Why are safety cars needed?

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Why are safety cars needed in Motorsports?

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Safety car
It takes a significant period of time ( 15 to 20 minutes) to restart a F1 car once the engine has stopped as many systems have to be rebooted.

Unless there is a very major accident it is often preferable to keep the cars moving on the circuit at reduced speed using a safety car to control this speed.

The Race Director is in constant contact with the safety car so he knows where the cars are on the circuit at any given moment.
This means when needed all the cars can be brought into the pits in one move rather than have the cars arriving individually.
He can also bring the safety Car in to restart the race with minimum delay.

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