A split-second call to activate yellow flags for Esteban Ocon’s damaged Alpine was behind McLaren driver Lando Norris’s Formula 1 Baku Q1 qualifying exit.
The incident meant title hopeful Norris was eliminated and qualified 17th in Baku on Saturday, which puts a potential big dent in his hopes of overhauling Max Verstappen in this season’s points standings.
Following qualifying, there has also been considerable speculation about whether Norris really passed a yellow flag or if he braked too early upon seeing it, while McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said immediately after the session that “a yellow flag [was] displayed that ultimately wasn’t necessary”.
The FIA has now confirmed to Autosport that Norris did get shown a yellow flag on the digital activation system that lights up marker boards and car cockpit lights during the brief incident.
A marshal deemed it necessary due to the presence of Ocon’s slow-moving Alpine approaching a critical section of the Baku track – the car damaged when the Frenchman clipped the wall exiting Turn 4 (where Franco Colapinto crashed in Q1) a short while earlier.
Ocon had been returning to the pits and was previously being covered by white flags that warn other drivers of a slow-moving car ahead as he did so, but it is understood that given the part of the circuit Norris came upon him – just before the high-speed left and right of Turns 18 and 19 – the aforementioned marshal decided to trigger the yellow flag warning for this particular mini-section.
That was quickly turned off when Norris and Ocon had continued on, with FIA officials satisfied with the marshal’s action – per information gathered by Autosport in Baku.
Norris had immediately backed off as a result of the yellow flag, then returned to the pits when engineer Will Joseph informed him he was unable to try and complete another lap in Q1, after the Briton had reported the yellow flag activation.
Joseph then said, “Mate, I’m sorry - they shouldn’t have done that”, regarding the yellow flag.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about the incident immediately after qualifying, Stella said: “The team didn’t say [there was a yellow] because it was displayed last-minute.”
“We checked right now with our tools,” he added. “And it is actually displayed as a yellow so we are in conversation with the FIA [about] why that happened because a yellow flag is not necessary when there is a car that is just a slow car [that] is offline.
“Everyone tries their best I’m sure but this time there was a situation that ideally shouldn’t have happened.
“We paid the price. We don’t give up, and like I say, everyone is trying their best. We acknowledge that, we move on and we will do our best tomorrow to go and get some good points.”
Stella later said: “I think Lando was just at the wrong time in a place in which a yellow flag is displayed that ultimately wasn’t necessary.”
The question McLaren is asking centres on how far wide Ocon was at the point Norris passed him – as the Alpine was far on the outside on the exit of Turn 17 – plus given neither car had reached the blind approach of Turns 18 and 19.
This was where Norris had to abort a flying lap in FP2 after coming across Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine through this section.
Autosport understands that McLaren is still waiting for clarification on this from the FIA, while the F1 pack were specifically warned to urgently obey yellows at this point in the post-FP2 drivers’ meeting.
Regarding any suggestion that Norris had actually reacted to a white flag warning, the presence of a green flag board immediately following the area where he passed Ocon confirms the yellow flag was being displayed.
White flags are not followed by green flags in the FIA digital system, the white flags are just removed when a car passes each marshalling sector.
It is also understood that the drivers had asked the FIA if it would be possible to open up these high-speed blind turns for future Baku races given the risks involved and previous close calls.
The FIA is said to be open to altering the barrier placement of this part of the Baku layout – something also done after the first Jeddah race in 2021 – if city authorities agree.
