The history of Formula 1 has been riddled with many accidents over the years. In a sport where drivers go around tracks at breakneck speeds in cars specifically made for racing, it is almost expected that a few major incidents will happen over a year. While these accidents cause most predictions to go haywire, best punters with original betting accounts know this is just part of the risk and can make the necessary adjustments.

Nevertheless, there are of course many important preventative measures to stop these accidents from happening and one of these is the safety car. Also known as the “pace car”, this specific vehicle gets on the tracks when extreme weather conditions or a dangerous accident occurs and leads the racers on a safe path to keep them away from danger. Once the dangerous conditions are passed or lessened, the car leaves the tracks and the race resumes. In most cases, competitors are not allowed to pass the safety car or any other racers during the caution period and for it to be effective, it needs to have a professional driver that not only understands the risk involved, but also the sport itself. That responsibility currently lies on Bernd Maylander, who has been in that position for over 20 years.

History

The first time a safety car was deployed was in the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix and it was a Porsche 914. However, the vehicle took an incorrect position, placed another car 1 lap down, and created massive confusion. It took several hours to sort out the winner and settle the places, which ultimately caused the idea of a safety car to be scrapped for nearly 2 decades for all competitions except Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1993 the concept was officially reintroduced in the Brazilian Grand Prix and British Grand Prix, with a Fiat Tempra and a Ford Escort as the vehicles of choice respectively. Following that year, there have been safety cars deployed in many races, with brands like Honda, Opel, Porsche, and Lamborghini providing them until 1997.

That year, a Mercedes-Benz’ C36 AMG was chosen as the safety car and this started a dominance in the industry. For the following 16 seasons, all competitions used Mercedes brand vehicles as safety cars. The trend continues even today, as a Mercedes AMG GT Black Series is the current pace vehicle, an excellent car to serve in that capacity, according to its performance and the way Maylander seems very comfortable handling it.

High-end technology

In the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, an accident caused the driver Jules Bianchi to suffer a fatal head injury. Following that, an accident panel was established and the ways to minimize the risk of a crash during similar circumstances that do not warrant the deployment of a safety car and cannot be simply managed with yellow flags were discussed. The panel recommended a “virtual safety car”, which does not appear on the track. The system creates a VSC icon on the trackside and the drivers steering displays, forcing them to adhere to a speed limit. These virtual safety cars have been used alongside the real one since 2015 in various conditions.

Interesting Facts

• While the safety car is meant as a precaution and is supposed to just be there to give the racers a reference, very rarely it may finish a race. This often happens due to accidents happening near the end of a race.
• The car will most often have orange and green lights mounted on its roof via a light bar. Green means the other cars can overtake the safety car.
• There is also an F2 safety car that has only been deployed 3 times, twice in 2007 and once in 2009.

As many other, the safety car is an invention born out of necessity. It’s a solid safety measure that keeps drivers alive in dangerous conditions and while there are times when the deployment of a safety car is called erroneous by racers or press, the protection of the racer comes before all. Just like that, here in ACC-EX your safety and security comes first when you register for an original betting account. In a sense, we are like you safety car when it comes to betting.