Safety Car

In F1 if the safety car crashes do they stop the race?

my wife is an F1 fan and she said that if the safety car is called out and it crashed while leading the pack that the medical car would take over but i argue if the safety car crashed Charlie whiting would have no option but to stop the race who is right??
also what does the second guy in the safety car actually do? ballast?

It is an interesting question and I don't think it has been thought of by the powers that be in F1 as it could be one of those things that they believe 'could never happen'.

They can't use the medical car as it may be needed for a medical emergency.

It is possible they would have a back up safety car which could be used but if this is not possible then either the race will continue with the whole track under double waved yellows (slow down no overtaking) or more likely the race would be red flagged and stopped.

After the incident has been cleared, if possible, the race would restart from a grid start and the new number of laps calculated.

As for the second person in the safety car - yes it is to make sure the weight in the car is as evenly distributed as possible to the car won't turn over when cornering. Whilst the safety car doesn't go as fast as the F1 cars do at full race speed it's still faster than it would go on any road or motorway