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FIA Single Seater Technical Director Nikolas Tombazis admitted the use of the black and orange flag from the FIA has been at times excessive during the 2022 F1 season. In particular, according to Tombazis, the Federation overreacted following the Azerbaijan GP.
During the Azerbaijan GP, AlphaTauri’s driver Yuki Tsunoda suffered a DRS failure. The team decided to fix the issue by simply taping the rear wing of the car and advising the driver not to use it during the remainder of the race. However, the situation was still believed unsafe by many, criticising the FIA for not having shown Tsunoda the black and orange flag to order the driver into the pits to repair technical damage.
According to FIA Single Seater Technical Director Nikolas Tombazis, the Federation should have taken action against Tsunoda on that occasion, as quoted by Motorsport.com:
“We had a situation in Baku where objectively a car was let to run with damage that really a car should not be running with. That was one of AlphaTauris with rear wing damage that was taped up or something like that, that was ridiculous. Clearly there, we got it wrong.”
Tombazis: “That created a bit of an overreaction”
However, Tombazis also went on to add that the lack of action in Baku led to an excessively strict approach being taken in the following races:
“I think then that created a bit of an overreaction where we started deeming cars unsafe even when they were a bit on the limit, let’s say. So we went a bit too far in one direction. I think we took some corrective action after the US.”
The Haas F1 Team became the main voice criticizing FIA’s excessive strictness after driver Kevin Magnussen was ordered back to the pits on three separate occasions in Canada, Hungary, and Singapore, although the damage was considered minimal. Magnussen had admitted his frustration after the race at Marina Bay, as quoted by RaceFans: “I had very slight damage but it was nothing. I got the black-and-orange flag which to me seems unnecessary as the part wasn’t about to fall off, there were no safety concerns as it has tethers to the car – it wasn’t even moving. We finished P12 when we had an extra pit stop that I didn’t need, so it’s frustrating.”
While Tombazis believes evaluating the danger caused by damage remains difficult, the FIA will continue on a less severe line: “We would not show a black and orange flag in a situation like a wobbly front end plate, for example. Now if front wing damage from contact is such that we see that the various flap elements are actually wobbling in relation to each other, then that we would consider to be dangerous.
“But by and large, the teams have the flap adjustment mechanism sort of about 100mm or so for the inboard of the endplate, and usually when they do come into contact, what breaks on the outside still leaves the rest of the wing when it impacts.”
Headline Image: Formula 1