MAGNY-COURS, France — On Friday, the drivers tried out the experimental system designed to ensure that they slow down sufficiently when the safety car is on the track. Within five seconds of the message “safety car deployed” being displayed on the timing monitors, the drivers must select the “safety car mode” that is now installed in the standard ECUs used by all cars.
The system checks a driver’s speed relative to a preset lap-time limit and tells him via his steering-wheel display if he is going too fast or too slow.
“You get a plus or minus delta that you have to work against,” Mark Webber said. “We have a set speed. If it goes plus, we can speed up. But if we go too quick, it goes negative.”
Some drivers worry that they will spend too much time watching the steering-wheel display instead of the track.
“I prefer to watch the road,” Webber said. “But we will be trying to get the fastest laps we can within the target. It should be okay. But if the track is full of marbles or you have someone who is not concentrating, it could be a problem.”
It has yet to be decided if the system will officially be introduced for races.