Former McLaren test driver and '05 German Touring Car Championship (DTM) champion Gary Paffett said that F1's new points-based super license system for '16 "is flawed and needs a rethink," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. The 33-year-old Brit said that the FIA "was wrong to ignore the DTM in a list of recognized feeder series."
The FIA has announced that from next year "new applicants must be over 18 and to have acquired at least 40 qualifying points from other series in the last three years to obtain the mandatory license." Only five series "will offer the chance to acquire 40 points in one year," and DTM -- which has had several ex-F1 drivers in its ranks over the years -- "was excluded entirely." Paffett: "I agree with the theory. But omitting certain championships, and especially the DTM, from the super license points system is quite a flaw" (REUTERS, 1/10).
NEW SAFETY FEATURE: NEWS LIMITED reported the use of a Virtual Safety Car system "has been ratified by Formula 1's rule makers and will be used during the 2015 season." The VSC "will be used to slow cars down in the event of an incident on the circuit, and was developed in response to Jules Bianchi’s tragic crash during last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, where the Frenchman crashed into a safety vehicle despite the warnings of yellow flags."
While it is not a replacement for the Safety Car, the VSC "gives race control another safe option to neutralise the race, and ensure the safety of trackside marshalls attending to an minor incident on the circuit, without having to deploy the Safety Car" (NEWS LIMITED, 1/9).
