
Chinese: 
法國大賽，保羅·里卡爾賽道，他最廣受眾人周知的
就是他那充滿藍紅條紋的賽道外側緩衝區域。雖然坐實了全世界最安全賽道的寶座
但過於廣闊的柏油緩衝區域，還是招來不少罵聲。
那麼，為甚麼我們會發展出這樣的緩衝區設計?這真的是最佳解嗎?
先前，我們探討過輪胎牆是如何能夠在車手高速衝出賽道時，確保他們及所有周遭人員的生命安全
另一個控制風險的關鍵要素
就落在賽道之間，或緊鄰其左右兩側-我們俗稱的緩衝區
緩衝區的最大目的，就是增加賽道本身，與任何可能發生撞擊的障礙物之間的距離
增加這個距離
能夠為車輛的減速爭取更多時間
所以賽車若不是以相對較低的速度衝撞護欄，就是根本不會碰撞
過去很長一段時間，各賽道在緩衝區的選擇上，走的是"天然的尚好"取向-亦即大量使用草地及碎石區
草地是最最直接的方法，因為他們早就長在賽道周圍了
可惜的是，草地是相當滑溜的，這在雨天特別明顯
和乾燥的賽道表面相比

English: 
The most striking part of the Paul Ricard
circuit, host of the French Grand Prix, is
its seas of blue and red run off areas. The
circuit boasts the supposed safest racetrack
facilities in the world, but massive expanses
of tarmac run off have often been criticised
in modern racing. So how did we get here,
and are they the best solution?
We’ve previously looked at barriers and
their roles in protecting drivers and others
when cars accidentally leave the track at
high speed. Another key part of controlling
accidents ae in the areas around and between
the actual track - that is the run off areas
in all their many guises.
The point of a run off area is to increase
the distance between the track and anything
the cars might hit at high speeds.
Increasing this distance gives the car more
time to slow down so it either hits the barrier
at a much slower speed, or it doesn’t hit
the barrier at all.
For a long time, circuits used ‘natural’
style run off areas of grass and gravel.
Grass was an easy solution as it tended to
already be growing around the track anyway.
Unfortunately, grass is very slippery, especially
in the wet. Compared to the track surface,

Chinese: 
草地的煞車效果是其1/3，甚至還不到潮濕賽道的一半
大家都知道，草是長在土裡的
在極端天氣條件下，土壤會吸收更多的水分，使的整個賽道周圍變成一片沼澤
就像我們在當年那場4月份舉辦的英國大賽中看到的(註:2000年英國大獎賽)
草地一但因為事故意外而被摧毀，基本上也很難修復
事實上，你能做的只有丟一些種子上去...然後等待，除非你想要把整片草地重鋪
草地目前廣泛地被運用在賽車不會高速衝出賽道的位置
例如直線的兩側，或彎道的內側
雖然，人工草皮有時會出現在路緣石的外側
但這並不是全無問題
他們有時候比真的草皮還滑，甚至還時常抵擋不了當代F1賽車產生的極端拉扯力量
碎石堆和草地相反，往往會出現在賽車"會"高速衝出賽道的位置
在長直線的尾端，在高速彎的外側...之類
約25公分深，單顆直徑1~2公分的小碎石
碎石堆的減速性能可說是完全輾壓沒三小路用的草地

English: 
stopping power of grass can be over three
times weaker than a dry track and twice as
bad as a wet track.
You keen ecologists out there might know that
grass grows in soil, which has a tendency
to soak up rainwater and turn it into a bog
under extreme weather as we discovered when
the British Grand Prix was moved to April
for one ill-judged year.
Grass is not easily repairable if ruined by
cars running off track - in fact you tend
to just have to throw some more seed on it
and… wait. Either that or re-turf the whole
area.
Grass is mostly used now in areas where cars
are not likely to fly off the circuit at high
speeds, like the edges of straights or the
insides of corners.
Though artificial grass is also used sometimes
on the skirts of tracks and around kerbing
it is not without its own problems. It can
often be more slippery than real grass and
can be ripped from the track by the extreme
forces of an F1 car.
Gravel traps were put into the areas where
a car was likely to fly off the road: at the
end of long straights, around high speed corners
- that kind of thing.
About a quarter of a metre deep and filled
with stones a centimetre or two across, gravel
traps were implemented as a better deceleration
tool than the useless grass.

English: 
They too are much less grippy than the actual
track surface though, and one of their main
problems remains that cars at high speed can
skip across the surface of the gravel, barely
losing speed at all.
In 1999, Michael Schumacher ploughed straight
across the gravel trap at the end of Stowe,
hit the wall at over 100 miles per hour and
broke his leg.
See, if a car is going straight ahead, it’s
very hard for the gravel to slow the car down
because the individual stones in the gravel
trap are not bound to each other and are very
small, so when you brake on these stones,
you drag them with you and they barely absorb
any of your momentum.
On tarmac, all of the frictional force is
going into the ground and you’re getting
maximum resistance from the track on your
wheels.
On gravel, these surface stones will resist
very slightly but get dragged with you. They’ll
be resisted slightly by the next layer but
only just, and so on and so on, so the gravel
can only resist your momentum very weakly,
and very gradually.
Gravel traps can be raked perpendicularly
to the expected direction of a car’s travel,
which adds some undulation to the gravel - in
effect making tiny walls that will be able

Chinese: 
然而，碎石堆的磨擦係數，終究是比賽道本身還低
高速移動的賽車，因而很有可能會一路衝過碎石區，絲毫沒有減速的情況下撞上護欄，這是他最大的問題
1999年，Michael Schumacher在Stowe彎角失控，在碎石堆毫無減速效果的情況下
以超過160公里的時速撞擊輪胎牆，因此造成腿部骨折
由此可見，一旦車輛是直線前進
碎石堆是非常難有效地將賽車減速下來的
因為碎石堆的個別石礫不但細小，彼此間也並無相連
當車手在碎石堆裡踩煞車時，會連帶把石礫一起帶著走，如此也就喪失吸收動能的效果
反之，當車手在柏油路面上煞車，地面會給予完全的反作用力
輪胎將因此得到完全的制動效果
碎石堆中，最表面的小石礫們，最喜歡跟著車子走
下一層的石礫們，也只會給予上一層的同伴些許的阻力
因此，碎石堆只能十分緩慢且微弱的吸收掉失控賽車所產生的動能
碎石堆可以加上垂直於車輛前進方向的溝壑
並藉著這些波紋，提升整體的阻力

English: 
to push back against the car and absorb this
forward energy.
When gravel traps can be effective is if a
car starts to spin or pitch slightly. In these
instances, the car’s movement will start
to have a directional component into the gravel
and its kinetic energy can be dissipated into
its depths, with many, many stones absorbing
the kinetic energy of the car.
In fact, gravel will stop a rolling or spinning
car much faster than tarmac tends to.
However, a gravel trap is also much more likely
to pitch a car into a roll in the first place.
If a car starts sliding or spinning sideways
through the gravel, it can create a wall of
gravel which trips up the car and sends it
into a roll. Which is undesirable.
Gravel also has the unfortunate problem of
‘beaching’ a car. This is when the tyres
can’t get enough grip on the gravel to get
moving again. Similarly to before, the surface
layers of gravel do not provide enough friction
to transfer momentum to the rest of the car
to get it moving. Instead they just fly out
from under the wheels.
This can be made doubly worse if the car ends

Chinese: 
吸收更多車輛的前進動能
不過，一旦車輛開始打滑或翻滾，碎石堆就成了最佳的防禦利器
在這樣的情況下，碎石堆會承受垂直方向的力量
賽車的整體動能將會分散、深入地傳進多層石礫之中
事實上，單純就防止賽車打滑或翻滾的能力上
碎石堆遠比柏油路面還來的出色
然而，碎石堆卻同時也很容易讓失控的賽車陷入翻滾的危機
當賽車開始側滑時，小碎石們非常容易築起一道城牆，並讓車輛翻越他們，如此情況就不慎理想了......
碎石堆同時也很容易讓賽車"擱淺"
這是肇因於輪胎無法獲得足夠的抓地力來脫離小碎石們的懷抱
正如同前面所述，表層的小石礫們無法提供足夠的摩擦力
用以轉換成車輛前進所必需的動能
反之，他們就是一個個的從輪胎後面飛出

Chinese: 
而當賽車剛好卡在碎石堆的"隆起"處時，情況只會更難搞
被抬升的輪胎，將更不可能提供足夠的力量
幫助車輛脫困
總而言之，碎石堆最大的問題就是 1.容易讓車輛翻滾 2.容易讓車輛擱淺，車手可能會因為小失誤而付出極大代價
此外，小碎石們也需要接受許多額外的照料，因為每當有賽車衝進去，賽場的工作人員都必須把石礫重新整理一遍
更有甚者，成功從碎石堆脫困的賽車，很容易把小石礫們帶到賽道上逛大街
此舉很可能造成壓過小碎石的後車爆胎，甚至是更嚴重的打滑意外
有上述這些缺點也就罷了，碎石堆本身的減速效果也不是那麼理想，所以基本上這就不是什麼太好的主意了
於是乎，接著出現的便是柏油路面緩衝區，這當然也有它自己的問題
第一點，也是最重要的一點，柏油路面是最安全的緩衝區設計
他抓地力不但充足，而且還非常穩定，並具有高度可預測性
畢竟，這種緩衝區所用的材料就和賽道用的一模一樣
所以，當賽車在上面煞車、轉向時，車輛的動態幾乎能被車手完全掌握
然而，其衍伸的問題就是車手會把這塊多出來的路面當成額外的行駛空間
也就不覺得駛離賽道事件什麼大不了的問題
更糟的情況是，離開賽道反而能讓車手得利

English: 
up shifting the gravel beneath it such that
the car floor rests on a mound, lifting the
wheels out of the gravel slightly so they
can not push into the ground with enough force
to drive into them.
So gravel can roll and beach a car, which
is bad because you don’t really want to
eliminate or damage a car for a simply mistake.
They also end up requiring a lot of tending
to as they need to be re-raked or refilled
if cars make a mess of them. Cars can also
drag the gravel out onto the circuit which
ends up being a spin or puncture hazard to
cars going past at race speed.
And above all, they don’t even slow the
cars down that well. So they’re a bit rubbish
in a lot of ways.
So we come to tarmac run offs that come with
their own set of compromises.
First and foremost, they are the safest form
of run off.
They are grippy, stable and predictable as
they are essentially made of exactly the same
material as the race track itself, so a car
can brake, steer and yes, even crash as it
was designed to.
However, this means that drivers treat them
like an extra bit of track, so running off
the circuit becomes no big deal.
Worse, it can even become advantageous to

English: 
leave the circuit. If the track is surrounded
by more tarmac, mis-braking into a chicane
and over-shooting has earned you a shortcut.
Overcooking it into a fast corner and running
wide on exit means you can keep your foot
down and actually go faster than if you took
the corner properly by taking the ‘wider
line’ you made for yourself on the outside.
The problem becomes how to police drivers
who don’t stay within the track limits.
Yes, it’s good that cars can keep running
if they make a mistake and run wide, and great
that their chances of having a big accident
are minimised but how do we make sure that
drivers don’t use what is essentially a
safety feature to gain a track advantage?
Some drivers have said it’s stupid that
circuits are made such that going off track
can be faster than staying on the track, but
to them I say - stay on the track. That’s
your job. It may be faster to straight line
a chicane but it’s also easier to pick up
a football and run into the goal. But it’s
against the rules - so don’t do it. What
a weird complaint.
One solution was installing big sausage kerbs
like speed bumps along the edge of the track
and across chicanes at problem zones. That’s
definitely a deterrent but comes with the
problem or damaging cars that run across them

Chinese: 
當賽道周遭都被柏油包圍，那麼切過減速S彎反而能抄捷徑
在高速彎道錯過進彎點而跑開，反而意味著車手能乾脆油門催到底
這能讓失誤的車手反而能比跑正規路線的車手，使用更快的速度過彎
如此一來，相關的問題便落到了裁判官們如何執法，懲罰那些透過不當手段得利的車手
沒錯，車手發生失誤、跑開之後還能繼續比賽很好
他們發生重大意外的風險顯著降低也是件很棒的事
但我們該用何種方法來確保車手不會利用這些安全措施來當成自己得利的手段?
有些車手會覺得"離開賽道"能夠比"待在賽道上"速度還快是件很愚蠢的事
但待在賽道上本來就是一個車手應盡的責任
切過減速S彎或許真的比較快，就像足球裡，直接撿起球帶進球門一定容易很多
這完全違反規則啊!!所以千萬別這麼做!!
真是個奇怪的抱怨......
其中一個解決方案就是在違規熱區的路緣石內、外側安裝類似"香腸"的減速路障
這絕對能造成一定程度的威嚇力
但這衍伸的問題就是-容易讓穿越他們的賽車受損

English: 
and potentially launching them into the air
if hit at speed, which is exactly the opposite
level of safety that a run off area is supposed
to provide.
In some cases, the FIA tried flattening kerbs
on the exit of corners but installing them
with sensors that detected if cars had run
wide. That’s fine but then you’re left
with the task of punishing drivers with some
kind of time penalty every time they go over
the limits. It’s better for drivers to be
hit with the penalty on track at the time
of the incident and get it over with. That’s
what some people like about gravel traps - they
serve instant punishment for mistakes.
Some tracks, most noticeably Yas Marina and
Paul Ricard have areas of super-grippy surfaces
on their run offs that are even better at
slowing the cars down but are very heavy on
tyre wear. This makes for easy flat spotting
and rubber damage if you brake across these
zones, which is certainly a penalty though
a potential race ruiner if it forces you into
an extra pit stop.
The best solutions in my opinion have been
the mandatory return routes.
These require drivers to take a specific detour
if they go off track at particular points.

Chinese: 
甚至有可能讓高速穿越的賽車起飛，這和追求安全的目標南轅北轍
(I Believe I can Fly, I Believe I can Touch the Sky)
在某些情況下，FIA會索性讓路緣石平整一些，並在上面加裝感應器
當車輛跑開時，感應器便會捕捉到車輛的動態
這本身沒什麼問題，但剩下的任務就是該決定車手要為此得到多少秒數的懲罰
平心而論，車手能夠因為他們的錯誤能得到立即性的損失，才是最佳的解決方法
這也是有些人喜歡碎石堆的原因
這些小石礫們會對車手的失誤給予立即性懲罰
部分賽道，特別是阿布達比和法國，他們在緩衝區選用的是抓地力超強的柏油路面
這更能夠有效的減緩賽車的速度，但也因此更容易造成輪胎磨耗
在這樣的路面上煞車，很容易在輪胎上產生磨平區，並對輪胎橡膠結構造成損害
連帶的懲罰便是犯錯的車手可能會因為這樣的失誤被迫多停一次站
我個人認為，最好的方式就是設定一個衝出賽道之後必須繞過的路徑
這會要求車手在衝出賽道後必須繞過一些指定區域

English: 
These could be in the form of having to navigate
a tight chicane of polystyrene boards, as
is the case for those who overshoot the opening
chicane at Monza.
You could also force a driver to stay inside
a line and/or drive around a bollard before
being allowed to return to the track, as is
the case for those sliding off track at turns
two at both Catalunya and Sochi.
These solutions are nice because you can design
a very exact level of punishment into the
return route and drivers can be penalised
without damage to the car or risk of retirement.
And once they’ve taken the hit, they can
move on with the race and we don’t have
to think about it again.
There are those who yearn for more gravel
traps but I think tarmac run offs are here
to stay for the long run. And all that matters
now is for the FIA to determine where drivers
can take an advantage by leaving the track
and implementing deterrents like return routes

Chinese: 
可能會有各種不同的方式，例如穿越交錯擺放的塑膠板
就好比車手在蒙薩賽道錯過第一彎減速彎之後必須穿過的那些
賽會也可以選擇規定，車手衝出賽道回歸之前，必須繞過某條線或某根路障柱
例如那些在加泰隆尼亞或索奇賽道第二彎衝出去的選手們
這是個很棒的解決方案，因為賽會可以在回歸路線上設計出各種等級的處罰條件
車手們也能在避免車輛受損的前提下成受應有的懲罰
且當他們繞路過後
他們可以繼續照常競賽，無須擔心後續還會再有判罰
當然，一定有很多人希望看到更多碎石堆
但我認為柏油緩衝區才是真正的長久之道
FIA也更應該致力於發掘哪些地方屬於車手容易藉由離開賽道而搏取利益的熱區，並適度增設回歸路徑
藉此讓比賽更佳的公平、公正~
翻譯:Osborn

English: 
where possible and horrible kerbing where
not.
