Full Course Yellow (FCY)

A Full Course Yellow neutralises the race by ordering every car on track to slow to 80 km/h simultaneously, wherever it is. Unlike a safety car, gaps between cars are frozen rather than erased, which makes it the fairer tool for incidents that need marshals on track but not a full field-gathering.

FCY periods are strategy pivots: pitting under one costs far less relative time than pitting at racing speed, so a well-timed stop under FCY can hand a car most of a pit stop for free. Race control's choice between FCY, slow zone and safety car often shapes the result as much as anything the drivers do.