Concern for the safety of track marshalls was one of the key talking points following the culmination of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who saw firsthand the danger posed by the cars to the marshalls, came up with a rather intriguing idea to make F1 racing safer for all those involved.

Rather than pointing fingers, Vettel said, “I think we should focus more on the solution.”

To lend some context, As the marshalls gathered out on track to clean up debris during the safety car period, they came perilously close to being hit by cars that were un-lapping themselves.

Using the help of technology available, the 4-times world champion thinks that such incidents can be avoided in the future.

“I think the reason why we are physically un-lapping ourselves is because we can’t work out a software which actually just resets us. So we have to do the extra lap.

“So I guess going forward we would just probably put some effort into a software that the lapped cars are not forced to physically un-lap themselves, but you can just reset the lap on the screen and put them in the place that they are. I think that would be the solution,” said Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel very sure of software oriented solution being the cure for safety concerns

The Ferrari man believes that the world has made sufficient technological progress to suggest that those looking out for the safety of drivers can be assured of their own safety as well.

Vettel added,  “I think we should just focus on the solution which I believe is purely software-related. And given that it’s 2020 I think it should be possible.”

Vettel has certainly given the FIA some food for thought. The idea is an interesting one and shouldn’t face too much opposition. After all, it only improves the safety of the sport.

However, one concern it could raise is that all drivers wouldn’t have physically completed the same amount of laps. This could possibly benefit un-lapped drivers from a tire wear-out point of view. They’d be on one lap fresher tires for the remainder of the race.

Nevertheless, the idea seems worth deliberating.