Yellow and red flags during qualifying can cause big disruptions at the Monte Carlo street circuit. This has happened before. In 2006, Michael Schumacher purposely stopped at Rascasse to block Fernando Alonso from improving his pole time. The race stewards didn’t like this and put Schumacher at the back of the grid.
But sometimes, incidents happen without being on purpose, or it’s hard to prove if they were.
For example, in 2014, Nico Rosberg had a little mishap at Mirabeau, which brought out yellow flags. This meant Lewis Hamilton couldn’t try to go faster and get pole. Also, in 2022, Sergio Perez crashed during qualifying at Portier, and this stopped Max Verstappen from trying to beat him.
In IndyCar, there’s a rule. If a driver causes a yellow flag, they lose their best lap time for that part of qualifying. If they cause a red flag, they lose their two best laps. This stops any unfair play and keeps the results clean.
Ferrari driver Sainz thinks the FIA should think about doing something like this in Formula 1.
“There have been times in street circuits where drivers have clearly caused red flags on purpose,” Sainz said.
“The FIA might not always see it the same way we do, but as drivers, we know when something’s on purpose. So, it’ll be interesting to see what they do this weekend.
“It’s always a topic at Monaco. I just hope we can all go out in qualifying and race fairly without taking too many risks.”
George Russell, who is part of the GPDA, and Esteban Ocon from Alpine also think this is a good idea. Perez, who had the accident that started this discussion in 2022, agrees too.
“I think it’s a sensible idea because we’ve seen drivers cause problems in the past,” Ocon said.
“That’s something the FIA should pay attention to.”
Perez added: “Yeah, definitely. I think that’s how it should be. We’ve been pushing for this for a few years, but nothing’s happened.”
They talked about this idea after Perez’s crash in 2022, but the FIA didn’t think it was needed then. However, after what they said on Thursday, it might come up again in the drivers’ meeting on Friday.
