Safety Car Start Robs British Grand Prix of Potential Drama and Excitement
After experimenting with standing starts in 2013 and 2014, IndyCar reverted exclusively to safer rolling starts in 2015.
Formula One, in contrast, has always used standing starts. That said, there have been a handful of exceptions—including Sunday's British Grand Prix—where the track was deemed too wet and races started behind the safety car.
The decision to start the British Grand Prix behind the safety car made the race more predictable and robbed the event of much of its drama and excitement. One of the Sun's headlines called it the "dullest launch in history."
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As the race began (sort of), Sky Sports' David Croft informed viewers that it was just the 11th time in F1 history that a grand prix had started behind a safety car.
To be more specific, it happened nine times in 66 years years up to the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix. Starting with Monaco, there have been two safety car starts in the last five races.
This attitude of safety uber alles has prevailed in recent years, but it is not necessarily good for F1. There must be a reasonable balance between safety and danger.
At the 2016 FIA Sport Conference, Sebastian Vettel named speed and danger as two of F1's "core pillars," with the ever-increasing speeds balanced against improved safety, according to F1.com.
The start is usually the most exciting and, not coincidentally, the most dangerous part of a grand prix. Even with the current use of overtaking aids, the start is the best opportunity for drivers to pass each other. And the radio ban has made the starts more difficult for the drivers (especially if they are in a Mercedes) and therefore more unpredictable.
A summary of the sporting regulations on the official F1 website states: "If the weather is exceptionally bad, the race director may choose to abort the start and resume the starting procedure only when conditions have improved. Alternatively, he may decide to start the race behind the safety car."
On Sunday, there was a rain shower as the cars lined up on the grid, but the sun was beginning to break through by the time the race started. The weather was not exceptionally bad by any reasonable standard—and certainly not by British standards!
Even if it is not actually raining, too much standing water on the track can play havoc with F1 cars whose ground clearance is measured in millimetres. There is also (understandably) increased sensitivity since Jules Bianchi's fatal accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix where he aquaplaned off the track and into a crane.
However, the argument that it was too wet for the cars to be on track on Sunday afternoon does not hold water. They were on the track...behind the safety car.
Just as you and I cannot drive the same speed on a highway through a rush-hour rainstorm, they would have had to slow down, but they still could have raced.
"I personally think we could have started on the grid—but for sure there were patches all over the place and it would have been tricky—but that's what motor racing's about," race-winner Lewis Hamilton said in the post-race press conference. "It would have been fun. ... There was more water on the track when we started in 2008 when we started from the grid."
Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen, the other two podium finishers, thought the safety car start was justified but that it should have been called in sooner than Lap 5.
As the drivers slowly followed the safety car, former driver and current Sky Sports commentator Johnny Herbert tweeted: "Drivers should be tested in all condition [sic], including wet ones."
In fact, a wet race is one of the few spectacles in grand prix racing that matches the excitement of a race start, with the feeling that anything can happen.
There are circumstances where a safety car start might be necessary, but a wet track with clearing skies is not one of them.
Most parents are familiar with the importance of natural consequences for helping children learn. If they go to a party and eat too many snacks, they might feel sick. If they jump on their bed, they might fall and get hurt.
The same approach should have been applied at the British Grand Prix. The drivers should have been allowed to race from the start. If it was too wet to take a particular corner at 150 km/h, they could have taken it at 120 km/h or whatever speed would allow them to negotiate it safely.
Go too fast, and end up in a gravel trap or tyre wall.
The 22 men on the F1 grid are supposed to be the best drivers in the world. They should be tested, not babied.
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