Breaking news
Formula 1 Canadian GP
FIA explains Canadian GP chequered flag incident
Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting says a miscommunication between local officials led to the chequered flag being shown one lap early in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Jun 11, 2018, 10:54 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The official on the start/finish stand, who carries the title of starter, thought race leader Sebastian Vettel was on his 70th and final lap, and mistakenly asked model Winnie Harlow to wave the flag when the Ferrari driver was actually completing his 69th lap.
Drivers continued to race for the extra lap, despite the fact that at some points on the track marshals were waving multiple flags in the traditional end of race salute.
The situation was treated in the same way as a red flag, and after initially being listed at lap 69 the final result subsequently went back to lap 68. There were no place changes in the top 10, although Daniel Ricciardo lost his fastest lap to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.
"The chequered flag was shown a lap early because of a miscommunication with the guy that they call the starter here, who starts and finishes the races," said Whiting.
"He thought it was the last lap, he asked race control to confirm it, they confirmed it, but they thought he was making a statement when he was asking a question.
"He just showed it a lap early, or he told the flag waver to show it a lap early, so it wasn't anything to do with the fact that it was a celebrity flag waver."
Whiting believes that the starter was misled by the TV graphic that notes the lap that the leader is on, rather than laps completed – which is what happened in a similar situation in China a few years ago.
"I think people who don't work in F1 are sometimes a little confused by the graphic that they see on the screen where it says 69 out of 70," he said.
"We all know that means we're on lap 69, but to someone who let's say is more casual observer thinks 'Oh, this must mean it's the last lap.'
"I think that's where the doubt originates. Obviously we need to do a better job of briefing these people.
"Just a simple miscommunication, a very regrettable one of course.
"You're dealing with a lot of human beings, different countries, different languages, and it's not always absolutely perfect.
"Of course we strive for perfection. Fortunately there was no real harm done, insofar as it didn't affect the result of the race."
Teams told to race on
Whiting said when teams asked what they should do after the flag was shown, he told them to race to the end of lap 70.
"It was very clear what had happened," he said.
"Under those circumstances, very few team managers would be absolutely sure that they could tell their driver to back off because that was that.
"My advice to anyone who asked was that they should just complete the race, to be sure."
Whiting acknowledged the situation was further complicated by marshals around the track believing that the race was over.
"This is part of the confusion. Sometimes marshals wave all their flags to congratulate the winner, and some of them were doing that, because they thought the race had finished too," he said.
"Presumably they'd been told that the chequered flag had been shown. But the fact that it had been shown early, they didn't know that of course.
"If all the marshals had started coming on the track when the guys were still racing, which is what I believe happened somewhere else in the past, that's something that if this ever happens again we need to make sure we can take care of that."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Renault: Red Bull risks losing new engine offer
Next article Perez surprised Sainz was not penalised
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Latest news
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
5 h
Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale
Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
6 h
Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe