SUPERCARS will run trials of a ‘Full Course Yellow’ system at the upcoming Gold Coast and Adelaide events ahead of a possible introduction in 2024.
The system is the same in concept as Formula 1’s Virtual Safety Car, allowing the field to be slowed in the event of an incident without a full Safety Car being deployed.
Under the Supercars version to be trialled after both Friday practice session on the Gold Coast, drivers will have 15 seconds to reduce their speed to 80km/h when a FCY is called.
Drivers are required to remain under 80km/h – aided by an electronic speed limiter – until the FCY ends or a full Safety Car is deployed.
A similar trial in Adelaide will involve just a 10-second timespan to slow to 80km/h.
As per a Safety Car period, no overtaking is permitted once a FCY is called, and any laps completed while under the system will count towards the race.
Drivers will be given a five-second warning when a FCY is about to end, at which point they can deactivate the 80km/h limiter.
As is the case in Formula 1, race control may still opt to immediately call a full Safety Car if the circumstances require it, rather than a FCY.
Under the proposed Supercars rules hoped to be introduced next year, the declaration of a full Safety Car would also require drivers to slow to 80km/h within 15 seconds.
In that circumstance, the race director may subsequently allow drivers to speed up in order to catch the Safety Car train, when safe to do so.
Such rules address the long-held practice of drivers pushing flatout between a Safety Car being called and physically catching the Safety Car train.
That scary practice came under the spotlight earlier this year when a chunk of the field blazed by Jack Le Brocq sitting in his wrecked Camaro at Albert Park.
The upcoming procedure tests follow an ill-fated speed limiter trial at Hidden Valley in June.
On that occasion, software for a planned Safety Car speed limiter test hampered Shane van Gisbergen’s car during practice.
The Supercars-run Bathurst 12 Hour has already confirmed the adoption of a FCY system for 2024.
