The safety car rules in Formula One have caused many a driver and his team a headache over the past few years with pit lane closing when the safety car is deployed on track. Unfortunately, some drivers needed to pit for fuel when the lane was closed and as a result were forced to take a penalty.

To many this seemed unfair as most of the time the choice was come in and get a penalty or stay out and run out of fuel and last year, it was difficult to follow some races because of this rule. Therefore, for the upcoming 2009 championship season, the rules will be changed to a certain degree.

“The rule introduced in 2007 was a bad one, and we’ve gone back to the 2006 regulations. The only difference is we intend to implement a minimum time back to the pits,” explained FIA’s Charlie Whiting. “When we deploy the safety car, the message will go to all the cars, which will then have a “safety car” mode on their ECUs. As soon as that message gets to the car, it’ll know where it is on the circuit, and it’ll calculate a minimum time for the driver to get back to the pits.”

“The driver will have to respect this and the information will be displayed on his dashboard. If you remember, the reason we closed the pit entry was to remove the incentive for the driver to come back to his pit quickly. That’s gone now, as you won’t be able to reach the pits any quicker than your dashboard display allows you to.”