24 H. of Le Mans - Safety Car procedure completely revised !

When the order is given to deploy the Safety Cars, all marshal posts will display waved yellow flags, and “SC” boards, and the orange lights at the Line will be illuminated for the duration of the intervention. Pit exit will be closed, and the pit exit light turned red, while the pit entry will remain open.

There will be 3 safety cars, starting from their respective positions, with their orange lights illuminated. They will join the track regardless of where the overall leader is. All the competing cars must then form up in line behind the Safety Cars no more than five car lengths apart.

Overtaking is prohibited, except special conditions, until the cars cross the Line, or in specific case, the Safety Car Line relative to the Safety Car it follows, when the green flag is waved.

Pit exit green light will be turned on after the last car in line behind a Safety Cars has passed Safety Car Line 2, to allow all cars at pit exit to rejoin the track at an appropriate speed until they reach the queue behind that

Safety Car.

PHASE 1 : MERGING

When the Race Director decides it is safe to proceed with the merging process, the message ‘Incident clear – Prepare for Merging’ will be posted on the timing

At this point:

• Pit entry will close

• Safety Car B and Safety Car C will turn on their green lights, then cars which were positioned behind Safety Car B and Safety Car C will overtake their respective Safety Car and will continue as quickly as possible without compromising safety and without overtaking between themselves until they reach the line behind Safety Car A.

From that moment, and until the end of the Safety Car procedure, any car entering the pits must beforehand inform Race Control via the official messaging system. Any car having entered the pit lane once pit entry is closed will only be allowed to rejoin the track after the last car queuing up behind the Safety Car A has crossed Safety Car Line 2 another time.

Phase 2 : Pass-Around

At the Race Director discretion, Pass-Around will be allowed for any car that has its category leader behind them in the positioning order circulating behind the Safety Car A.

All cars participating in the Pass Around must, throughout the procedure, remain in line relative to each other, in the order initially established behind the Safety Car A When the Race Director considers it safe to do so, the message “Prepare for Pass Around” will be posted on timing monitors.

The procedure will be organized as follow:

• All cars will remain on the left-hand side of the track.

• Once the Safety Car has turned on its green lights, the message “Go for Pass Around” will be posted on the timing monitors.  
• All cars eligible for Pass Around must overtake the line of cars and the Safety Car A by the right-hand side safely, in the proper order. Once they have done so, they will continue as quickly as possible without compromising safety and take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the Safety Car A.

It is the competitor’s responsibility to determine if their car is eligible for Pass-Around. Penalty for Pass-Around when ineligible: Stop & Go for time equal to two race laps.

Phase 3 : Drop back

Once all the cars will be in a single line behind the Safety Car A, and when the Race Director considers it safe to do so, the message “Prepare for Drop Back” will be posted. All cars will remain on the left-hand side of the track. Once this is achieved, the message “Drop Back LMP2” will be posted on the timing monitors.

The procedure will be organized as follows:

• The LMP2 cars will pull to the right-hand side of the track, then the rest of the cars, in line, without overtaking in between each other, will overtake the line of LMP2 cars to take position behind the Safety Car A.

• Once Hypercar cars and LMGTE cars will have overtaken the LMP2 cars, then the LMP2 cars will rejoin the back of the line of cars behind Safety Car

Once this is achieved, the message “Drop Back LMGTE” will be posted on the timing monitors. The procedure will be organized as follows:

• The LMGTE cars will pull to the right-hand side of the track, then the rest of the cars, in line, without overtaking in between each other, will overtake the line of LMGTE cars to take position behind the Safety Car A.

• Once all Hypercar cars and LMP2 cars will have overtaken the LMGTE cars, then the LMGTE cars will rejoin the back of the line of cars behind safety Car A.

EXCEPTION : The procedures detailed above (Merging, Pass Around and Drop Back) will not be applied within the last 60 minutes of the race. In that case, the message “Article 14.7.1 will apply” will be posted on the timing monitors.