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The Formula One Safety Car

In the event of an accident or incident, the FIA needs to make quick assessments of whether the yellow flag is sufficient to get things back in order. If it is not, they need to decide if the occurrence is severe enough to suspend the race or to send out the safety car to slow things down and get track conditions up to racing standards.

Whilst this sounds straight forward enough, we need to remember that a Formula1 race car wants to go fast. In fact, it needs to go fast. If the safety car is not up to speed, these race cars suffer from over-heated engines and they lose brake and tire temperature all of which can contribute to catastrophic problems.

As such, it is with great pride that MERCEDES-BENZ has put forth the official safety car since 1993. In 2010, MERCEDES will be replacing the SL63 with the SLS AMG. The new SLS sports specifications such as a 6.2 Litre V8 engine that produces 571 horsepower and a maximum torque of 650 Nm. Even then this monster road car needs to modify its brakes and suspension amongst many other things to be ready to lead the pack on the circuits.

The new Gullwing will be driven by Bernd Maylander who has been Formula1’s resident safety car driver since the year 2000. He has the task of rounding up and slowing down the ferocious race cars during inclement weather and in times of incident and it is his leagues of experience that helps him ensure the race goes on. Bernd has had particular success as a touring car racer and is very comfortable behind the MERCEDES wheel.

With the orange lights on, all drivers are required to slow down and form a queue behind the SLS AMG and no overtaking is permitted. Every lap completed behind the safety car counts as an official lap and by the time the safety car is ready to get off the track, we usually have a brewing storm of drivers ready to floor their cars back into action as they past the start/finish line.

Whilst some may moan at the thought of the safety car slowing the race down, audiences should bear in mind that the monumental task of keeping the race going, falls on the shoulders of one man, behind the wheels of one very special road car!