FIA admits to having overused the F1 black and orange flag during 2022 season

F1's head of Single Seater Technical Matters Nikolas Tombazis admitted that there was an overreaction to the use of black and orange flags in the 2022 season. In light of that, the FIA has made the decision to reduce the usage of the same.

Tombazis believes that waving the flag in response to the damage to Yuki Tsunoda's rear wing in Baku is what triggered the overuse of the flag in the sport.

Tombazis said:

"We revised our criteria on the black and orange flag from Mexico onwards, we already saw one or two cars after that that were not shown the black and orange flag. Our assessment was, having analysed the situation, that we overreacted a bit."

Speaking about Yuki Tsunoda's incident at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he explained:

"There was a situation in Baku where, objectively, a car was left running with damage that really shouldn't have been tolerated. One of the AlphaTauris had the rear wing damaged and fixed it with tape or something similar. A ridiculous situation, it's clear we were wrong. I think this created a bit of a chain reaction where we started to feel cars were unsafe even when they were a bit on the edge, shall we say."

Tombazis admitted the challenges of classifying the car as damaged and deciding whether it is appropriate to bring out the black and orange flag. He claimed that most teams generally take the right call when it comes to retiring a damaged F1 car.

He added:

“This move eliminates any need for intervention on our part, because the teams are generally quite responsible. We would not display a black and orange flag in a situation such as a wobbly forward bulkhead, for example. If wing damage due to a contact was such as to dangle the various elements, then we would consider it dangerous. But in general, the teams have the flap adjustment mechanism about 100mm inside the terminal, and usually when they make contact, what breaks on the outside still leaves the rest of the wing unscathed in the wing impact."

All F1 teams along with the FIA reached a unanimous decision to reduce the use of the black-and-orange flag

After the US Grand Prix, FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem, along with all 10 teams, came to a unanimous decision to lower the use of the black and orange flags and for teams to ensure the safety compliance of their respective cars from the 2023 F1 season.

The FIA's International Sporting Code regarding the use of the black-and-orange flag currently is:

"This flag should be used to inform the driver concerned that his car has mechanical problems likely to endanger himself or others and means that he must stop at his pit on the next lap. When the mechanical problems have been rectified to the satisfaction of the chief scrutineer, the car may rejoin the race."

The FIA agreed to this after Fernando Alonso's controversy at the 2022 F1 US GP.