safety car

American  

noun

Nautical.

1. life car.

---

Etymology

Origin of safety car

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

When an innocuous battle for ninth place led to a crash and the emergence of the safety car after Lap 7, most teams on track made the wise call to pit for a fresh set of tires.

From The Wall Street Journal

They had both cars disqualified for a technical error in Las Vegas and then, in Qatar, took the decision not to pit both cars at the same time under the safety car on lap seven when every other driver pitted.

From Barron's

When the safety car came out on lap seven, following a crash between Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine's Pierre Gasly, the obvious call was to pit for fresh tyres.

From BBC

The safety car came out when there were exactly 50 laps left.

From BBC

Given that stopping under a safety car saves nine seconds of race time over a pit stop under green-flag conditions, and that this would have been a one-stop race had it not been for Pirelli's prescriptions, a pit stop was a no-brainer.

From BBC