What is purpose of the F1 Safety Car?

What is the purpose of the safety car that is brought out after an incident? (SLS AMG) Is it purely to slow the competing cars down? What else is it for? What if an incident is impassable?





Also, what is the purpose of the car (seems to be a C-Class Estate) that is behind all the cars on the grid at the beginning of a race?





Thanks in advance.|||Yes it is to give the marshalls time to clear the track after an incident and the pack have to get behind it and are not allowed to overtake it or each other until the track has been cleared. If the incident is impassable the race is abandoned and I think points are distributed in order of the line for that race.





The car behind is the medical car which is on hand at the start because often that is when incidents occur and it is on hand immediately. It shoots off soon after the start if all goes well.|||Mercedes Benz SLS F1 Safety Car 2010


From March 2010, the Official F1鈩?Safety Car will be deployed whenever hazardous situations such as accidents or bad weather endanger normal racing. The SLS AMG, piloted by Bernd Mayl盲nder (38, from Germany), will be on standby in the pit lane throughout the entire race. When radioed by Race Control, the former DTM driver and his co-driver, FIA man Pete Tibbetts (44, from the UK), will take to the track at the head of the field in order to guide the Formula-1 race cars safely around the circuit.


Unique vehicle concept for maximum driving dynamics


Pictures %26amp; details at source link.


Enjoy.|||The safety car is used when a car is stuck on track or debris is on track. It is used to keep all of the cars at a steady pace so that marshals can recover the debris/wreckage without being run over by a 200mph Formula 1 car. It keeps all the cars together so that the lead driver doesn't decide to become a danger to the marshals.





The estate is the medical car. It usually follows the cars from the grid at the back. It is driven by an experienced racing driver who is also a qualified paramedic. The passenger is the F1 doctor. If there is a serious incident the medical car will attend as soon as possible. Think of it as an emergency response vehicle.|||Obviously to guide the pack through an off. And if an accident blocked the track, the race would be stopped (red flagged - right round the track so the drivers would know).





As for the SC sitting behind all the cars on the grid, that's surely to be there in the event somebody gets left on the grid at the start of the race? * In which case, for the sake of safety, the SC would need to be deployed, possibly. It's all down to safety and I think those guys in the SC do an excellent job.





Add - * Okay, the car behind the grid is a medical car - didn't know that!!! Makes sense.|||The safety car is to slow the cars down so that the Marshall's can clear the track up. As for the estate car at the back of the grid at the start. That a medical car, Just in case there's a crash into the first set of turns.|||the safety car is purely brought out on the track if there is an incident where the drivers must slow down or be prepared to stop if the incident is not passable





the saftey car may also lead the drivers down in to the pitlane if the race is red flagged, this maybe due to ambulances, air ambulances, tow trucks or any other slow moving object on the track





the safety car behind the field is where the head medic will be should there been an incident on the grid/first few corners|||ADVANTAGEOUS PURPOSE:





Provide immediate pace control after a severe racing incident wherein marshalls and anyone assigned thereof for clearing the race track of debris and hazards be provided ample time to do so.





The pace set by a safety car is slow thus rendering all race cars to follow this set speed until the marshalls have cleared the track.





Rule out the current race car positions since once a safety car is out, no race driver is allowed to overtake a safety car or a fellow race driver.





DISADVANTAGEOUS PURPOSE:





The disadvantage of a safety car deployment is the "rebooting" of the supposed gap gained by the race driver ahead. For example if driver-A is on the lead with 2 seconds versus driver-B then a safety car deployment will reset the lead to a usual race start gap which usually less than a second's time. Safety car deployments deprive the race car driver's already set lead time and gap to a minimal and can be frustrating for both the lead driver and his team.





Remember the incident of Nelson Piquet Jr with Renault in Singapore 2008? It was an "infamous" intended accident so as to deploy the safety car, if not for manipulating the lead time but at least control the race car positions and opportunities to adjust pit lane strategies.