Don't think there is a limit. The safety car goes almost flat out and the guys behind just putter around trying to keep engines cool, brakes warm and tires hot.
Sort of like when a P51 and a F16 do a formation flight and the P51 is a full throttle and the F16 is going so slow hes barely staying aloft.
I seem to recall in the Senna documentary a scene with a safety car that was an Alfa that was just pitching and rolling and working sooo hard and thinking what a woeful matchup it was when compared to the incredibly powerful machines behind it.
One of the theories behind the crash is that the safety car was too slow to keep any heat in the tires at all...
That was the conclusion reached by a program I watched on National Geographic called Seconds from Death. They concluded that the tires cooled following the safety car, causing the ride height to shrink and the car to bottom out and then bounce at high speed entering the Tambuello (sp?) corner. Not sure if that is the true cause or not.
Watch the safety car next time. The driver is doing everything he can to keep it on the track. He had time to get his tires back up to temp before the crash. Leading theory is that it was a steering column failure. Ask Newey, he probably knows.
So we're talking "pedal to the metal" on the front straight at Monza for example? The Merc SLS probably hits 140 easy on that stretch. Do you think that's how fast they're going? Or do they run at some "maximum", given upcoming things like the chicanes and such? Are the SC drivers actual race drivers? They all seem at least my age (50) and a LOT older in some cases.... maybe an honorary thing for test drivers and such? Good info in this thread... Jedi
There's just one SC driver - ex DTM champion (?) Bert Maylander (sp?). Pretty good gig IMO.... As for how fast he's going, yeah, pretty much flat out on the straights, at least in the dry. He's often leaning on it pretty hard - Which as noted is toddling around for the boys. Cheers, Ian
Bernd . - The only time the SC goes slowly is at the scene of the accident, the rest is flat out. Also when it's raining the F1 drivers sometimes ask for the SC to slowdown as they simply don't have the mechanical grip to keep the car on track
The speed of the pace car in F-1 is as flat out as the car will allow. This is evident clearly outwardly but notice sometimes during broadcasts they will cut to an onboard view in the pace car, the forces are obvious on the drivers but even more telling, if the audio feed is any good, the tires are squeaking loudly in the turns. Perhaps even more curiously though is the speed of the pace car at NASCAR road races at Watkins Glen and Sears Point. It's obvious that in these cases, the pace car is leading the field around at a snail's pace that can't be more than 15 - 20MPH. It would be nice if someone coukd explain that. BHW
no pit limiters in nascar so usually the pace car drives pit lane speed for awhile to let everyone get their tach readings. then back to 55. road course pit lane speeds are around 30 so maybe this is what you saw.
Interesting theroy, thanks. Not sure I buy it as if all these F-1 engineers whom are coming over to NASCAR certanly must be able to figure out what gear and RPM the cars need to be in to hit the pit lane speed. So, they're sacrificing ten-plus minute lap times crawling around Watkins Glen and Sears Point at 20MPH to be sure they're not speeding in the pit lane. Why don't they do this on ovals as well? It seems rather curious. Here I thought it was so the host broadcaster could fit more ads in. BHW
Safety and medical cars are always going flat out [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIuIbO2Ul1U&list=PL307A91B4E97631BE&feature=plpp[/ame]
I met one of the doctors in Montreal one year and asked what it was like to be a passenger: he said he learned not to eat lunch during events.
