F1 Safety Car
Hopefully though, these two Mercedes-AMG cars will not be seen too much during the upcoming Formula 1 season.
Of course, there are plenty of cynics who’d suggest that might not be a bad idea as they are more visually attractive than most of the brand new F1 cars which seem to have winglets sprouting out all over their bodies.
The season opening race on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia, will also see AMG becoming part of the official name for the 2012 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team. The British-based team continues with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg as drivers for the third season together.
F1 Safety Car
Mercedes-AMG has been providing the official F1 Safety Car and Medical Car for the past 16 years and it continues to do so this year.
Aside from a louder exhaust there are no technical changes to the SLS AMG Official F1 Safety Car, which has been used since 2010 and it will continue to be driven by 40-year-old Bernd Mayländer who has enjoyed this task since 2000. When the Formula 1 calendar permits, Mayländer, a native of Schorndorf, Germany, also works as an instructor for the AMG Driving Academy.
There will be a significant change in the 2012 season as lapped cars will be allowed to overtake the Safety Car after the Race Control has given the appropriate signal during a Safety Car phase. The FIA hopes that by allowing them to gain their lap back, the natural race order of the cars will be restored, which should allow for more equal opportunities when the race restarts. We’ll see.
F1 Medical Car
The official F1 Medical Car is a slightly modified C 63 AMG Estate with a 6.3-liter V-8 engine producing 487 horsepower. It is driven by Alan van der Merwe (32 years old, from South Africa). His co-driver is the official FIA Grand Prix Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gary Hartstein (57 years old, from Belgium). Additionally, two assisting medical experts from a specially selected clinic near the race track sit in the rear.
In case you’re wondering, in the 2011 Formula 1 season, the SLS AMG Official F1TM Safety Car was deployed twelve times, covering a total distance of 178 miles. At the Canadian Grand Prix in June 2011, there were no less than 5 Safety Car phases owing to extreme heavy rain and accidents that caused the SLS AMG to cover some 32 laps – a greater percentage than ever before in the history of Formula 1.
The record for the deployment of the Safety Car in a F1 season stands at 21 outings in 19 races in 2010, when it covered 283 miles out of a total of 3584 race miles. By comparison, pace cars were deployed 265 times and covered 1839 miles out of a total of 14,537 race miles in 36 NASCAR races in the same year. Not as big a difference as one might have expected.
F1 Medical Car
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