Since the deadly accident at Nurburgring VLN race back in March, German motor sport association has introduced speed limits throughout the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
No one should be upset about motor-sports sanctioning body caring or pretending to care about spectator safety, especially if this is considered to be only temporary measure.
What did cause outrage was owners deciding to apply same limits to all track activity, outside racing events and jurisdiction of any racing sanctioning body.
This decision has prevented manufacturers and independent media from performing any meaningful tests at the Nurburgring, effectively freezing the Nurburgring Nordschleife rankings and any attempts at beating Porsche 918 record, including an alleged attempt by Koenigsegg, just days after the limits were imposed.
It is important to note that there are crucial differences between race events and private tests or track days, and it is unclear why these speed limits should apply to both.
Street cars do not have the same aerodynamic properties of GT racecars. Most street cars do not have flat underside, and are not nearly as likely to "take off" like Jann Mardenborough's GT-R or Mark Webber's Mercedes CLK-GTR back in LeMans 1999.
Unlike race events, track days and private test sessions do not draw big crowds, and the likelihood of spectator being in wrong place at the wrong time is much smaller.
Some proposed "solutions" like slowing down GT racecars or modifying track layout seem even more outrageous than the speed limits.
Last thing any racecar needs is even more restrictions, and the speed differential between GTE and LMP1 cars is already dangerous enough as it is.
Track modification is just blasphemy and not even worth discussing.
If there was anything positive to take away from the tragic accident of March 28, it must be the proof of modern racecar safety. Jann Mardenborough walked away from the accident unharmed. All that was needed to prevent tragedy was more care for safety from the organisers.
All that is needed is to restrict specators from entering potentially dangerous areas, such as in front of braking zones or sharp, high-speed corners.
If track owners and event organisers could get their act together and keep spectators in check during both race events and track days, FIA could also step up and issue new regulations in aerodynamics that should limit the danger of cars flying over the barriers.
We have not recently seen any LMP1 cars "switching into airplane mode", yet they are getting faster every year.