Safety car, virtual safety car and red flags

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, round 17.

Three tools slow or stop a race for safety. From the least to the most disruptive: the virtual safety car keeps the cars on track at a reduced speed; the safety car bunches the field behind a road car; the red flag stops the race.

Virtual safety car (VSC)

Introduced in 2015. Yellow boards show “VSC” and every driver must stay above a minimum lap time set by the race director, roughly 35% slower than racing speed, so the gaps between cars stay the same. No overtaking. It is used for incidents that need marshals on the track but no long clean-up. A pit stop under the VSC costs less time than normal, because the cars on track are slow too; the saving is about half of a normal stop.

Safety car

Introduced as a regular tool in 1993. The safety car leaves the pit lane and the leader forms up behind it; the field closes to a queue and the gaps are erased. Lapped cars are allowed to pass the safety car and rejoin at the back of the queue before the restart; since 2022 the rule requires all lapped cars to do so before the race resumes, a change made after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The restart is a rolling one: the safety car’s lights go out, it enters the pits, and the leader controls the pace to the line.

A safety car changes a race more than anything else short of a stoppage: a 20-second lead disappears, a cheap pit stop becomes available, and the restart gives cars behind a chance at the leader.

Red flag

The race is stopped. Cars return to the pit lane, and while they wait teams may change tyres and make repairs, which is why a red flag can hand a free tyre change to everyone. The restart is usually a standing start from the grid in the order at the time of the stoppage. If the race cannot be restarted, the result is taken from the laps completed and points are reduced on a sliding scale by distance covered. A race is also subject to a time limit: two hours of racing, three hours including stoppages.

How often they happen

From this site’s lap data:

Season	Races with a safety car	Safety-car periods	Red flags	Share of laps behind the safety car
2010	12 of 19	20	1	9.6%
2015	10 of 19	13	0	6.5%
2020	12 of 17	19	4	10.4%
2022	15 of 22	20	3	8.2%
2024	8 of 24	13	3	4.7%
2025	12 of 24	17	0	7.1%
2026 (17 races)	8 of 17	12	4	7.0%

In the 1990s a safety car appeared in one or two races a season; since 2010 it has appeared in about half.

By circuit, among those with at least eight races of lap data, the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore has had a safety car in 13 of 17 races (76%), Baku in 6 of 10, Albert Park in Melbourne in 17 of 29 and Interlagos in 17 of 35. The Hungaroring has had one in 6 of 41, Magny-Cours in 1 of 18, and Estoril never in 13.

Every race page marks safety-car laps on the lap chart and the race-history chart, and the article on safety cars by circuit has the full list.