Strategy under the safety car
When the safety car comes out, the whole field slows down and bunches up behind it. Cars on track are now losing a lot of time every lap, but the pit lane speed limit is the same as always. So a pit stop costs much less than usual compared with staying out. People call it a "cheap" stop, and sometimes a "free" one, although it's rarely completely free.
This is the moment strategists earn their money. They usually have a few seconds to decide, because the driver has to be told before they pass the pit entry.
Why a stop is cheaper
In normal racing, a pit stop costs around 20 to 25 seconds compared with driving past. Under a safety car, the cars on track are going so slowly that a driver who pits may lose only around half of that, sometimes less. They'll also rejoin a field that is bunched up, so the gaps they'd normally lose are closed up anyway.
The virtual safety car works in a similar way. Everyone has to slow to a set speed, but the field doesn't bunch up. A stop under the VSC is still cheaper than usual, though the saving is usually smaller and the VSC can end suddenly, so the timing is more of a gamble.
Pit or stay out
The decision depends on where everyone is:
- If you were planning to stop soon anyway, pitting under the safety car is usually an easy call.
- If you've only just pitted, stopping again probably doesn't make sense, and you may lose places to drivers who haven't stopped yet. Being caught out like this is one of the worst bits of luck in F1.
- If you're leading, it's tricky. Pit, and a rival might stay out and take the lead. Stay out, and the cars behind can switch to fresh tyres and attack you at the restart.
- If your rivals pit, staying out gains track position but leaves you on older tyres.
Track position matters more at circuits where overtaking is hard. At those tracks, staying out is more tempting.
Double stacking
When both cars from a team are close together and want to pit, the second one has to queue behind the first in the pit box. This is called double stacking. It costs the second driver a few seconds but is often still worth it under a safety car.
Two famous examples
Abu Dhabi 2021
Lewis Hamilton led Max Verstappen late in the title-deciding race. When a crash brought out the safety car with a few laps left, Red Bull pitted Verstappen for new soft tyres. Mercedes kept Hamilton out on worn hards to protect track position, partly because they didn't expect the race to restart before the end.
The race director then allowed only the lapped cars between the two leaders to unlap themselves and restarted the race for one final lap. On fresh softs Verstappen passed Hamilton and won the championship. The FIA later accepted the safety car procedure hadn't been applied correctly, and the race director was replaced.
Monza 2020
A car stopped near the pit entry, and race control closed the pit lane while the safety car was deployed. Hamilton and Antonio Giovinazzi pitted anyway, not having seen the signal, and both got stop-go penalties. Pierre Gasly had pitted just before the safety car and was well placed when the order shuffled. He went on to win for AlphaTauri.
Red flags and free tyre changes
When a race is stopped with a red flag, cars return to the pit lane and teams are allowed to change tyres. That makes a red flag a truly free stop.
A tyre change during a red flag also counts towards the two-compound rule. At Monaco in 2024, the race was stopped on the first lap. Every driver changed tyres during the stoppage, which meant they'd already met the rule and could run to the end without pitting again. Charles Leclerc led from start to finish.
Because of this, a red flag can be very unfair to drivers who pitted a lap or two before it. They've paid the full cost of a stop, while everyone else gets one for nothing.
The restart
The other half of safety car strategy is the restart. The leader controls the pace once the safety car's lights go out, and can choose when to accelerate to catch the drivers behind off guard. Drivers on fresh tyres have an advantage but also need to get heat into them, while drivers on old tyres try to get a gap before they're caught.
Under the 2026 rules, the overtake mode is switched off during the safety car and comes back on once the safety car has gone in and the cars have crossed the line. That means the first few corners after a restart rely on normal energy use, and how much battery each driver has saved can make a difference.