If you were watching last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix on Sky Sports, you may have heard resident pundit, and former F1 driver, Martin Brundle, talk about the necessity of having blue flags in the sport. The blue flag in F1 is waved at a driver to inform them that a faster car, that is a lap or laps ahead, is approaching behind them. The slower driver is then suppose to allow the faster driver through, with great haste and no resistance. If the slower driver fails to abide by this they will incur a penalty. Brundle questioned the function of it in modern F1, and whether or not it should be scrapped all together. In this article we shall look at the pros and cons of F1 without this, and ask the question does F1 really need blue flags.
Pros
Getting rid of the blue flags would bring more excitement into a Grand Prix. If the drivers have to overtake the back markers, and not be merely let past, then you will see racing throughout all the field, and not just for drivers jostling for grid positions. Over the years, drivers who lead races don’t have the platform to showcase their racing abilities. Making them have to overtake the back-markers would go a long way in solving this. It also means lapped drivers don’t have to worry about losing a place whilst letting a faster driver through. Another positive is that it would save on time and costs. How much time do marshals spend on waving blue flags during a Grand Prix weekend? With this procedure taken out of the equation, it would give the track marshals more scope to concentrate on the other tasks on hand.
Cons
If blue flags were scrapped, then how fair would the racing become? On a track like Monaco, where overtaking is seen as extremely difficult, then it might not be so easy for the faster drivers to pass. This might create a train effect, where the faster drivers are stuck behind the slower ones for the majority of the race. A driver can be caught by the next placed man if they encounter a back-marker on a tricky section of a circuit. Lets take the the Circuit Of The Americas for example. Driver A is 3 seconds ahead of Driver B, then comes up to lap Driver Z in the winding first sector of the lap. It would be highly likely that Driver A would be stuck and slowed down until they came onto the second section of the track, which would be the first proper opportunity to overtake. In this time, Driver B has closed up on Driver A. Another issue is, that if it not compulsory to let a driver through, then underhand tactics may come into play. If the faster driver coming up to the slower driver is a potential threat to their team’s championship ambitions, then the slower driver might make it tougher for the driver car to go by, and even try to spoil their race. Also, in a time that getting close to another car can cause heavy graining on tires, the leading drivers could see their race compromised. With the current format of qualifying, it would be hard to implement a rule without no blue flags, as you need them to instruct the drivers not on a quick lap, to move aside for a driver that is.
In conclusion, F1 without blue flags would certainly mix it up. You would see a lot more racing involved, with drivers displaying their full set of skills. On the other hand, getting rid off the safety net of blue flags would see incidents where drivers have their race nullified, and might create a lot of tension between teams. In a time where the fans and critics are moaning that F1 isn’t that exciting, then maybe that is what is needed.
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