when was the safety car introduced in formula 1 races
Safety car The first use of a safety car in Formula One is reported to have taken place at the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix, where a yellow Porsche 914[5][6] was called for duty following various incidents under treacherous weather conditions. Controversially, on that occasion, it took several hours after the race to figure out the winner and final results since the safety car driver had placed his car in front of the wrong competitor thus causing part of the field to be one lap down incorrectly.[7]
Formula One car A modern F1 clutch is a multi-plate carbon design with a diameter of less than 100 mm (3.9 in),[11] weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 lb) and handling around 720 hp (540 kW).[4] As of the 2009[update] race season, all teams are using seamless shift transmissions, which allow almost instantaneous changing of gears with minimum loss of drive. Shift times for Formula One cars are in the region of 0.05 seconds.[12] In order to keep costs low in Formula One, gearboxes must last five consecutive events and since 2015, gearbox ratios will be fixed for each season (for 2014 they could be changed only once). Changing a gearbox before the allowed time will cause a penalty of five places drop on the starting grid for the first event that the new gearbox is used.[13]