As part of the FIA’s ongoing efforts to improve safety, drivers must now adhere to stricter speed limits when passing through double yellow flag zones during the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car procedures.

Previously, the only requirement in international sporting rules for drivers to respond to double yellows was to ask them to “substantially reduce … speed, not overtake and be prepared to change direction or stop.”

Qualifying lap times are removed when double yellow cards are issued to prevent drivers from taking risks.

However, the presence of the double yellow flag zone did not trigger additional requirements for further deceleration when operating behind the safety car or virtual safety car.

In fact, due to the way the time increment works in these situations, a driver may sometimes run a section of the track faster than normal to regain time lost earlier in a sector.

However, from now on, when drivers are in a safety car or a virtual safety car, they will be forced to reach the designated speed limit, especially through double yellow flag areas.

FIA technical director Tim Goss believes imposing specific speed limits will help drivers and make track workers’ jobs safer.

Law enforcement officers waving yellow flags and holding up safety license plates

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

“What we want to do is give drivers a tool that will help them in the event of an accident and make the race safer,” he said.

“We’ve been using a safety car and a virtual safety car for a number of years, which refers to the speed limit we put on the track.

“So when there is a physical or virtual safety car, the drivers are informed of the time increment on the dashboard display and in the radio tone, and they have to stay positive, meaning they are slower than the reference time for a lap.

“However, in some circumstances the car may legally temporarily increase speed to recover any time lost relative to that reference time.

“What we’re trying to do now is expand the use of the delta time concept to make sure that when a double-waving yellow flag is displayed under a virtual safety car or a safety car, the car is strictly decelerating to the required delta time, so we’re introducing Dedicated reference speed limit.”

Drivers will receive visual and audible warnings about the double yellow flag zone, so they shouldn’t be surprised by the need to slow down further. At the start of a double yellow flag zone, the Delta requirement will be zeroed.

While the new system may put some drivers at a disadvantage if they have to slow down because the double yellow has ended when the car behind has passed, the FIA ​​says safety must take precedence over the competitive aspect.

Olivier Hulot, head of F1 electronics, said: “If a car goes through a double yellow and not the other, that car has to slow down and it is wasting time relative to its competitors. However, for the FIA, safety Is the most important thing, whenever there is danger on the track or there are law enforcement on the track, then we have to minimize the risk no matter what.”