The SR system gets an awful lot more flak than I think it ought to.
No machine based system is able to attribute blame in the infinite number of situations that may arise on a racetrack - It's rarely an exclusively objective call to make, as it so often comes down to two drivers both firmly believing that their actions were the right thing to do.
The alternative is to have live stewarding, which in the absolute top drawer "class 1" leagues I expect to see becoming more prevalent over the next few years, but it's just not feasible for day to day operations, especially bearing in mind the massive scope of the iRacing service.
But don't think of it as a result of a technical obstacle, instead consider this way of thinking:
A wreck occurs in front of you. You try to brake as hard as possible to avoid speeding into it, but in doing so lock your rear tyres, spin, and collect someone else trying to take evasive action behind you. 4x - Car Contact.
Now, the question to ask yourself is this:
How could I have acted differently in that situation?
Let's look at that scenario again:
A wreck occurs in front of you.
Maybe I could have seen that an incident would occur based upon observing the driving or network conditions of those drivers previously. Perhaps I should've born that in mind and been mentally preparing myself just in case they tagged up ahead.
You try to brake as hard as possible to avoid speeding into it, but in doing so lock your rear tyres.
Maybe I should sacrifice a little bit of the handling characteristics of a rearward brake bias to ensure that if I do need to jump on the brakes very firmly and very quickly, I can still control the car comfortably - and if I need to do that in a corner where the car is loaded up and jumping on the brakes will lead to a spin, I should consider that and be prepared to modulate my braking accordingly or null out the weight transfer if I have the room. Maybe I had other options to open an escape route rather than heavy braking in the first place.
You collect someone else trying to take evasive action behind you.
Maybe I should've changed my path initially so that whoever was behind me has some form of escape route open ahead of him in case he reacts slowly or otherwise differently to me. Although my attention is centred on the unfolding incident in front quite rightly, I should still be conscious of what other people are doing in my mirrors and able to react accordingly if need be.
Another situation:
You come around a blind corner and find someone on the grass near the outside of the corner. You continue on your normal line as he's safely out of the way, but unexpectedly he attempts to rejoin the track just as you get there. 4x car contact.
Maybe the relative screen would have alerted me to the incident before any yellow flags did had I been watching it closer, and perhaps if I hadn't made the assumption that he was out of the way, I would have changed my line to give him as much space as possible to recover onto the extreme outside of the track if he so chose. A dab on the brakes as soon as I saw him would have given me a little more time to assess the situation as well.
In both of these cases, other people were at fault but there are things you can do to help remove yourself from their mess. Sure, they're not always viable, indeed sometimes there is nothing you can do and that's life, but in most cases you can rewind and pick out a few things you could have done differently both physically and mentally - both at the moment of the incident and some time before it - if you were put in that set of circumstances again.
In my opinion, when you combine the system with this kind of mentality then it makes a great deal more sense.
