What Is A Blue Flag Used For In Motorsports?
Posted by Ian Temple-Heald on
From the very start of motorsport up until the present, racing flags are a critical component to ensure that all competitors, stewards, and trackside personnel are kept safe, as well as to enforce the rules. A complete set of flags from a professional store is, therefore, required equipment.
One of the most unusual, misunderstood and somewhat controversial of the flags most commonly seen across different disciplines of motorsport is the blue flag, to the point that former Formula One driver Martin Brundle has called for it to be abolished.
To understand why, it is important to know what the blue flag rule is, and how it affects some racing events more than others.
What Is The Blue Flag?
In nearly all disciplines of motorsport, the blue flag means that a faster competitor is approaching and is about to overtake, allowing them to take evasive action to allow them to pass unimpeded.
Whilst this rule has been in place at the Indianapolis 500 since 1937, it has taken a long time to be adapted to other forms of motorsport, and the interpretation of the rules surrounding them has varied significantly.
Most motorsport disciplines use the same type of flag. However, motorcycle racing uses a darker blue to signify the same instruction, and NASCAR stock car racing uses two separate blue flags.
The standard blue flag warns of hazards that may be difficult to see, whilst a blue flag with a yellow stripe warns of faster cars wanting to overtake.
Why Are The Blue Flag Rules Different In Different Disciplines?
Where the confusion and controversy begins with the blue flag is less about the rules and more about how they are interpreted, as they can vary considerably in different disciplines.
In most forms of motorsport and in most racing sessions, a blue flag is largely a warning and an advisory that there is a fast car approaching, and whilst common convention is to move out of the way, it is typically enforced by courtesy rather than by the rules.
Waving a blue flag in Formula One and other FIA-sanctioned motorsports has a much stricter meaning during a race, however. It is not so much an advisory flag as a warning to a slower driver that they must get out of the way.
If you ignore three sets of blue flags, the standard convention is to issue a drive-through penalty, or a five-second time penalty if it is late enough in the race for unsporting conduct.
Should The Blue Flag Be A Courtesy Or A Rule?
The nebulous rules surrounding blue flags have naturally turned it into a lightning rod for passionate debate as to whether they should be enforced as strictly as they are in sports such as F1, or if this has negative effects on the quality of racing.
The justification for their strict implementation in F1 is that the complex aerodynamics of the cars means that a backmarker that does not yield can significantly slow the car behind them, which could potentially have championship-altering consequences.
Another justification is that the difference between guidance to move out of the way and interpreting a failure to yield as unsporting conduct can be nebulous if the rules for the waived blue flag are not made clear.
On the other hand, as Martin Brundle noted, it removes certain aspects of racecraft, such as navigating traffic in the latter part of the race, forcing everyone to get out of the way and postponing other competitive battles for position in the middle of the pack.