F1 teams discuss if drivers need to be penalised for yellow/red flag

F1 team bosses are not clear if drivers need to be penalised when they end up causing a yellow or red flag during any competitive session.

While nothing was certain but there was talks around Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashing ‘deliberately’ in Monaco qualifying. The team and the driver put it down but not before a discussion in general about F1 drivers causing a yellow or red flag during sessions.

There is no given penalty for any driver yet because he or she already has his session ruined. But because others fall victim to it for no reason, some F1 drivers have called for penalties handed to drivers who cause it so that they are careful the next time.

This did ignite a discussion among F1 team bosses especially in the Commission meeting but there isn’t any decision yet because opinions are varied between them and it needs a full review to understand if a blanket penalty is applicable or not.

Here’s what the F1 team bosses have stated:

Mike Krack (Aston Martin): “I do not have a black and white opinion on this. I think we need to really look case-by-case, going to sporting advisory and maybe have a look at the last 10 years where we had situations, because it’s quite quick to pre-condemn someone, when it’s was not good. So yeah, I think it would be easy to say yeah, it has to be like that but I think it will be a tough call to do it.”

Christian Horner (Red Bull): “I think that the rationale in the Commission meeting was it goes back to the sporting directors and their forum to discuss the various scenarios, and then it’ll come back to the Commission to be debated again. So, there’s no clear output from the initial Commission.”

Laurent Rossi (Alpine): “What I could say even personally is that they penalise themselves anyways. So, I would imagine that you could perhaps extend the session by an extra lap or two, to allow for the others to finish their hot lap for instance, and the driver himself would not continue without any penalty. I don’t know, it could be an idea as well. But ,as Mike said, we need to have an extensive review. We shouldn’t be too quick at condemning a driver, or a team.

Zak Brown (McLaren): “I think it should be red flags or yellow flags, effectively impeding a driver from completing their lap. They do that in other forms of motorsports: you just lose your fastest lap from that session. All the drivers tend to do one lap runs anyway so that would penalise the driver if it was intentional or unintentional. Because you’ve messed up someone else’s lap, I think that’s an easy solution and it can be implemented right away.”

Here’s how the F1 2022 teams were categorised in ranking: https://formularapida.net/f1-2022-teams-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/

Here’s how the F1 2022 drivers were categorised in ranking: https://formularapida.net/f1-2022-drivers-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/

Here’s drivers’ list of Top 10 drivers

Here’s the team bosses list of Top 10 drivers

Here’s F1 sharing about qualifying format and more

Here’s first look at Drive to Survive S5

Here’s Mohammed Ben Sulayem surprised by adverse reaction to new teams

Here’s FIA expanding on Sporting Code changes

Here’s F1 2023 entry list