The FIA World Endurance Championship will introduce a Virtual Safety Car procedure in 2024, a new regulatory document released to teams has revealed.
The new regulation, Article 14.7 of the sporting regulations for the series, dictates that the race director can declare a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period if deemed necessary, for safety reasons. It then goes onto state the VSC period will be followed a full safety car procedure.
The VSC will be deployed immediately, and can be used for approximately two laps before the full safety car is deployed on track. This means, under VSC, the cars on track must slow down to 80kph and maintain the distance between themselves, with no overtaking permitted.
The pit lane will remain open under the VSC period, as well as the pit exit.
It is not immediately clear whether the new VSC rules replace the full course yellow rules, article 14.5 in the sporting regulations, or if they are in addition to FCYs. FCYs were previously used to clear debris on track or for other minor uses, and were relatively quick periods of slow running, before the cars returned to full racing speed with no safety car needed.
The Virtual Safety Car rules were first used in Formula 1, as a way to create a safe area for marshals and safety workers, but to maintain gaps between cars. However, in the WEC’s implementation, the full safety car will be used after each VSC deployment, bunching the cars up into a queue, eliminating the gaps the VSC preserved.
