Why isn't the Safety Car an F1 car? 

I think another reason this would be a bad idea is because of the possibility that the drivers may confuse the safety car as another racer, especially in wet weather when visibility is low. Though the can change the colors or other parts of the car to make it stick out there is still the possibility it is mistaken for another driver.

People don’t realize how fast those GT cars can move. If the FIA didn’t force them to stay at a certain speed, they could most definitely be quick enough to make the drivers happy.

And also, it needs to be able to operate in all sorts of conditions, rain, snow, freezing cold, baking sun, without changing tires, pre-heating stuff or cooling stuff down and it needs to be able to start right up with the push of a button instead of the complicated start procedure of an f1 car so that it can react as quickly as possible in all conditions

Also big point, you want the safety car to be slower so you create a gap in the track where marshalls can work safely.

There's another thing worth mentioning: you can't just turn on and get driving an f1 Car on short notice. You don't know when or if a SC is needed. Imagine some accident happens and they're like "wait a minute, we have to warm up the engine/tires", or else, the SC catching fire because it idled for too long

Love how everyone is still arguing for a faster car in the comments when Matt clearly said that the speed is dictated by ths FIA and the curtent safety car could go faster if needed.

In a different universe the safety car is a Formula 1 car, and the Formula 1 cars are the Aston Martin and Mercedes Safety Cars and the drivers in them are complaining that the Safety Car is going too fast.

Also, key point here : there was an "F1" safety car for a few Grand Prix in 1994 (can't remember if it was in Formula 1 or other series), with none other than the Renault Espace F1. Yes, that huge MPV concept car by Renault with a Williams V10 and chassis. The thing is, you may very well never see the safety car in a race if all goes well. So you can imagine the nightmare of having an F1 engine idling for 2 hours, since it can't be started with just the turn of a key. So they did try it, and realized it was a stupid idea.

I understand that it is part of the advertising, but I would LOVE to see the Mercedes AMG Project One and Aston Martin Valkyrie as safety cars, since they were created based on F1 cars in some aspect.

This is the wrong question. It should be, why is the safety car not a GT3 car? Both Mercedes and Aston Martin have GT3 versions of the current safety cars.

A classic question from a new F1 fan but that actually is a curious one, but "safety" is the reason, and already in the name

I have literally never had that idea… even back when American “stock car racing” used stock-ish cars, the pace cars were street cars.

Crofty - Bernd maylander is actually a very, very good driver. He is going a lot faster than it appears

I’d love to see a video tallying up costs of an f1 race as the race progresses. Instead of the timing screen a screen could present costs

I've never even considered this to be an option. Hell Nascar sometimes even has a truck as the pace vehicle. The safety car should look different than an F1 car and it obviously doesn't need to go 200 mph. When the safety car is used, its done so to slow the cars down because there's a wreck or broken down car on the track. Its to protect the workers, just like reduced speed limits in construction zones on a normal highway exist so you don't run over and kill someone working on the road.

I love you Matt. But honest question; Who in their right mind, not being incredibly high, would ever seriously consider that it would be a good idea to have a F1 car be the safety car? It never even crossed my mind

Mat: Lightweight F1 car... Meanwhile 2022 F1 car: Heaviest in history

Amg gt black series is not a joke. It held the production car track record the fastest lap around nurburgring after porsche modded the gt2rs to take the record back again. I think a black series and porsche 911 gt3 will be a good pairing.

Also, the safety car need to be idleing all time. And they tried with the Renault Espace F1 to put for some races but it was just so loud so uncomfortable that they stoped the idea. Plus the engine wouldn't be as reliable on the milage too.

The safety car doesn't have to be an F1 car but it can be a faster car like maybe an AMG ONE or a laferrari

I always thought it's about making the safety car stand out visually. A non-F1 car is immediately recognisable as a safety car, whilst an F1 safety car might be mistaken for a regular competitor.

We had a Fiat Tempra as a family car when I was young! What a car!!! Didn’t realise it was once an F1 Safety Car!

the reasons in this video were good. when i saw the thumbnail and asked myself the same question i immediately began thinking about how many people are needed to start and operate an f1 car safely, and even then these cars aren’t perfect, and even leading cars suffer mechanical failures from time to time. just my first explanation at the question

This is some serious Tuesday during Summer-break content lmao

This video doesn’t go into the actual problem. The safety car has to go slower than an f1 car because you have marshals on track or in the run offs. It goes slow so that drivers are safe.

Matt I think you've missed out on an other important feature of the safety car is to be able to provide assistant in case of an accident. Romain Grosjeans crash in Bahrein 2020 comes to mind where the safety car can stop and help the driver.

what i like about this Channel is that you answer to the questions that we don’t ask ourselves but we’d like to have the answers to

Fragility and handling of an F1 car is also something to think of. You would also require a driver who can drive an F1 properly and not let it crash or the repair costs will be unnecessarily high. I'd reckon that it's easier to crash an F1 car than a road car from Aston Martin, and the road car is more or less still operatable if you ride and tap the barriers a tiny bit where an F1 car would probably already have damage to the suspension or the front wing.

I feel we've been trough this countless times already

You know, when I saw the video title I could only think. "That's a dumb question" The video kinda confirmed it haha. Great vid!

I loved this video! You guys could do a video list all the safety cars in the F1 history, and take the most iconics for good or bad reasons (like a Tempra example kkk) and talk a litle about.... Is very difficult to find that kind of information about the F1 safety cars.

Why can't the safety car be a gt3 car? They are light and have a lot of space from weight saving and they are fast . They could have a porsche 911 gt3 car or a mercedes amg gt3 car .

Ok but hear me out, Mercedes AMG One and Aston Martin Valkyrie safety cars. Faster than the current safety cars with performance inspired or directly pulled from formula 1 cars themselves.

It should be an the road going flagships- Mercedes ‘AMG ONE ‘ & Aston Martin ‘Valhalla’

they should make the saftey car the next regulation changes so they can see if its good or not. or test things as new tires and spray guards

Has safety car ever caused another safety car?

What about something by the likes of an LMP2? They are quicker, could in theory fit two people and are relatively cheap.

Well you see the real question is: "Why isn't the Formula 1 Safety Car a Formula E Car?"

I suppose another reason is that you want a car that is easily distinguishable from the others so you know which is the SC. I am not an expert in car racing (I watch more bikes than cars, although I like watching some car racing) but from what I have seen in all classes the SC is a different type of car that is racing. You also have to know it is a SC in bad visibility as well. The whole idea is to slow the cars down and make sure everyone is safe. If the SC is just going to go round at race speed what is the point of having one. The only answer I can think of if drivers are worried about cold tyres (taking into account in a year or two there is going to be a ban on tyre warmers so every time they do a pitstop their tyres are going to be stone cold) is maybe have a quicker delta lap behind the SC after the hazard is cleared. A bit like a rolling start they do in some forms of racing.

It still seems weird for there to be more than one now. I'm also used to it only being a Mercedes and looking back through my newly delivered box set of the 90s this week it looks weird again to see different makes even at the end of the decade when I began with F1. The third confusing element for me is the Mercedes not being silver anymore. It was nice for the race at Mugello - still can't believe that actually happened! 🤩 - to have it in red as a nod to Ferrari, but permanently red doesn't seem as special to me. Cost being high is an issue with two different makes but spare a thought for Formula E, who have been through BMW, Mini and now Porsche in less than a decade of existence. Can't be cheap... 💰

itd be very cool to see an old school f1 car as a safety car, something from the 90s or 00s would be very cool

Even thu we can fit all the gear ... safety car respond is very quick , so the cars are already probably switched on and parked on the side , if not its just a quick ignition to the engine, unlike the F1 car which can't be parked for a long time coz it would overheat , and if it off , it takes time to do the start up sequence

I would love to see a vid released from the start to finish of a SC deployment.... would be nice to see what goes on in the car also good to hear the radio messages between race director and SC...

Finally the question I’ve been waiting for!

An f1 car styled like a recent safety car would look goofy

Another big part is down to the weather. You can’t essential communication devices and screens around when it’s pouring with rain.

I think for special/historical races I think it would be cool to get a F1 car from the past like how a few years ago in nascar Richard petty drove his car for the start

Well I think one of the biggest technical point is the time it takes to start a f1 car and the overheating problems while idling / running at slow speeds.

I came to the same conclusions about the impracticality of it a while back. That said, there are cars recently that have F1-ish performance. Consider the (also impractically priced) AMG One. They COULD use something along those lines, but then what about races with no safety car? Then they've shipped a multi-million dollar vehicle to a track to simply look pretty. Though I wouldn't put it passed AMG to do that.

Because its called a safety car for a reason with its main purpose being to slow the track down as theres potential danger on it. There could be both the normal safety car and maybe even a hyper car that leaves the pits for a a lap as the slower safety car enters the pits that would allow the F1 cars to get heat back into the tyres.

The first thing I thought of before watching is was the obvious expenses to build, maintain and even power an F1 safety car. They won't just borrow an old car from a museum.

Can you imagine the safety car having an engine failure or something? That would be hilarious XD

After this explanation, it now seems like a ludicrous, and impractical idea. I honestly like using super cars as the safety vehicle. It’s those types of vehicles our F1 racers drive/own in their off time, which makes them part of the game in a way too I suppose.

Thank you for the elaboration

Yeah and also the safety cars look very cool already i especially love the Aston Martins so clean

Also, something you didn't mention is that it takes time to even start the engine within an F1 car. So the practicality of the safety car being an F1 car would plummet, and drag the whole race on even longer; especially if there's an incident on circuit.

I've never consider the idea of an open-wheeler SC and I'll find it dumb to put one too. However, considering how F1 cars need a certain average speed that current SC cannot provide, I think they should be using GT3 spec SC to get a better performance for the F1 cars.

Also it’s a lot easier to recognize that the safety car is out when it’s a road car that looks different than all the other f1 cars on the track

At some point every season Brundle lists good reasons for this. In addition to the video reasons essentially the safety car is idling for the entire race ready to launch into action if it needs to or it’s very quick to start up and launch. Not something an F1 car can do.

The 2021 Haas would be a perfect candidate for this role.

If they really want to cut cost. They should get some safety drones with huge "SLOW" signs. Can be deployed and recalled at any time, no need to wait for the SC to drive into pit.

I still remember a rainy race were the safety car was on track and the race driver complained about the SC being to fast for the weather. I sadly dont remember the year or track.

I actually thought the SC was going full tilt all the time just to go at a speed where the F1 car's tyres wouldn't go cold. The more you know

This thought has never crossed my mind, but I will say that the coolest safety car was the Porsche 911 GT2 that was used for at least one race in 1995.

I really want to see the Rimac Nivera as a safety car.

I got a question. 3:36 Why is it that when we see just one team at a track the car has wet tires on, even though it's clearly dry?

With all of this in mind, I have a slightly different but similar question: Aston Martin and Mercedes both have F1-inspired hypercars (Mercedes has the AMG-One, and Aston has the Valkyrie). Why aren’t those used instead? Think abt it: u get a passenger seat, a bunch of space for the computers, advertising for the cars being lent it, and without any of the problems that would plague a race car (these cars are street legal, so they need to be able to run at slower speeds unlike race cars like GT3 cars and F1 cars, which solves overheating and tire degradation), yet we also get a faster and flashier car that can go a little bit faster around each of the sectors to allow the F1 cars to keep heat in their tires and to keep heat out of the engine (obviously not too fast or it’s a safety hazard, but just to go a little bit faster for the sake of preserving the cars just a little bit better). Overall, I’d say it’s a win in almost every way, so why didn’t F1 announce that they would start doing this yet?

Video idea: How do F1 drivers sign for different teams?

I see it as a very clear distinction between safety and f1 car. Sure a safety f1 would look a lot different, but it’s still kind of weird to have one of the f1 cars slowing them down for some reason. A normal car on the track means it needs close attention.

It would be cool for special races to use a older model? You know at silver stone they could use a old Lotus F1 car and Ferrari a older model as well or if Monaco is going to stay around make it just for that weekend maybe? It’s cool concept and to think about but to use a brand new car or even the cars before the 22’ changes would still cost a lot.

I did not see the point addressed where obviously an SC needs to be deployed quickly at a moment's notice. Is an F1 car going to sit there with tyre blankets and umbilicals for maintaining fluid temperatures until it's needed? If not then it will have poor grip as soon as it heads out, that is if it's even able to get started at ambient temperature considering the tolerances of the engine components.

Such a disappointment as you didn't mention the Renault Espace F1. Yes, it is not looking like an standard F1, but has the power (and engine) of a standard F1, at least back then. It was used a few time as a safety car.

Enourmously impractical? Yes. The coolest update Formula 1 could possibly make to the series? Also yes.

The FIAT Tempra was in Brazil and it was soo funny to watch that!! i cried out loud so hard!

4:50 "as of yet" 😂😂

Next: Why safety car isn't semi-truck? "Just because it might be too cool for F1"

All we need is a 919 EVO Or a GTE, mabe a GT3 Something beefy

thats a sick concept livery tbf

Convenience It takes an entire crew just to start a Formula 1 car, a regular car can be started by turning a key.

Well it's pretty simple "Saftey Cars" are safely driven and it is literally in the name A Fomrula 1/F1 Car is the exact opposite of that so yeah

With the backwardness of our economy, increment in the price of gas, alarming rates of unemployment. I must confess our country have taken a wrong turn. Vividly I don't know how else to carter for my expenses.

Reminds me of an anecdote related by Prof Syd Watkins in his autobiography. He was tasked by the FIA to make racing safer for the drivers. He noticed most crashes happened on the first lap, so he came up with the medical chase car, that followed the cars around for the first lap. They were testing the concept at a Formula 2 (?) race. The driver, I think a DTM driver, asked Syd Watkins, how fast does he want him to go. The Prof answered, "as fast as you can". So the chase car was in 5th at the first corner and leading the race at the end of the lap! The driver took him too literally🤣🤣🤣🤣

Another reason is that the safety car should be able to be deployed immediately. An F1 car cannot just start up it's engine and go, it has to be pre-heated, cycled etc first. But then you can't keep it idling for 2 hours ready to go. Even with those blowers with cold ice, it wouldn't be able to be ready to go for that long without seriously damaging the engine.

I love how this video is just being crowned on so hard on Twitter. I love wtf1, but the memes coming from this video are legendary

Literally never wondered this, but great video. Very entertaining. Also, I hate the Saftey SUVs (just wanted to get that off my chest)

to promote Mercedes and Aston Martin road cars of course

"The safety car is faster than you" would be amusing

we also have heard and seen many times that in cases of wet tracks etc, the regular safety car actually has way more grip than an f1 car

Thank you very much for this Video. Can you please make a Video about the medical car, too?

How so they decide which safety car to use (between the Mercedes car or the Aston Martin car) for each race

The Safety car must also be a get in and go, you cant have them waiting to crank up the safety car but the engine is not hot enough to start yet

There was an F1 Safety car for some races in 1995. The Espace F1 was basicaly a wiliams but Espace and with 4 seats. Those were better days.

What I'd like to see is the Renault Espace F1 as a Safety Car for the French F1 GP!! That would be awesome!!!

And I'm used to calling it a pace car (that is what we call them here on the other side of the Atlantic) And I also see you didn't use the Opal Vectra that was used in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix

You mentioning that Aston Martin and Mercedes pay big money to effectively advertise their brand Me, seeing the Aston Martin safety car: The slow one Me seeing the Mercedes safety car: the good one

Reliability. The fact it can be started with a key It can run on wet tracks without the need for an expert driver.

I mean to keep costs down you could just use one of last years F1 cars but that doesn’t even matter because the idea of a safety car being an F1 car in itself is a hard stretch of the imagination to begin with.

My thinking when I saw the title is they would modify an existing f1 chassis to handle all the operating equipment. It doesn’t haven’t to meet any regulations so you could create an extended wheel base with a back driver seat. I don’t think that’s too far out of possibility. Agree the general upkeep would be 10 fold if not more than the current car, even if built for the purpose of been able to easily fire it up and get it on track.

Its a safety car…its needs to be as SAFE as possible. Pretty straight forward

AMG One savetycar would be cool. It's nearly a f1 car and has all other features too...