FIA admits ‘overreaction’ with black and orange flag

The FIA has admitted that it over-reacted with the use of the black-and-orange flag in 2022.

The flag is shown to drivers when it has been deemed by officials that their car has compromising structural damage and must return to the pits for repairs.

Kevin Magnussen was issued the flag in Canada, Hungary and Singapore after sustaining front wing endplate damage, with both driver and team believing the instruction was excessive compared to the level of damage.

Fernando Alonso was retrospectively handed a penalty after the US Grand Prix, with stewards accepting they should have issued the flag, but this was later overturned on a technicality.

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Speaking at the end of the season, the FIA’s technical chief Nikolas Tombazis explained that Yuki Tsunoda’s incident in Azerbaijan prompted a clampdown that it later agreed was excessive.

Tsunoda suffered a DRS failure in Baku, which was taped up by mechanics, with the AlphaTauri driver sent on his way. He was instructed by his team not to use the adjustable flap for the remainder of the race but the FIA did not intervene.

“We revised our criteria on the black and orange flag from Mexico onwards and we saw one or two cars after that were not shown the black and orange flag,” said Tombazis.

“We analysed it and overreacted a bit, had a situation in Baku where a car was let to run on with damage that really the car should not have been running with – one of the AlphaTauris with rear wing damage taped up. That was a big risk. There we got it wrong.

“Then I think that created a bit of an over-reaction where we started deeming cars unsafe even when they were on the limit, let’s say, so we went in the wrong direction, and took some corrective action after the US.”

Tombazis conceded that accurately assessing the extent of the damage can be a challenging task.

“It’s difficult,” he said. “We would still black and orange flag a car with serious structural damage, like [Lewis] Hamilton in Singapore for example when his wing was scraping the floor.

“But in 99 per cent of the cases the teams bring the cars in anywhere themselves so it removes the need for intervention, as the teams are by and large quite responsible, but we wouldn’t show one [the flag] for a wobbly front wing endplate.”