FORMULA ONE FLAGS – MEANING AND PENALTIES

Race officials communicate directly with the drivers using flags to indicate track conditions and relay critical communications.  Racing Flags indicate caution and danger, and more often than not, the show of flags during races has drastically changed the outcome of the Grand Prix.

Many venues make use of electronic displays to indicate flags to give various messages to drivers. However, race marshals continue to use physical flags as a redundancy mechanism in the event of electronic display failure. Marshals are positioned at numerous points around the track during every race. Flags have different meanings depending on their color; the colors signify as follows:

Flag	Pantone value	Description	Meaning
	Yellow	Caution	A single yellow indicates danger ahead, such as debris from a crash. Drivers must slow down as they pass; overtaking is forbidden, unless it is unavoidable such as a driver retiring in the section, or a driver being lapped. 2 waved yellows at the same post indicate great danger ahead. Drivers must slow down and be prepared to stop; no overtaking is permitted unless a driver is lapped. Yellow flags and the SC board (a large whiteboard with “SC” in large black lettering) indicate that the has been deployed. Drivers must slow down, not overtake and be prepared to leave the normal racing line or even stop as a threat obstructs all or part of the track.
	Green	Track is clear	A green flag indicates that any previous danger has been attended to. The track is now clear, and drivers may proceed at racing speed and may again overtake. When the race director so directs, this may be displayed during the parade lap or at the beginning of a practice session; in this case, all marshals’ positions will signal green flags.
	Red	Race stopped	A red flag indicates that the race, practice session, or qualifying session has been suspended. All marshal stations will signal this. Drivers may not leave the pits. All drivers on the track must proceed cautiously to the pit lane and stop. There they will be reordered in their correct racing order. Sessions may be resumed or abandoned as the race director indicates. If the safety car is deployed, the racing cars should follow it and provisions allow for the safety car to divert the field into the pit lane and wait there.
	Blue	A faster car is approaching	At any time, a stationary light blue flag may be shown to a driver at the pit lane exit to warn him that cars are approaching the track. During practice, a light blue flag waved on the track notifying a driver that a faster car is approaching and that he must move aside. During a race, a light blue flag waved on the track warns the driver that he is about to be lapped by a faster car and must not intentionally impede their progress, such as blocking a passing manoeuver. A driver may incur penalties if he ignores 3 successive blue flags.
	White	a slow-moving vehicle on the track	A white flag indicates a slow-moving vehicle such as a retiring car, an ambulance, or a tow truck ahead on the track, and instructs drivers to slow down.
	Black	Driver is disqualified	A black flag orders a particular driver to return to his pit within the next lap and report immediately to the Clerk of the Course, usually because he has been disqualified from the race. The flag is accompanied by a board with the car number of the driver on it so no mistake is made. Being black-flagged is one of the most severe punishments in F1.
	BlackC/White	Chequered	A black and white chequered flag signals the end of the race, practice session, or qualifying session. During the race it is shown first to the winner and then to the rest of the field as they finish; otherwise, it is shown at a predetermined time.
	BlackC/White	Half black	A half black and half white flag inform a driver that his behavior has been deemed unsporting. A sign with the car number accompanies the flag.
	BlackC/151C	Black with an orange circle	A black flag with an orange circle (40 cm in diameter) in the center informs a driver that his car has a mechanical problem that has the potential to harm him or other drivers and that he must return to his pit. Shown with the car number.
	YellowC/186C	Yellow and red stripes	A yellow flag with red stripes warns drivers that the track surface ahead is slippery, or there is debris present. This could be as a result of a car spilling oil (or some other engine fluid), or because rain is starting to fall. Slippery runway in an area, either by water or oil. Drivers must slow down at that point.

Penalties

Penalties may be imposed on drivers for numerous offenses, including starting prematurely, speeding in the pit lane, causing an accident, blocking unfairly, or ignoring flags of any color. There are four types of penalties that a driver may incur for violation of on-track rules:

The 5-second or 10-second time penalty may be served during the next pit stop. After the driver stops in their pit box, mechanics must wait for 5 or 10 seconds before touching the car. If the driver doesn’t need to pit, the time penalty will be added to their time at the end of the race.

The drive-through penalty requires the driver to enter the pit lane, drive through it while obeying its speed limit, and exit without stopping. As a drive-through penalty does not require the driver to stop, it is less costly than a stop-go penalty.

The ten-second stop-go penalty requires the driver to enter the pit lane, stop at his pit for ten seconds, and exit again. As the stop is designed to punish the driver for an offense, team mechanics are forbidden to work on the offending car at any time while the driver is serving the penalty. The Stop-go penalty is the harshest penalty short of disqualification and is given for serious offenses such as endangering other drivers.

For the drive-through and stop-go penalties, a driver has 2 laps from the time his team hears of the penalty to enter the pits; if the driver does not pit within 2 laps, the driver will be black-flagged. The exception to this rule is if the Safety Car is deployed before a driver serves his penalty, in which case the driver is not allowed to serve the penalty until after the Safety Car comes back in. If the driver incurs a penalty within the last 5 laps of the race, the driver need not pit at all; instead, twenty seconds will be added to their total race time in case of a drive-through penalty, and thirty seconds in case of a stop-go penalty.

The most severe penalty in common use is a black flag, which may be imposed for ignoring penalties or for technical irregularities of any sort; it signifies that the driver has been disqualified from the race and his results for that race will not count toward the championship. If the black flag is not considered sufficient for the offense that the driver has committed, the driver may be banned for a number of races after the event.

A grid penalty may be given for the next race. For example, a 5-place grid penalty means if the driver qualified first, they would start the race from sixth position another driver The most extreme punishment of all (used for seriously endangering the life of another driver) is to be excluded from the drivers’ world championship that year. Such cases may be taken to a judicial court.