The security automobile is a high-performance street automobile that leads the Method 1 subject across the circuit at decreased velocity each time marshals or drivers want safety from a hazard on observe. It comes out for crashes, stranded vehicles, particles, a restoration automobile working trackside, or climate that has made racing too harmful at full velocity. The second it seems, the sector bunches nostril to tail behind it and each race hole constructed up over the earlier laps is worn out in a single go.
Mercedes-AMG is F1’s sole security and medical automobile provider for 2026, after sharing the function with Aston Martin since 2021.
The brand new Mercedes-AMG GT 63 PRO 4MATIC+ debuted as the protection automobile on the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix, the primary all-wheel-drive automobile to carry the job.
Bernd Mayländer has pushed the F1 security automobile since 2000 and handed 500 grands prix within the function on the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
A pit cease can price 18 to twenty-eight seconds of observe place at racing velocity, however far much less as soon as the sector is working gradual and bunched behind the protection automobile.
The Digital Security Automotive, launched for 2015 after Jules Bianchi’s 2014 Suzuka crash, holds gaps in place as an alternative of erasing them.
The security automobile has led races since 1973 however solely turned a everlasting fixture at each spherical from 1993.
Watch each race of the 2026 season stay on
What Is the Security Automotive and When Is It Deployed?
Race management sends the protection automobile out for something that makes racing at full velocity too harmful whereas it’s being handled: a crash that leaves a automobile stranded in a spot marshals can’t safely attain below green-flag circumstances, particles scattered throughout the racing line, a restoration automobile or crane working trackside, or rain heavy sufficient to make the usual flag warnings inadequate. It’s a real intervention moderately than a formality, and it adjustments the complexion of a race the second it seems.
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Mercedes-AMG turned F1’s sole security and medical automobile provider for 2026, taking up full accountability after sharing the function with Aston Martin because the begin of the 2021 season. The security automobile itself modified mid-2026: the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 PRO 4MATIC+ debuted on the Hungarian Grand Prix, changing the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Collection that had accomplished the job since 2022 throughout 51 deployments. The brand new automobile is the primary Official FIA F1 Security Automotive with absolutely variable all-wheel drive, constructed for precisely the low-grip, high-stakes circumstances the protection automobile is distributed out into, and produces 450kW (612hp) and 850Nm of torque. Bernd Mayländer has pushed the protection automobile since taking up on the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, and he handed 500 grands prix within the function when the 2026 season opened in Melbourne.
Deployment follows a hard and fast process. Yellow SC boards go up at marshal posts across the circuit and lights on the protection automobile itself sign that it’s on observe. Each driver should gradual instantly, maintain place relative to the vehicles round them, and kind up in single file behind the protection automobile with out overtaking, aside from vehicles getting into the pits or being waved previous to unlap themselves. Radio messages and dashboard warnings again up the boards and lights, however the boards are the first sign drivers are skilled to react to first.
What Occurs to the Race Behind the Security Automotive?
As soon as the sector is bunched behind the protection automobile, each hole constructed up by means of green-flag racing disappears within the area of a lap or two. A driver who spent twenty laps constructing a ten-second lead is all of the sudden working nostril to tail with the automobile behind, and that lead counts for nothing till the race goes inexperienced once more.
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Vehicles which have been lapped by the race chief are allowed to un-lap themselves earlier than the restart, and present laws require all of them to do it, not a particular few. That distinction was as soon as ambiguous, and it determined a championship. On the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the race director let solely among the lapped vehicles between Max Verstappen and championship chief Lewis Hamilton rejoin the lead lap earlier than the ultimate restart, clearing Verstappen a run at Hamilton on contemporary tyres on the final lap of . The FIA rewrote the rule for 2022, changing the phrase “any” with “all” within the regulation textual content so each lapped automobile should move the protection automobile and the lead-lap vehicles earlier than it peels into the pits, eradicating the discretion that brought on the row within the first place.
As soon as each lapped automobile has unlapped itself, the protection automobile returns to the pit lane and the chief controls the tempo again as much as racing velocity. No one else is allowed to overhaul till the race is said inexperienced once more, which places actual strain on the chief to time the restart properly and actual alternative on the vehicles behind in the event that they get it incorrect.
Why Does Everybody Pit When the Security Automotive Comes Out?
A pit cease is dear at racing velocity. F1 Chronicle’s places the price of a cease anyplace from round 18.4 seconds at Spa-Francorchamps, the most affordable pit lane on the calendar, to greater than 28 seconds at the most costly circuits, all misplaced to the vehicles that keep out.
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The second the protection automobile seems, that price drops sharply in relative phrases. The entire subject is working at decreased velocity and bunched collectively moderately than unfold out at racing tempo, so the time misplaced pitting is measured towards vehicles which might be additionally going slowly moderately than vehicles nonetheless lapping at full velocity. A cease that may drop a driver ten or extra seconds behind the pack in green-flag circumstances may cost solely a few positions, or none in any respect, below the protection automobile, as a result of everybody else is dropping time to the decreased tempo as properly. That’s the whole logic behind the mad scramble down pit lane each time the protection automobile boards go up: groups should not attempting to make a cease low cost, they’re taking the most affordable cease they’re ever going to get.
Security automobile laps nonetheless depend towards complete race distance, and that has penalties properly past pit technique. A race that spends a lot of its distance behind the protection automobile can set off if too little of it’s run below green-flag circumstances, the identical rule born out of the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, the place three laps behind the protection automobile in torrential rain at Spa had been sufficient to finish the race and hand out factors below the previous system.
What Is the Digital Security Automotive?
The Digital Security Automotive works on a distinct precept totally. As a substitute of bunching the sector behind a bodily automobile, it forces each driver to carry a set delta time by means of the affected a part of the circuit, which retains every automobile’s hole to the vehicles round it precisely the place it was when the VSC got here out. Nothing bunches and nothing erases: the sector merely slows down collectively and holds station till the all-clear.
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The FIA launched the VSC for the 2015 season after , the place his automobile struck a restoration automobile that was clearing one other automobile from the circuit below moderately than a full security automobile deployment. The VSC exists exactly to take away the necessity for marshals and restoration autos to work trackside whereas vehicles are nonetheless circulating at something near full velocity.
In apply the 2 techniques swimsuit completely different conditions. A full security automobile is sensible when a heavier restoration job or a severe hazard wants the sector slowed proper down and bunched up behind a pace-setting automobile. A VSC is the lighter device, sometimes used for a stranded automobile that may be recovered shortly or a smaller patch of particles, the place slowing the sector with out erasing the entire race is sufficient.
Diagram evaluating the F1 security automobile and Digital Security Automotive. Underneath the protection automobile the sector bunches nostril to tail behind the protection automobile and each hole is erased. Underneath the Digital Security Automotive each driver holds a delta time and the gaps between vehicles are frozen precisely the place they had been.
When Did F1 Get a Security Automotive?
The security automobile’s F1 debut got here on the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix, and it was chaos. A Porsche 914 was despatched out after a first-lap crash, but it surely picked up the incorrect automobile because the chief, and the sector spent the remainder of the race uncertain who was really forward. Checking out the true consequence took hours after the chequered flag, and Peter Revson was ultimately declared the winner.
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That debut was uncommon moderately than the beginning of a pattern. The security automobile reappeared solely sporadically by means of the remainder of the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, at races the place organisers selected to make use of one, with no fastened process behind it. It didn’t turn into a everlasting fixture at each spherical till 1993, following trial runs on the British and French Grands Prix the 12 months earlier than. Mercedes turned the official provider from 1996, an association that, other than the 2021-2025 interval shared with Aston Martin, has continued ever since, and Bernd Mayländer has been behind the wheel for all of it since 2000.
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F1 Security Automotive FAQsWho drives the F1 security automobile?
Bernd Mayländer, who has held the function because the 2000 Australian Grand Prix and handed 500 grands prix driving it on the 2026 season opener in Melbourne.
Why do F1 drivers weave behind the protection automobile?
To maintain warmth of their tyres and brakes. Operating at decreased, bunched-up velocity cools each down shortly, and weaving facet to facet scrubs the tyres towards the observe floor and works the brakes to carry temperature for when racing resumes.
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What’s the distinction between the protection automobile and the digital security automobile?
The security automobile is a bodily automobile that leads the sector at decreased velocity, bunching the pack and erasing each hole. The Digital Security Automotive holds every driver to a delta time as an alternative, retaining gaps precisely the place they had been moderately than closing them up.
Do security automobile laps depend in an F1 race?
Sure. Security automobile laps depend towards complete race distance, which is why a race with an extended security automobile or VSC interval can nonetheless end on decreased factors if not sufficient of it was run below green-flag circumstances.
Sources
F1 Chronicle evaluation of official F1 timing knowledge, 2022-2026 seasons, for pit cease time loss figures.
