IndyCar adjusts FCY rule after Rossi incident

IndyCar Officiating Incorporated (IOI) has announced a change in how its Race Control team will handle situations like the one that arose during Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix where the stricken car of Alexander Rossi was covered first with a local yellow while attempting to leave the pits open for the leader and then a full-course yellow (FCY) which closed the pits.

“Effective immediately, IndyCar Officiating will no longer take into consideration pit window and the running order of cars on track before deploying a FCY,” IOI said. “While there is no change to local yellow procedures, initiation of a FCY will be based primarily on: driver status, vehicle position and condition, the location and readiness of safety personnel, recovery access, and the speed differential between affected cars and approaching traffic.”

Independent Officiating Board chair Raj Nair acknowledged the shortcomings in Race Control’s handling of the situation with Rossi and the No. 20 ECR Chevy, which played out on the FOX broadcast in a less than complimentary manner.

“The Lap 21 incident on Saturday made clear that there needs to be a cleaner standard for how race control moves from a local to a full course yellow,” Nair said. “IndyCar Officiating, with IndyCar’s full support, has made this change of approach to ensure that the only inputs to the full course yellow escalation are safety ones. Streamlining the assessment will also save time as competitive considerations are no longer a factor.”

IndyCar president Doug Boles is pleased with the change of approach.

“The most important job in race control is to ensure the safety of our drivers, crews, safety workers and fans,” he said. “Saturday highlighted that we must not waver from that central mission and aligning everyone on that philosophy was critical to discuss over the last 48 hours. The Independent Officiating Board, the new managing director of officiating, race director and IndyCar are all in agreement and the metrics used to determine when to initiate a full course yellow will now ensure that when there is any risk to driver safety that race control will initiate a full course yellow.”