The controversial safety car rules that have been in place for the past two seasons will be scrapped for 2009, with the pit lane to now remain open and drivers instead having to heed a minimum lap time on their return to the pits.
FIA race director Charlie Whiting confirmed the changes to the procedure on Tuesday, announcing that a change would be made in line with the simulations carried out by drivers at the end of several practice sessions last season.
Since being introduced at the start of the 2007 season, the hitherto safety car rules saw the pit lane closed at the start of a full caution period with any car refuelling during this time punished by a drive-through penalty.
The FIA implemented the change to stop drivers racing back to the pit lane, when there was a potential accident on track, in a bid to gain an advantage, but the rule proved increasingly unpopular as drivers were clobbered with a potentially race-wrecking penalty if the pit lane closure came during their refuelling window.
But now after admitting that rule change "was a bad one", Whiting confirmed the pit lane will revert to being open and a reduced speed will instead be achieved by cars running at an ECU-controlled pace.
Asked if the safety car rules would be changed for 2009, Whiting replied: "Yes.
"The rule introduced in 2007 was a bad one, and we've gone back to the 2006 regulations.
"The only difference is we intend to implement a minimum time back to the pits."
In the trial simulations carried out in 2008, drivers had five seconds to press a button on their steering wheel to activate an ECU-controlled mode after receiving notification of the safety car's presence from which they have to target a lap time displayed on their dashboard.
Whiting says this method will continue to ensure that there is no risk that drivers speed back to the pit lane.
"When we deploy the safety car, the message will go to all the cars, which will then have a "safety car" mode on their ECUs," he said.
"As soon as that message gets to the car, it'll know where it is on the circuit, and it'll calculate a minimum time for the driver to get back to the pits.
"The driver will have to respect this and the information will be displayed on his dashboard.
"If you remember, the reason we closed the pit entry was to remove the incentive for the driver to come back to his pit quickly.
"That's gone now, as you won't be able to reach the pits any quicker than your dashboard display allows you to."
While several potential alternatives to the then rules were floated during the course of last season, some drivers still voiced concerns that a maximum speed would not be the fairest solution.
Following the first tests of the system at the French Grand Prix in June, BMW's Robert Kubica told itv.com/f1 that he thought the system was "too complicated".
"What happens if someone has seen the safety car 200 metres later he activates [the speed limiter] a bit later and he will take advantage?" he added.
"The FIA have to check exactly which point where you were and if you really pressed the button in a reasonable amount of time, [and check] if you were not waiting to do 200 metres more which is always going to give someone an advantage."
Source: ITV.com/F1
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