F1 Explained: What is a blue flag?

Red, white, green and blue. You name the colour, the FIA and F1 probably have a flag to help the field conduct motor races safely and efficiently.

You may be most familiar with a yellow flag, waved as a signal of danger and for a driver to reduce their speed, or a red flag, which usually pauses a session due to a serious incident or poor weather conditions.

This time however, we are focusing on blue flags and what they mean for F1 drivers across a grand prix weekend.

While yellow and red flags signal danger, blue flags are most pertinent to backmarkers when a faster car is usually about lap them. Here is everything you need to know about blue flags!

What is a blue flag in F1?

A blue flag is waved to inform a driver that they are about to be overtaken, most typically for a driver who is about to be lapped by a faster car behind them.

When shown, the driver about to be lapped must allow the following car to pass at the earliest opportunity, and if three warnings to do so are ignored, they will be penalised.

The F1 marshalling system will give a pre-warning when the faster car is within three seconds of the car about to be lapped, which should be used by the team of the slower car to warn their driver they are going to be lapped and they should let the faster car through.

When the faster car is within 1.2 seconds of the car about to be lapped, blue light panels will be shown to the slower car (in addition to blue light panels, blue cockpit lights and a message on the timing monitors) and this driver must allow the following driver to overtake at the first available opportunity.

In practice, a blue flag is shown to tell a driver that a faster car is close behind and is about to overtake. In this instance, a driver of a slower car may be on a 'cool-down lap' before returning to the pit lane, while the driver behind them is on a faster lap, for example a qualifying simulation.

A blue flag is shown at all times across the weekend to inform a driver leaving the pit lane that traffic is approaching from behind.

For failing to obey blue flags in a race, the FIA's penalty guidelines state that a driver can receive a five or 10 second time penalty.

At the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix, both Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat were hit with five-second time penalties for failing to adhere to blue flag conditions, with the Mexican penalised for failing to move out of the way of Lewis Hamilton.

READ MORE: F1 world champions: Full list from Farina to four-time King Verstappen

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