Dirty Side Deckchair

  Maybe the best ever safety car The subject of safety cars and how a race should or should not be finished behind it was the main topic of conversation after the Italian GP saw us finish behind one. Before we delve into each side of this debate, let's take a quick look at the history of this feature of F1. What is a Safety Car? Well, to put it simply it is a car that takes to the track to lead the race cars around at a slower pace to allow for safety work to take place on the track.  This mainly means that marshals will be out on track to maybe help move a stranded car or pick up debris after a crash.   If the issue is too severe a Safety Car situation may be escalated to a Red Flag and the race stops.  If the race was not red flagged then when the track is clear, the Safety Car returns to the pits and the lead car has the job of restarting the race. A Safety Car might also be deployed in extreme wet weather.  More on that later! The first use of a safety ...

Ok – what in the world does next year’s F1 calendar hold for all of us fans?  It’s Brian here on the blog keys and when bloggin, I like the stream of consciousness approach.  So read it in my voice and here we go…   A.     How many races should we expect?      With absolutely no insider info, I’d bet on 24 races.  A – #WeRaceForMoney.  B – they tried 23 this year before losing Sochi (and the race contract).  C – there are discussions underway on a new approach to scheduling.  D – see letter A again.         B.     What is the new approach to scheduling?   Apparently, the FIA is looking to make the schedule less globetrotting of an effort and regionalize races so to avoid extreme Europe – Middle East – Americas – Asias hops on back-to-backs…  If this works, we could easily see more “pods” of races, such as Miami + Montreal or better Middle Eastern clusters or European back-to-bac...