F1 will now use red flag instead of double yellows in qualifying
FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed that, from now on, he will stop qualifying sessions if there are double waved yellow flags in order to prevent the sort of controversy generated by Nico Rosberg’s pole lap in Hungary.
Whiting said he would red flag the session in a case such as the Fernando Alonso spin that triggered the situation at the Hungaroring.
That would immediately neutralize the track, and even drivers who were ahead of the flags and not affected by them would have to abandon the laps they are on.
“That’s what I intend to do in the future, just to remove any discussion about whether a driver slowed down or not,” said Whiting. “I think most drivers decided to call it a day and stop their attempt at qualifying but, in Nico’s defense, he had only one yellow sector to go through, and that was a short one, whereas the other drivers had two yellow sectors to go through. So there is a difference.
“I just don’t want to get into these discussions where you need to try and decide whether a driver has slowed down enough. If you apply the double waved yellow flag rule absolutely to the letter it says you must be prepared to stop. I think that’s a difficult one to call really. It’s a little unfair to those who were in front of Fernando and were trying to complete the lap, but that’s what happens when a red flag goes out any time.
“Pascal Wehrlein was caught out by the third red flag in Q1. He was about to set a time and a red flag came out less than a second before [the line], and his time didn’t count. That’s what happens, unfortunately.”
Whiting conceded that drivers will always have the opportunity to create a red flag to further their own interests.
“If we had any suspicion that a driver had done it on purpose, that would be quite a serious offence. Fernando spun, as you know, he was across the curb, half on the track, half on the curb. It was without any doubt a double waved yellow flag scenario. I think it was all done correctly.
“At the time, you don’t know if he’s going to get going again. You listen on the radio, but they’re not saying anything. So you don’t know what’s going to happen, so you have to wait a little bit. And then all of a sudden, he’s going. If we knew that the engine had stopped, it would have been a red flag immediately, but you have to wait a few seconds to find out what’s going to happen next.
“When there’s a dangerous situation on the track, you need to attend to it. There could be marshals there, for example. That would have been a double waved yellow flag in that second sector. I think if we just say in those circumstances in the future we are going to stop the session, to make sure that the driver and the car can be recovered in complete safety, then that’s what we’ll do.”
