Monday, May 17, 2010

To Race Or Not to Race

Having been a Schumi-hater for quite a while, Yours Truly finds it hard to believe that this is yet another piece in defense of the seven-time World Champion.

When Jarno Trulli's overly-optimistic move down the Rascasse resulted in a collision with Karun Chandok with some two laps to go in the Monaco Grand Prix, the safety car was deployed, justifiably.

And with just two laps to go, everyone expected that the race would finish behind the safety car, which means that the driver should hold their positions until the checkered flag.

However, just as the cars were half way around the track for the final time, the wording "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" flashed across the bottom of the television screen.

Yours Truly's immediate reaction to seeing this: WHY???

What does it mean?

Does it mean that once the safety car had ducked into the pitlane, the race resumed and the drivers were free to make a mad dash to the finish line some 300 yards ahead?

Or does it mean that the leading driver could bunch the field up because he knew no one could overtake him?

When Michael Schumacher saw Fernando Alonso nearly spun into the barrier at Rascasse for the final time after having a huge wheel-spin, he saw daylight and ducked inside the Spaniard to take sixth place.

But the stewards didn't like the move and decided to give him a 20-second penalty which, with all the cars bunched up behind the safety car, relegated him to the last place of the lead lap.

According to Ross Brawn, team boss of Mercedes Benz, there is a new regulation this year which says that drivers can race between safety car line one (i.e., the pitlane entrance) and the start/finish line after the "SAFETY CAR IN" signal is shown. But in the eyes of the stewards, even if the signal of "SAFETY CAR IN" goes up, drivers are not allowed to race and must follow one another.

Which brings up the original question? Why should they show the "SAFETY CAR IN" signal, when showing it or not makes virtually no difference whatsoever?

Perhaps the FIA simply didn't want the race to end behind the safety car. They wanted to create an illusion that all the cars were racing at the checkered flag and were separated by just 10 seconds.

Yours Truly remember some stock car races at Macau a couple of years ago where the safety car was deployed in the final laps following an accident. While the cars were circulating the field for the final time, the signal "SAFETY CAR IN" went up which caused a lot of confusion, when half of the cars followed the safety car into the pitlane, while the other half stayed on the track and overtook a number of cars to take the checkered flag.

At that time, Yours Truly thought it was a amateurish mistake by the Macau officials.

But Yours Truly now knows that the FIA can be equally amateurish.