Don't Be Yellow

By Simon

A few weeks ago, Tammy talked about green and white checkered flags for finishing races that end under caution. The gears turn slowly in my head these days and I remembered something. Okay, race fans don’t want to see a race finish under caution, then why not take a page out of the British Touring Car Championship’s flag book. When the safety car comes out, the lap count goes up. For argument’s sake, say a race is twenty five laps long, if the safety car is out for five of those laps, the race length is adjusted. It’s now a thirty lap race and not a twenty five lap one. Essentially safety car laps don’t count. Now there's a concept.

I think this is quite interesting as it changes the dynamic of the race. Whereas an IndyCar or NASCAR race, the teams use safety car to conserve fuel, get a jump on tire changes. It wouldn’t quite work for them anymore and teams with a damaged car would have a shot of getting back in the race. The strategy would have to change.

I would like to say them try this out in the US. It would make for some fun pit road head scratching.

Thoughts? Good idea or a bad one?