You're in a faster car, it''s your job to find a way past the slower car. Blue flags should be stopped. A more level playing field for everyone ?
Ag, it's alright. It's just when a race gets boring the broadcast the whining. Suzuka is a tight and winding track, notorious for making lapping people painful. It's part of the race, the drivers shouldn't make such a fuzz about it.
Suzuka is a tight track, compared to Malaysia. I mean, the back markers can't come to a complete stop just to let them past. The drivers gotta figure somethings out, rather than hoping to be served on a silver spoon.
You do not understand the purpose of the blue flag. The blue flag is ONLY used when a car comes up to a car he is about to lap. That car, that is about to be lapped, is NOT in a race for position so quite rightly should not negatively affect a car that is a WHOLE lap or more ahead!!! It is not used when cars are racing for position. Pete ps: In my club racing days it was used when any car appeared to be faster than another, even when racing for position. The more experienced flaggies would stop waving the blue flag when two or more cars were racing in a battle lap after lap. But in F1 it is only used for passing back markers.
+1 getting paid to drive, all of them. Get past and move on. Its racing and its not anything new to any of them.
One day you keyboard racers will have your race ruined when you catch a back marker ... then you will understand the need for the blue flag, and why the drivers get so upset. Again passing a back marker, or lapping somebody, IS not racing. The back marker should just get the BEEP out of the way. Their pace is pathetic and they have no right to ruin anybody elses race. Pete
When I went to flag school, the blue was just to advise the slower car that someone was in an overtaking position - no obligation to change speed or line; is that still the case? Slower car has every MORAL obligation, in my view, to get out of the way...
When I raced in Ferrari Formula Classic, everyone understood that they are ALL in the SAME race on the same circuit at the same time. If you were quicker than the car in front, the onus was on you to PROVE it by overtaking a slower car, rather than whinging about it being difficult.
+1 +2 I don't race (yet), but do my fare share of online sim racing. Nothing is more irritating that battling for position and have some backmarker a lap or more down hold you up. You can't choose where a backmarker appears, so if the guy in front (or behind you) gets the backmarker on a straight, but you get him in (a set) of corners, it slows you down tremendously. How anyone can not understand this is beyond me. A backmarker, that is not even near the points, has no business getting in the way of people battling for wins, podiums or points. They caught you up because you're slower. If they've just put on a new set of boots, they can drive passed to unlap themselves, but only if they don't significantly hinder the driver they overtake. That's an actual rule. They can't overtake, push the driver they're unlapping wide etc. I'm unfamiliar with FFC, but are races really long enough to start lapping drivers?
I do not recall Mansell or Senna being assisted while passing back markers in a race. If a driver lacks racecraft, and is only quick in clear air, speed trials at Pikes Peak is a better format. Blue flags are yet another device which spoils today's F1 drivers.
Well they should be thankful for the blue flags first of all. Imagine if the FIA takes off the rules, and let them actually race and overtake backmarkers. I hardly doubt we will hear complaints about lack of overtakings
I don't know about that !! I think that would bring more hard feeling between drivers, and a few contacts ... A few decades away, Ken Tyrrell suggested to do away with ... wait for it ... rear view mirrors !! I cannot imagine the consequences from that, but he may have a point. If you don't know you are going to get passed, you don't drive defensibly, and you don't obstruct faster opponents.
+10000 In addition, as with highway traffic, slow people in the fast lane cause more accidents than fast people in the fast lane.
Another suggestion is that backmarkers could get eliminated when they are about to be caught by the leader, not to ruin the race? If a driver is within distance of being lapped he would be shown the blag flag and told to stop at the next lap. For him the race would be over. The race would be only among cars and drivers in the same lap, without any risk of interference from backmarkers.
Small teams would never agree: they'd loose time on TV. Furthermore, lapped drivers quite often are fighting for a few points.
I don't see why it is accepted that the slowest cars are eliminated during qualifications, but then it would become a problem during the race. Where is the logic? TV time is something you earn if you perform on the track, not for playing mobile chicane. Take today, 11 cars were lapped, from the 12th to the 22nd position. None of them was fighting for points. So, black-flagging them would have made no difference to their "point scoring". Also, it's not always small teams that are backmarkers; McLaren comes to mind!
I think this is problematic given that track lengths and conditions vary drastically and drive through penalties, etc. can put someone in a lapped position that might work his way up significantly, especially if it's early in the race. In motocross, Ricky Carmichael holds the record for lapping the most riders in a single race. He lapped 39. Every rider in the race.
We need blue flags, and drivers should actually pay attention to them. I race gokarts on occasion, last race I was fighting for the lead, very intense battle, until we started lapping people..I was on the leader for like 5 laps planning a move, we came up to a cart to lap, leader got by on the straight, but I was stuck behind the lapee for 2 laps. The lapee really ruined my race by blocking for 2 laps. Its amazing how much time you lose when stuck behind someone. By the time I worked myself back up, the race was ovah. So yea, from that perspective, I do see the need for blue flags.
In FFC I was once lapped by a Daytona LM Competition. No blue flags, but I did see the dual flames from it's side exhaust as it got by. It's driver had great racecraft and a faster car. He out-raced me, pure and simple, which is what racing is all about
The blue flag is to advise that a faster car is approaching. That's it. It is not an instruction to move over, slow down, speed up or anything else. That said, there is an understanding that a slower car should not interfere with a battle they're not a part of. Don't hold up cars that you're not competing with. But that said, where would you like the slower car to go? Drive off into the grass? Levitate off the track? In multi class racing like WEC and IMSA its common for different class leaders to come up on each other. The GTE Am car isn't going to press pause on his (or her) own battle for the class lead just to let the prototype go through without having to figure out a way around. But, I hear you say, F1 is not multi class. Well no. But there are still battles going in at the back of the field. Esteban Ocon or instance isn't going to just sacrifice an entire lap by blowing his line through the esses just to make sure Rosberg doesn't have to go a smidge off line. Ocon, like most of the back marker drivers, is out there to prove on every lap that he is faster than his team mate, in order to ensure he has a career in the sport. Taking a stupid line through certain corners, I'm thinking the esses at Suzuka or the esses at Road Atlanta, might let the car behind get by a tenth quicker, but can ruin your rhythm and lap time for an entire lap, perhaps costing a position. And that's even if they weren't in a battle for position to begin with. So I say certainly, show the blue flags, but don't expect the slower car to compromise themselves unduly just to protect the fragile egos of the big guns who can't wait a corner until there is room to get by.
You don't know your modern F1 very well do you? The blue flag can be shown to a slow car to warn them of a faster car approaching them from behind, but if they are racing for position on the same lap then there is no obligation for the slower car ahead to take any action. The blue flag can also be show to a car about to be lapped by a faster car, in which case the slower car must get out of the way of the faster car within three blue flags (supposedly!): (From: https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/understanding-f1-racing/Flags.html ): Blue flag "Warns a driver that he is about to be lapped and to let the faster car overtake. Pass three blue flags without complying and the driver risks being penalised. Blue lights are also displayed at the end of the pit lane when the pit exit is open and a car on track is approaching." One of the main reason's for the blue flags being introduced to force cars being lapped to get out of the way was because it had been noted that some back markers were allowing certain leading drivers to pass them instantly, and deliberately holding up other leading drivers for lap after lap, unfairly affecting race and Championship outcomes. It all boiled to a head in 1997 when teams were doing deals with certain other teams to allow their drivers to get past straight away, and then hold up a rival team. So when it came to the infamous race in Jerez in '97, Williams were doing deals with McLaren to allow Villeneuve to get past easily and hold up Schumacher wherever possible, and Ferrari were doing deals with Sauber to get Schumacher past instantly and then hold up Villeneuve. The FIA took a dim view of these tactics and eventually brought in the "three blue flag rule" for lapped driver to get out of the way or be penalised (along with other rules and regulations banning any inter-team co-operation on track), so that the title contenders and the fans could have a proper contest for the Championship, rather than one that was being manipulated by back marker teams who were helping their engine supplier out, or drivers helping out their mate by holding up his rival up. How would it be right if at every single race throughout this season, Lewis Hamilton got deliberately held up by back markers for 5~10 laps or more, and Rosberg was allowed through instantly by the same back markers? - Or if Rosberg got deliberately held up for lap after lap, and Hamilton was allowed through instantly? We'd wouldn't be saying it was great racing - We'd all be moaning about how the winner of the WDC only won it because the back markers leapt out of his way and held up his rival to allow him to win!
Great post. ...and even an off-pace driver can drive defensively and destroy someone's race without moving in the breaking zone or any dangerous blocking. This is especially true with the aero in modern F1. It will get stupid if people totally ignore blue flags. On the other hand, if you are on the lead lap, and the leader is approaching, you are really under no directive to allow yourself to go a lap down. But IMHO, you better be within a reasonable pace or you are a dip**** and someone might also get hurt. But opinions will vary on this last point.
A very funny coach once told me that a blue flag means: "There's a race going on...and you ain't in it!"
