IndyCar In St Louis. Why All The Drama?
Like many oval races in IndyCar, the recent Bommarito Automotive Group 500 race in St Louis was a race of high attrition. The reason oval tracks present these kinds of races is due to the fact that the racing is incredibly close. The reason for this is due to the fact that there are usually only three to four corners for drivers to make up, or lose time. Two things result from this, loads of passing moves made by the huge slipstream effect, and huge crashes as drivers are driving at incredibly high speed in close proximity.
Over the weekend we saw a few of these kinds of crashes, but the main talking point of the race is actually something that can happen on any race track. It actually has to do with eventual winner Josef Newgarden’s safety car restart on lap 250 of 260. In recent years we’ve seen a lot more creative safety car restarts with drivers really pushing the limit of what is allowed by the rulebook. That is exactly what happened in this IndyCar race in St Louis, so I thought it best to unpack this for you from a drivers point of view.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
After taking the lead from Scott McLaughlin a few laps earlier Josef Newgarden headed the pack into a safety car period. This was caused by a collision between Will Power and David Malukas which saw there latter slam into the barriers and out of the race. Until this point the race was a thrilling battle between the Penske cars of McLaughlin, Power, and Newgarden, along with Meyer Shank Racing’s driver David Malukas.
At the end of the safety car period Josef Newgarden lead the pack to the green flag at a very slow but consistent pace. Some drivers behind anticipated that the restart would be faster and sped up too early meaning they had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. For F1 fans this is a very similar incident that happened to Daniel Ricciardo in the Chinese Grand Prix when Lance Stroll slammed into the back of him.
This speeding up and slowing down has a magnified effect throughout the entire field, and only takes a few cars to have a big effect. Its actually the exact opposite effect of something many of us experience everyday, the delay when accelerating from a traffic light. The only difference is that these cars are already moving, and are much closer to each other than you are to other drivers at a traffic light.
WHY WOULD THIS HAPPEN?
It’s quite ironic that the very thing that is put in place to keep people safe can also be the causation of some very big crashes. There is however a very big and clear reason why this happens more often than you would think. That reason is the slipstream effect.
On oval tracks and tracks with long straight stretches, the slipstream has a very powerful effect. It can be so powerful that the lead is actually not the most optimal place to be when there is someone close behind.
On a safety car restart it is to your advantage to follow as close as you can so as to not give away any unnecessary advantage to those in front, and to maximise the slipstream. This is why you will often see drivers driving as slow as possible until the last possible moment so they can minimise the slipstream effect.
When going slow enough the slipstream is either non existent nor powerful enough for the car trailing to gain an advantage. This is exactly why a driver in the lead on a safety car restart will drive as slow as they are allowed for as long as they are allowed to.
WHAT DO THE RULES SAY?
Like many sport rule book, some rules in motorsports can be ambiguous at best. Its definitely in a driver and teams best interest to read through and memorise them as clearly as possible so they can use this to their advantage on the track. Its just like a lawyer court, they need to know all of the laws inside out so that they can use them and the holes in them to the advantage of their client.
In the IndyCar rulebook the rules are quite clear in this instance. Here they are as stated on the IndyCar website(safety car is referred to as “Pace Car”:
RESTARTS:
Single-file restarts will be in effect at all 2024 events. Following a yellow- or red-flag condition, the following procedures will be used to resume racing under green-flag conditions:
After the starter gives the “one lap to go” before return to green-flag conditions signal, cars must line up in single-file formation with no gaps or lagging between cars. For restarts with 15 laps or less remaining, cars not on the lead lap will be moved to the rear of the field.
The leader of the field under the yellow condition is required to maintain pace lap speed until reaching a designated point (restart cone) where the leader is required to accelerate smoothly back to racing speed and the green condition will be declared.
The restart cone is usually located between the final turn and the start-finish line on an oval or the final two turns of a road or street course and is marked with a bright orange cone (usually on the top of the outside wall of the track).
If the leader or any other car accelerates before the restart cone, the restart may be waved off and/or cars may be penalized.
All cars must maintain their respective track positions until the green condition is declared.
If the leader does not accelerate at the restart cone, the starter will show the green flag to the field to accelerate.
The race director shall determine the type and timing of any penalty as deemed appropriate to the orderly conduct of the race.
Basically, as long as the leader consistently maintains at least the safety car pace until the green flag, then they are completely within the rules.
WHO IS AT FAULT?
I have been involved in many safety car restarts through my racing career. While it can be trickier than it seems to keep an acceptable gap to the car in front, it definitely isn’t hard to avoid a collision with the car in front of you. If you’re further back than 2nd or 3rd place then its always best to keep an eye on two or three cars in front rather than just the one car in front of you. This allows you to pre-empt the light variations in speed that are bound to happen, and often come from a few cars in front rather than the one directly in front of you. Its also much easier to recover a slight gap that you had on a restart than to race with a damaged car from a collision, or to crash and fail to finish.
Now that you have a little background on what its like inside the cockpit, lets take a look at who I believe is at fault. This is one of the few times where driving on the road and on the racetrack share something in common. That something in common is that it is often the driver behind that is at fault if a car is rear-ended by another one. This is of course providing that the car in front did nothing untoward such as brake testing (the act of deliberately braking hard in front of someone else). With this in mind the driver at fault in this collision would actually be Alexander Rossi, which is something I think you’ll find most racing drivers agree with. It is always your responsibility to as a driver to ensure that you are in a position to respond to anything that might happen in front of you at a safety car restart.
The safety car is there not only for the safety of the drivers but of the officials, track workers and fans too. While is seems as though the rules actually help create dangerous situations on safety car restarts, it is also up to the drivers to drive in a manner that is safe.
