Formula 1

Gary Anderson: IndyCar’s red flag rule totally wrong for F1

by Gary Anderson
1 min read

There are plenty suggesting that Formula 1 should adopt the IndyCar rule where you lose your fastest lap if you bring out a red flag in qualifying.

But I think that in F1 this would be totally wrong.

In IndyCar, they throw a yellow and/or a red when a crisp packet is seen on the track.

So if this rule was to be adapted in F1 the first thing we would have is an uproar that the race director was dictating who was on pole.

As for the incident today, if that rule was applied then race control could just have thrown a yellow flag instead and that would still have left us in the same situation of ruining the laps of everyone running behind Leclerc – and he would still be on pole.

But if they threw a red flag, then those drivers would still not have had a run at pole while Leclerc would have lost it – with Max Verstappen getting top spot.

Putting that decision on the shoulders of the race director is way above his pay grade.

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