Charlie Whiting has announced that trials of a speed limit test will take place at the end of both practice sessions on Friday.

In addition to the Virtual Safety Car, this is being tried out as a possible means of slowing all cars during periods when the race is under caution, and follows the circumstances surrounding Jules Bianchi's crash in Japan.

According to the official guidelines for the race, all cars on the track when either FP1 or FP2 finishes may complete a further two laps and cross the line on the track for a second and a third time.

As soon as the last car on track has taken the chequered flag for the first time two consecutive double yellow sectors will be activated. A few seconds later these light panels will change and show "80" with a flashing yellow border. The panel at the start of the sector prior to the first "80" will show a warning sign (red triangle) which is to alert drivers to the fact that at the next panel they will have to adhere to an 80km/h speed limit.

The average speed of each car in the double yellow sectors will be monitored by calculating the time each car takes to cover the known distance between panels. The average speed of all cars through the sectors should not exceed 80km/h. If a driver is in either sector when it goes double yellow the speed will not be monitored.

Once every car has been through the double yellow sectors the track status will revert to "CLEAR" and the three panels concerned will show green for approximately 10 seconds.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by gturner38, 21/11/2014 0:28

"This system is very similar to what is being used by the WEC and by some GT endurance races. WEC used it at Bahrain last week twice for debris. The first time, the cars were slowed for just over two minutes. The second lasted 54 seconds. Had they needed to use a safety car, that would have probably been 5-10 minutes each. Moreover, the system meant leads weren't wiped out by the field bunching up.

I see no reason why we should still be relying on a 1970s solution to slowing cars down (ie safety cars) when the technology exists to do it in a manner that has less impact on the outcome of the race."

FIA to try speed limit tests on Friday

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