Race Direction at the Six Hours of Imola: Technology and Safety on the Track

About twenty screens with zoomable images to check in real time what is happening on the track. And an international team lined up to decide in the name of safety and respect for the rules. We had the opportunity, thanks to Fia, to enter the beating heart of the Six Hours of Imola, the race direction. A few meters from the straight and at the beginning of the pit lane, an entire floor of the tower is dedicated with extensive use of technology to the body responsible for allowing the competition to take place.

The dialogue is continuous between all the components, to inform and evaluate the situations that arise on the track. The incorrect conduct of the drivers that can also lead to sanctions – see the demotion of Fuoco’s 499P for track limit in yesterday’s Hyperpole – but above all the states of danger due to accidents or slowdowns of cars. And it is continuous, by extension, the communication with all the marshals scattered along the 4.909 meters of the circuit. They are given instructions for intervention, in addition of course to establishing the conditions of red or yellow flag.

A lot of coolness is needed on all fronts in the race direction: a determination and a lucidity that match those of the protagonists behind the wheel in Imola.

Silence is mandatory when observing all the members of the management acting like an orchestra, each with a uniquely defined operation, leaving no room for interpretation. Inevitably, the instructions to all the personnel distributed along the route, precious and irreplaceable, must be free of uncertainties. The presence of the commissioners always remains fundamental and today also includes precise indications of operation on stationary vehicles, given that the electrical component also involves risks different from those of only thermal vehicles, fires first and foremost.

It goes without saying that the management's choices must combine the guarantee of safety with the need to allow the race, qualifying and free practice to develop as linearly as possible. We were able to witness the activation of a red flag for a broken single-seater, and then the new green light given to the drivers. In the intervening time, all the directives to clear the track were provided to the trackside personnel: specifying which means to use to remove the car and which route to choose to take it back to the pits.

We can think of the management as a sort of Big Brother, a good one though: fairness and safety are the cornerstones of its work. Of course, inflexibility is also needed. Yesterday's visit also gave us the measure of progress in motorsport. And let's think about how difficult it must have been to act as race controllers without the technology that is our friend today.

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