As we all know, racing is a very dangerous sport. Since the European GP Grand Prix in the 1920s (predecessor of F1), accidents have become a difficult part of automotive events. According to statistics, since 1950, a total of 51 F1 drivers have lost their lives in the race. The first driver was named Charles de Tornaco, died in 1953, and the last driver was named Jules Bianchi, died in 2014.
As the most intense car event in the world, the dangers of F1 are not only targeted at drivers, but also all the staff involved. In order to reduce the occurrence of accidents and further ensure the safety of on-site personnel, the event organizing committee came up with a solution, which is to deploy some safety vehicles on site. What is the function of a safety car? I believe that most friends can answer this question - when an emergency occurs in the track and the race cannot proceed normally, in order to ensure that the car drives safely on the track, the safety car will be dispatched, located at the front of the team, controlling the speed of the entire team until the obstacle is lifted.
How to work for safety vehicles
So, in which "emergency situations" will the safety vehicles be dispatched? The definition given by the F1 event organizing committee is: when an emergency occurs on the spot, but the situation is not enough to end the competition.
Drivers who drive safety cars need to be on standby during the competition and keep in touch with the control center at any time. Once the control center issues instructions, the safety cars will immediately drive onto the track, and starting from this time node, all participants are not allowed to surpass other drivers.
When the green light on the top and rear license plate rack of the safety car is lit, this is to inform the slower car behind it until the leader follows the safety car and the other vehicles are arranged in the order when the safety car is dispatched. The orange light on the safety roof will also flash to inform all vehicles that safety cars are leading the way now, and all vehicles must line up to follow within 10 bodies. Drivers will also learn that the safety car has been dispatched through signals near the finish line of the track and the signal display in the car.
If the orange warning light on the roof goes out, it indicates that at the end of this circle, the safety car will be evacuated from the maintenance channel. After the safety car leaves the field and passes the starting line again, drivers can still not overtake. At this time, the car in front often presses the car first and then suddenly speeds up, catching the opponent behind the opponent off guard so as to gain a time advantage of 0.0 seconds. All laps running behind the safety car will be calculated within the number of laps. The first appearance of the
safety car,
safety car, was the first time it was used in the F1 competition, and was the Canadian Grand Prix in 1973. It was an extremely failed attempt, when the safety car appeared in the wrong position, resulting in a scramble to the ranking. After the game, it took several hours to finally figure out who is the real champion. The safety car is a yellow Porsche 914 and the driver is Canadian Eppie Wietzes. Although he is a local, he is obviously too nervous about the debut of his safety car. Since this incident, F1 has hardly officially adopted a safety car for twenty years. The reason why it is said to be almost because at the 1981 and 1983 Monaco Grand Prix, an Lamborghini Countach was still a safety car.
In that era, there was no Mercedes-Benz safety car
1992 season, F1 tested a batch of safety cars at the French and British Grand Prix. The safety car at that time was Ford Escort RS Cosworth, equipped with a 2.0L Cosworth YBT turbocharged engine with a maximum power of 227 horsepower.
1993 season began, and the concept of safety cars was officially adopted by F1, but at that time there was no regulation that a unified safety car should be adopted. What’s more special is that during the Brazilian Grand Prix, F1 adopted an Fiat Tempra as a safety car, not a particularly high-performance model. The car was sent on the stadium due to the slippery track due to the bad weather.The championship of that race was won by Brazilian national hero, the car god Senna. After the game, he also took a Fiat Tempra safety car to circle the field and waved to the audience.
1994 season, the safety car on the F1 San Marino station was Opel Vectra, and the safety car on the Japanese station was Honda Prelude. By the 1995 season, more horsepower cars were introduced to the safety car camp, including the Porsche 911 GT2 and Lamborghini Diablo, and even the Tatra 613. However, since the 1996 season, the era of Mercedes-Benz has arrived. In all the following seasons, Mercedes-Benz was used as a safety car, and only some sub-stations used the Renault Clio.
Mercedes-Benz's monopoly
includes the recently released AMG GT R. From 1996 to the present, this German automaker has provided 11 safety cars for F1. Yes, they all come from Mercedes-Benz's high-performance department - AMG. In the 1996 season, Mercedes-Benz used C 36 AMG. In the next few years, CLK 55 AMG, CL 55 AMG, SL 55 AMG, and SLK 55 AMG appeared one after another. In the 2004 season, Mercedes-Benz launched the new SLK 55 AMG safety car again. A year later, the CLK 63 AMG also debuted in the F1 arena. In 2008, Mercedes-Benz replaced the safety car with the SL 63 AMG. From 2010 to 2014, SLS AMG became Mercedes-Benz's only choice.
In 2018, the strongest safety car in history appeared like this. It replaced the previous generation F1 safety car AMG GT S and was unveiled at the first stop of F1 in 2018, namely the F1 Grand Prix held in Melbourne, Australia. It has 585 horsepower, equipped with a 4.0L V8 twin-turbocharged engine code-named M177, accelerates by 3.6 seconds per 100 kilometers, and has a speed of 318km/h.
From the hodgepodge of various models in the 1970s to today's Mercedes-Benz package, F1 safety cars have a history of more than 40 years. They are the normal progress of the competition and protect the life safety of drivers. Therefore, drivers driving safety cars, like the contestants, are the most worthy heroes on the F1 field.
It’s your turn to say: Which safety car is the most impressive to me with you?
