The Formula 1 stewards are on the front lines of the races, in posts around the track, armed with flags and buttons to warn of danger in a fraction of a second.
Warning flags first came to F1 in 1963 , and now an electronic signaling system is also used that sends the warning to race management, trackside LED panels and cars.
There are a lot of different signals, so here is a review of what they are and what they are for.
Winning in Formula 1 is…
Rapper Stormzy waves the checkered flag to Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone
Checkered flag in F1
Everyone knows that it waves at the end of every race, qualifying or free practice, but when did it first appear?
Some say it was in the horse races, others that it was in the French bicycle races, but there is no proof of this. The first time it is recorded is in an automobile test in New York in 1906 , the Vanderbilt Cup.
However, you think that waving the checkered flag is easy, you are wrong.
On four occasions, the checkered flag appeared early : in Argentina in 1978, in Great Britain in 1985, in China in 2014 and in Canada in 2018.
In 2019, to avoid human error, this system was removed and a light panel was included. Although this did not fix the issues, as at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix , this panel was activated one lap before the finish, causing the flag to return.
Commissioner waves the double yellow flag
Yellow flag in F1
It is the most used. It means danger , and one or two are waved at the same time. When a marshal uses only one, it means that overtaking is not possible and there is danger ahead, and if he uses two, the drivers must be prepared to stop the car if necessary.
It is also used at the beginning of the race by the marshals on the pit wall to signal if there is a problem on the grid.
When the safety car, or its virtual version, comes out onto the track, signs with the acronym SC or VSC are placed above the flags to indicate that it is a period in which they must drive safely and at a certain pace.
Despite being a clear warning signal, in the heat of the battle, there have been cases in which Formula 1 drivers have not ignored the yellow flags, as happened with Max Verstappen or Valtteri Bottas in the Grand Prix. from Qatar.
Green flag
Green flag in F1
Maybe you can guess. It means all is well, and is used to indicate that the runway is clear. It appears on the marshal posts when the yellow flag disappears or when the danger ends on the track.
It is also waved to start practice or qualifying, and shown by a steward at the back of the grid when all the cars are in place. In addition, the green flag is shown when the safety car is in place to indicate a return to racing pace.
Red flag in F1
As the color suggests, it stops all activity on track. It is used when the track is blocked or the conditions to continue racing are too dangerous.
The first red flag waved in Formula 1 was in 1950 , the first season in history. It was in the Indianapolis 500 because of the rain, and since then, he has appeared in 77 more races.
The 2021 season has seen an incredible five red flags, the most since the world championships began. It appeared in Imola, Azerbaijan, Silverstone, Hungary and Belgium, the latter being the shortest race in all of Formula 1 history.
Flag with red and yellow lines in F1
This flag implies that the track is slippery because an area has spilled oil or a section with water.
White flag
White flag in F1
This means that there is a slow vehicle on the track, such as an ambulance, or even another Formula 1 car doing a simulated start.
One of the strangest times it was seen was in 2013 , when the FIA pulled a fire engine onto the track for a car that caught fire. Fortunately, event leader Sebastian Vettel slowed down after seeing this flag and safety car signs.
In other categories, the white flag means that it is the last lap of the race, but in F1 it is not like that.
Blue flag in F1
It is the one used to indicate to a driver that there is a car behind him that is going faster and that he is lapping him.
If the driver fails to let the faster car pass three times, he will receive a penalty. This happened to Nikita Mazepin at the Portuguese Grand Prix, or to Sergio Pérez and Daniil Kvyat in Spain.
The blue flag also appears at the pit lane exit to warn drivers that more single-seaters are joining the track.
Black flag with an orange circle in F1
It is not a very common flag, and it means that you have a serious problem.
It is waved to indicate to drivers that their car is damaged and could be a danger to others, so they must immediately pit to fix the car or retire.
Black and white diagonal flag in F1
This flag is for a single pilot, and is the equivalent of the yellow card in football. A single car is shown to warn of unsportsmanlike behaviour .
Lewis Hamilton was awarded this flag at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix for doing a switchback, which was later replaced with a radio message. It popped up again in 2019, with Pierre Gasly in Belgium, and most recently in Brazil in 2021, with Max Verstappen aggressively defending the lead against Hamilton and going wide at Turn 4.
black flag
Black flag in F1
It is the red card of Formula 1, and it means immediate expulsion , without the possibility of appeal. The driver must go to the pitlane and leave the race.
It is not seen much, in fact it has only appeared three times in the last 20 years.
In 2019 it was used in a free practice session when Haas asked to show it to their own cars! You’re probably wondering why, because the team had lost all radio communications and their drivers were ignoring the scoreboard on the Monaco finish straight.
The last time it was taught was at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, when Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella were sent off for running the red light at the pit exit.
Juan Pablo Montoya saw the black flag three years earlier when he jumped his disabled Williams from the grid to the garage to get into the spare car. This caused him to break the rule of being out of the box 15 seconds before the start.
Ayrton Senna suffered a similar thing at his home race in 1988, when his McLaren had a problem at the start. The Brazilian immediately went to pit lane to start the test, and the grandstand roared when he moved into second position halfway through it, but shortly after he saw the black flag.
They are not the only occasions in which the black flag has appeared in the Great Circus, since Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell received immediate expulsion from the race three times in their careers, the best known, for going backwards in the pits in 1989 in Portugal, after ignoring the flags and colliding with Senna, causing the Brazilian and the Briton to drop out.
Michael Schumacher missed out on a podium finish at the 1994 British GP because he didn’t respect the rule of not overtaking the pole position driver during the formation lap, and he did so twice. Although the German returned to his starting position, in second place, he was penalized with a stop and go .
He stayed on the track while the team argued the case in his defense. The stewards showed him the black flag repeatedly, but he went up to the podium, lifted the trophy and popped the champagne. Two weeks later, the FIA disqualified the German from the test and sanctioned him with two races without competing, in addition to a $500,000 fine.
Overall, the flags may seem old-fashioned compared to today’s technology, but there’s no denying that they’re an iconic part of F1 history, proving vital to safety and competition.
