Newbie question regarding hand signals

[Lastminuteracin]

As I start my formula car career after many years in a Superkart I have a safety question. Since I will now need to wear arm restraints how do you wave someone by? Or raise your hand to signal you are pitting, approaching an incident or slowing? Since you can't get your arm up over the roll bar or outside the cockpit sides what is the accepted procedure? I'm not sure how much a following driver can see by looking at your mirrors. For that matter I'm not sure how much I will be able to actually see out the mirrors :-)
Thanks for any advice.

[Marty Nygard]

The easy answer is to wear highly visible orange gloves!
The hard answer has two schools of thought. Fasten the restraints at your wrist to ensure that if you do a roll over you will break both of your elbows or fasten the restraints just above the elbow. In either case, leave enough slack so you can reach all cockpit controls and can also raise your orange gloves about to your ear level.
Good luck with your racing career/hobby.
M

[EYERACE]

As long as you can get your hand in a position over and above the side of the car where you're sitting and you have highly visible gloves...you're good. You don't need to get your arm way up high....we'll see your hand

[924RACR]

T Rex mode...

[RussMcB]

Considering (I think) F1 and IndyCar don't require them, I never worry too much about having tight straps restricting arm movement. IMO that might be more dangerous than the chance of injury to arms in a roll over.

I'm not sure about this - Is there wording in the GCR that states how short they need to be? Or is that left to us?

[problemchild]

I know this is one of those topics where we are not supposed to say out loud ....... but a large portion of our community will either slip them off on the out lap or have them so loose that they don't keep your arms restricted. Right or wrong, people are concerned that they will prevent necessary movement and/or will get hooked on interior snags such as your seat belt latch.

They are designed for midgets and sprint cars. We have all seen their spectacular end-over-end crashes. If people believe they are a legitimate safety item then they should certainly wear them and wear them tightened down to the point that you won't be able to give hand signals. No other formula car series in the world requires them including the RTI, Indycar, or F1. It was some do-gooder's bright idea to mandate them 30 years ago, and nobody has bothered to eliminate the rule. People will float out some nonsensical notion that insurance will require them, but many of the other series have the same insurance.

Hand signal etiquette is pretty much gone in club racing, partially because of the arm-restraint rule, but mainly because people today cannot be bothered. Some people will raise their arm as a brake signal if approaching an incident where braking is not expected. I still giggle thinking about a guy who spun is Kawasaki green car and ended up stalled backwards in the middle of the track around a blind corner, Worried that people would not see him, he kept is arm raised as a brake signal for two laps.

BTW, when the grid workers come up to you and do a chicken dance, they are checking/reminding you that arm restraints must be on. Very annoying when 3 different workers do it 2 minutes apart, but good crews coordinate their chicken dance moves. Nodding your head and wiggling your elbows is the acceptable response.

As was once pointed out by an upstanding member of the formula community, the rule says you have to wear them but does not specify that you need to wear them on your arms,

[FVRacer21]

I had a discussion with a tech inspector on this very topic. He was quite exasperated when he read the GCR and realized we have to have them, but there is no guide to how to wear or condition check.

At that point he just threw up his hands! (pun intended )

ChrisZ

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Right or wrong, people are concerned that they will prevent necessary movement and/or will get hooked on interior snags such as your seat belt latch.

A valid concern. They certainly can restrict the full release of belts in an emergency. Additionally I have had near-offs because they get caught on something and had to one-hand it through a turn.

I haven't use the benefit from wearing them, but then I haven't used my helmet to it's full potential either and I keep putting that on. I wear them mid-forearm and loose enough that I can hand signal.

[DanW]

Photo below is someone's bad day at the Reunion last year. Waaaay too late braking into Turn 11. Climbed someone else's rear wheel and went flying. I have about 5 seconds of video on my phone.

Sliding on pavement the back of his hands were sliding on the pavement and peeled his gloves off and the skin down to the bones. He suffered a broken wrist, broken shoulder. He didn't like his shoulder belts tight either.

[RussMcB]

Photo below is someone's bad day at the Reunion last year. Waaaay too late braking into Turn 11. Climbed someone else's rear wheel and went flying. I have about 5 seconds of video on my phone.

Sliding on pavement the back of his hands were sliding on the pavement and peeled his gloves off and the skin down to the bones. He suffered a broken wrist, broken shoulder. He didn't like his shoulder belts tight either.

I'm curious if he had/didn't have arm restraints on.

I'm also thinking they would not have helped much.

[TimH]

I'm curious if he had/didn't have arm restraints on.
I'm also thinking they would not have helped much.

The photo sure doesn't show any. But most restraints would have allowed that position.

[DanW]

The photo sure doesn't show any. But most restraints would have allowed that position.

No arm restraints, driver’s shoulder belts were very loose which allowed his shoulders and arms to extend out of the cockpit further than if the belts were tight. There’s no forward roll hoop either.