[forzaferrari]

I'd be concerned about the removal of blue flags with "B-teams" like Toro Rosso and Sauber Alfa Romeo on the grid, also Haas. Just don't like the idea of back markers moving out of the way for parent teams and then holding the opposition up. It used to happen in the past. For the record, if we went back to the old delta percentages at some races this season we'd have lost some of the back markers. I'm not sure the blue flag situation in F1 is right, but we ought to be careful we don't go to something worse. Around Albert Park for instance this year I'm not sure the front runners could get past the back markers without assistance. Is that what we really want? A procession of cars going nowhere stuck behind Lance Stroll or Sirotkin?

Spot on, as much as I dislike blue flags and would love to see the back of them there would/could be situations where the track makes it almost impossible to pass even much slower cars...not sure what the answer is....on the flip side we often see drivers nowhere near the back of other cars screaming "blue flags, blue flags" almost expecting cars to jump out of the way long before its needed.

edit: or top tier teams using "b teams" tactically....maybe contacting "b teams" via text cough, cough

[morini]

I've already commented that if blue flags go then the speed differential between fastest and slowest needs to decrease (a lot!). That isn't really in the interest of promoting the sport and getting more teams to participate. It isn't a simple debate. Blue flags are a means to and end really. Getting through back-markers is a skill, but modern aero and modern tracks makes it much, much more difficult than bygone eras.

Me 2p, I don't want to see back-markers deciding races. I'd rather the fast drivers do it on merit.

[LotusLover]

We pay for this shit people!!!

I dont pay for it...."out of principle"

me neither mate I would be screwing paying for this lol

[PapaofGags]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/grosj...g/3178455/

Whilst we are on the subject

Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting believes Romain Grosjean committed “one of the worst cases” of ignoring blue flags he has seen in a long time at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Grosjean received a five-second penalty and two licence penalty points for ignoring blue flags while race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were catching and trying to get past.

The Haas driver then became embroiled in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Sergey Sirotkin, eventually passing the Williams before letting Hamilton and Verstappen through.

“Romain just completely forgot the golden rule of blue flags,” said Whiting.
“And that is if you are in a battle you’ve got to forget about your own battle and move over.
“I’ve drilled that into them many times, and I think he completely forgot about it.
“He was so intent on his battle with Sirotkin that he just – the light panels were flashing with his race number on them – and Lewis was much much faster.

“It was probably one of the worst cases of ignoring blue flags that I’ve seen for a long time.”
Grosjean apologised after the race, and admitted that he was embroiled in his own battle.

“I’m sorry if I blocked anyone, it was not my intention,” said the Frenchman.

Grosjean’s penalty points mean he is three away from receiving enough to warrant a race ban, with the Russian, Japanese, US and Mexican Grands Prix all taking place before any of his current running total of licence points elapse.

[Jody Barton]

He actually received 3 penalty points on his license, and he deserved them for me. He was receiving blue flags for almost two laps apparently, Hartly ignored 12 blue flags as well. Whether you like them or not, they are there, and they are currently part of the sport, and Grosjean ignoring them for almost 2 laps is just wrong. Just yet another reason for me to dislike the prick.

However, you could see Lewis actually had to force his way past, and it took Grosjean a little while to realise what was happening, do we really want a driver who is so unobservant on the grid? I guess that's another debate... but as to blue flags, I think we saw today that they are needed, no matter what people say, these current regulations do not really allow for great speed differentials, at Monza the blue flags were utterly meaningless, the top teams breezed past anyway, but somewhere like Singapore the car fills up half the width of the track, and when you have two utterly shit drivers like Sirotkin and Grosjean fouling up the place I think they need to be told to get out of the way.

[morini]

He was receiving blue flags for almost two laps apparently,

Now I wasn't aware of that. I was giving that "traffic problem" the benefit of the doubt (as they were having a ding dong battle), but if there'd been 12 previous blue flags then I'm sorry, penalty justified.

[LotusLover]

Rules are rules so fair enough

---

So can anyone enlighten me as to if Senna Mansell has to negotiate back markers please.

@Jody nice facts about blue markers I never knew that(on shitapore thread)

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Just to clarify a bit, on todays, blue flag incident - Lewis himself, said he struggled to see them under the lights, it wasn't until, the flashing lights "Thingy" came on that he could see them himself, and that was why he didn't blame those involved, so that may account for the extra lap, when the back markers, were battling each other

That said, as for LL's question, I have no examples, of Senna or Mansell getting through blue flags

[PapaofGags]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-s...s/3178785/

Formula 1 has no need to change its blue flag rules, says race director Charlie Whiting, despite complaints from drivers about the difficulties of passing backmarkers in the Singapore Grand Prix.

But Whiting thinks the current time margin is right, and any move to increase it would just end up ruining the races of the slower cars.
Asked by Motorsport.com about the situation, he said: "This time last year it was one second, and we had discussions, and we opened it up to 1.2s.

"I don't think we should go any more than that, because then you get into a situation where a driver has to back off and lose a lot more time than he really should to let the other car through, if he's got to do it at his earliest opportunity.

"I think it's reasonable to expect that a driver can get within 1.2 seconds," he said. "Everyone else did except Valtteri.

"I don't know why that was. Maybe his car wasn't exactly how he wanted it. I spoke to him earlier and he said he just couldn't make any headway. That's not our problem, without wishing to sound unkind.

"Everyone else was abiding by that and had to work to that, so we couldn't make an exception for him."

[Barry Malawi]

Wouldn't a simple rule change to say you're not allowed to overtake if you have blue flags waving at you do the trick?  That way the leading car in the slower car scrap wouldn't have to worry about giving away a place by moving over to let the lapping car through.  Once the lapping car is clear and the blue flags are put away racing can continue as before.

If the second slower car does overtake he should have to give the position back or suffer a penalty, as they do when they cut corners etc.