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Blue Flags (24 posts)

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Fixy said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Thanks @girts, then I think blue flags should remain. Passing is difficult already, and if there’s a backmarker who you’ve just lapped and he uses DRS and easily passes you again it’s just unfair. DRS is unfair to everyone, but unless the leader is slowing the lapped driver down he needs to be free to race without caring about further drivers.
Mika’s pass on Schumacher happened not because of the lapped driver, but because Michael went on the outside and Mika on the inside, and he would’ve passed him anyway, just that Schumacher couldn’t close the door as there was another car in between.

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Deleted User said 1 year, 6 months ago:

I think blue flags need to be in place in order to prevent teams using their number 2 drivers to potentially impact the result of a race. E.g. If Massa is not doing so well and is being lapped by the race leader, say, Lewis or Seb or a driver from another team and Alonso is coming 2nd. Then potentially, Massa is in a position to help his team mate win the race by hampering the leader or potentially colliding with them. You may get into a situation of feeding animosity between the drivers whereby a back marker has impacted the race result from a team instruction to assist his team mate win a race. I, for one, wouldn’t like to see this tactic come into play if the blue flags are relaxed or removed. If you look to relax the blue flag rule in conditions where two back markers are fighting for position it opens up a can of worms regards interpretation of the rule. Does it mean that two cars are fighting for position if they are within 1.5 secs of each other? Or less? Or more? The difference in the time gap varies depending on which part of the track, so there’s no consistent way to govern this. I’d say the current 3 flag warning is good enough.

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Joey-Poey said 1 year, 6 months ago:

I think the suggestion about lapped cars not going offline to defend is the most sensible. That is something that can be regulated. The one grey area could be whether the car being lapped is trying to pass someone ahead, but if you simply state they can’t even go offline for that pass, it’s still less obtrusive than the current rules. It also allows the leaders to not be artificially hampered, yet still requires a degree of skill in dealing with backmarkers.

I will say this in regards to all the complaints that it’s “not fair” to the leaders to be slowed by traffic. It’s equally not fair to the cars lower down to sacrifice their race for the leaders. “Punishing” them for being slow by making them go slower does not improve the racing. We already have people complaining that the lower teams are so slow, yet people are calling for them to bend over backwards and go slower to let others by. And frankly, it’s a circuit not a beginning-and-end course. The fact that you run into lapped traffic is part of racing on circuits inherently. If you think it shouldn’t be, then mayhaps it’s time you switched to rallying.

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W-K said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Question? Who or what actually decides when to start waving blue flags etc?

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BasCB said 1 year, 6 months ago:

lapped cars not going offline to defend is the most sensible

Agree with that one.

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Estesark said 1 year, 6 months ago:

I like the off-line idea too. Abolish blue flags, but then watch back-markers carefully to ensure they stick to their normal line. Hand out penalties if it is obvious they are defending too vigorously against (for example) drivers who are competing with their team-mates for position. It would be more work for the stewards, but that’s about the only down-side I can think of.

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JustAnF1Fanatic said 1 year, 6 months ago:

to be honest i think the blue flag rule works well as it is. If you are being lapped then as the slower driver you are responsible to ensure you dont hold up the leader. Its the same for every backmaker, only luck provides an advantage in the same way as it does throughout F1 and many other sports. As far as not being aware of people behind you , if the blue flags are not enough then your team should tell you that a leader is lapping you and you need to be aware. In F1 the rules are there and everyone abides by them, or bends them as far as they can as is the nature of sport

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JustAnF1Fanatic said 1 year, 6 months ago:

I also think that as a perk of having a team that builds a faster car than the rest of the field they deserve to not be held up (yes i believe in this world its not ur effort but you results that count)

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W-K said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Does this problem have something to do with the present day design of the cars.
The fastest cars going round twisty bits, where it is most difficult to pass, are the top three teams.
The fastest cars in a straight line, where the leaders should be overtaking, are not the top three teams.

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