patnicholls
19th September 2008, 21:40
I wanted to raise a discussion about my least favourite part of motor racing – when the red flag appears. The part of any race which fills riders, teams and fans with worry.
In the past few events we've seen a different range of red flag rules applied across the championships, with some controversial results. It seems that to get rid of this controversy and get everything back in line that someone's rules somewhere need to change.
Let's start with first principles: why is a red flag thrown? Karting safety briefing #1 says that it's because a 'serious accident' has occurred, but out in the world of bike racing it's a little more complicated of course. We have a few different reasons: the worst being if a rider (or a marshal or spectator) is hurt and needs urgent attention, possibly lying on the track or close enough off it to be at risk from any passing riders having an accident. Second is if a bike is lying in a dangerous spot, posing a risk to those still in the race or on fire or such like and posing a risk to those at the side of the track. Another reason for throwing a red is debris on the track, or spilled oil from an engine blowup or something that can't be dealt with effectively by a safety car or double waved yellows [which I don't think exist in bike racing anyway]. The final one is the weather – usually rain when the bikes have gone out on dry tyres causing a serious safety risk, or like at Indy last week where the aftermath of a hurricane was the problem! In all cases, throwing a red flag is clearly a safety issue.
A couple of weeks ago at Donington in WSB we had a recent red flag rule out in force – Ruben Xaus crashed from third place after the red flag had come out in race one (for rain falling) as did Vitto Iannuzzo and Christian Zaiser on what was effectively the 'slowing down and returning to the pits' lap. The podium was delayed and – so the story goes – Xaus got fairly angry and refused to leave the podium [to be replaced by team-mate Biaggi] after being told he had been disqualified for not arriving back at the pits within five minutes of the red flag being thrown. Iannuzzo and Zaiser also suffered the same fate, each losing their first points of the year after tough seasons with lesser squads. A similar ruling prevented Robbin Harms and Russel Holland re-starting the tragic Supersport race at Brands Hatch after they crashed as the rain started to fall and were unable to take the restart due to the 'five minute' rule. To my knowledge it's not happened yet, but what happens if say it started to rain, you slow down [the race effectively having finished] and then your bike breaks down?
We've got a clear clash here. The 'five minute' rule is a rule which panders to TV schedules to keep things moving. A red flag is thrown with genuine safety concerns in all instances and time isn't a factor there. Are we in agreement that the five-minute rule is clearly nonsense? If a red flag is thrown after 2/3 distance then the race is finished, the result taken from the last complete lap by all riders before the flag (i.e back one lap) so anything that happens after that (i.e the slowing-down lap) isn't part of the race action and thus the result, surely?
Let's also handle the other aspect of red flags, an uglier point to debate. If your accident is the reason for the red flag, should you be in the results? In the Motegi 125cc race of 2005, Thomas Luthi crashed leaving his bike in the middle of the track – which was then hit by Sergio Gadea causing a smashed Aprilia, and ruined Honda and debris everywhere. The red flag was thrown and the results showed Luthi in second place from the lap before (and Gadea in his position). KTM – team of Luthi's title rival Mika Kallio – appealed the inclusion of Luthi in the results vigorously and were not successful but I believe a rule was later instigated in their favour removing riders who 'cause' a red flag to be removed from the results in MotoGP/250/125 events. (popular folklore goes that Kallio lost the title because of that initial decision but that's not really true – at Valencia Luthi did all he had to to take the title and little more, in additional to the five points Mika lost when Gabor passed him on the line at Qatar).
At the start of August Craig Jones lost his life in a tragic accident which we're probably all familiar with whilst dicing for the lead at Brands Hatch in the World Supersport race. (It is the lowest point of my time watching racing in fifteen years). Craig was classified in second position in the race. A week later at Knockhill, Shakey Byrne suffered a heavy fall whilst leading a British Superbike race and the red flag came out – it wasn't clear whether he fell on a bit of rain or oil – Scott Smart had been given a 'mechanical problem' board the lap before. Shakey was removed from the results of that race.
Again, there's inconsistency across the championships. However, this one is harder to resolve – what exactly counts as 'causing' a red flag? There's no clear-cut answer.
In the case of Thomas Luthi's accident, if everyone had missed his bike the race would have continued – and Luthi would either have been out or getting back on at the back of the pack. The circumstances of the other riders meant someone hit it – so is it his 'fault'? He did in that way benefit from the race being stopped, but it was only down to 'luck' that it was stopped. Craig Jones lost his life due to the worst kind of luck – someone couldn't avoid him. On his own, he'd have picked himself up from what happened – again it was just the circumstances of what else was going on on the racetrack. Shakey may well have crashed due to oil being down, which as the leader he was the first to come across – is that his 'fault?'
I'm not quite sure how to resolve this one but I think it's a good debating topic. For me, if you're taking a race back a lap because of a red flag, you should include all the people who crossed the line before the incident – it's not like they caused the incident on purpose after all. But likewise I can see the opposite side of the coin. It's a tricky one.
What are our thoughts?
In the past few events we've seen a different range of red flag rules applied across the championships, with some controversial results. It seems that to get rid of this controversy and get everything back in line that someone's rules somewhere need to change.
Let's start with first principles: why is a red flag thrown? Karting safety briefing #1 says that it's because a 'serious accident' has occurred, but out in the world of bike racing it's a little more complicated of course. We have a few different reasons: the worst being if a rider (or a marshal or spectator) is hurt and needs urgent attention, possibly lying on the track or close enough off it to be at risk from any passing riders having an accident. Second is if a bike is lying in a dangerous spot, posing a risk to those still in the race or on fire or such like and posing a risk to those at the side of the track. Another reason for throwing a red is debris on the track, or spilled oil from an engine blowup or something that can't be dealt with effectively by a safety car or double waved yellows [which I don't think exist in bike racing anyway]. The final one is the weather – usually rain when the bikes have gone out on dry tyres causing a serious safety risk, or like at Indy last week where the aftermath of a hurricane was the problem! In all cases, throwing a red flag is clearly a safety issue.
A couple of weeks ago at Donington in WSB we had a recent red flag rule out in force – Ruben Xaus crashed from third place after the red flag had come out in race one (for rain falling) as did Vitto Iannuzzo and Christian Zaiser on what was effectively the 'slowing down and returning to the pits' lap. The podium was delayed and – so the story goes – Xaus got fairly angry and refused to leave the podium [to be replaced by team-mate Biaggi] after being told he had been disqualified for not arriving back at the pits within five minutes of the red flag being thrown. Iannuzzo and Zaiser also suffered the same fate, each losing their first points of the year after tough seasons with lesser squads. A similar ruling prevented Robbin Harms and Russel Holland re-starting the tragic Supersport race at Brands Hatch after they crashed as the rain started to fall and were unable to take the restart due to the 'five minute' rule. To my knowledge it's not happened yet, but what happens if say it started to rain, you slow down [the race effectively having finished] and then your bike breaks down?
We've got a clear clash here. The 'five minute' rule is a rule which panders to TV schedules to keep things moving. A red flag is thrown with genuine safety concerns in all instances and time isn't a factor there. Are we in agreement that the five-minute rule is clearly nonsense? If a red flag is thrown after 2/3 distance then the race is finished, the result taken from the last complete lap by all riders before the flag (i.e back one lap) so anything that happens after that (i.e the slowing-down lap) isn't part of the race action and thus the result, surely?
Let's also handle the other aspect of red flags, an uglier point to debate. If your accident is the reason for the red flag, should you be in the results? In the Motegi 125cc race of 2005, Thomas Luthi crashed leaving his bike in the middle of the track – which was then hit by Sergio Gadea causing a smashed Aprilia, and ruined Honda and debris everywhere. The red flag was thrown and the results showed Luthi in second place from the lap before (and Gadea in his position). KTM – team of Luthi's title rival Mika Kallio – appealed the inclusion of Luthi in the results vigorously and were not successful but I believe a rule was later instigated in their favour removing riders who 'cause' a red flag to be removed from the results in MotoGP/250/125 events. (popular folklore goes that Kallio lost the title because of that initial decision but that's not really true – at Valencia Luthi did all he had to to take the title and little more, in additional to the five points Mika lost when Gabor passed him on the line at Qatar).
At the start of August Craig Jones lost his life in a tragic accident which we're probably all familiar with whilst dicing for the lead at Brands Hatch in the World Supersport race. (It is the lowest point of my time watching racing in fifteen years). Craig was classified in second position in the race. A week later at Knockhill, Shakey Byrne suffered a heavy fall whilst leading a British Superbike race and the red flag came out – it wasn't clear whether he fell on a bit of rain or oil – Scott Smart had been given a 'mechanical problem' board the lap before. Shakey was removed from the results of that race.
Again, there's inconsistency across the championships. However, this one is harder to resolve – what exactly counts as 'causing' a red flag? There's no clear-cut answer.
In the case of Thomas Luthi's accident, if everyone had missed his bike the race would have continued – and Luthi would either have been out or getting back on at the back of the pack. The circumstances of the other riders meant someone hit it – so is it his 'fault'? He did in that way benefit from the race being stopped, but it was only down to 'luck' that it was stopped. Craig Jones lost his life due to the worst kind of luck – someone couldn't avoid him. On his own, he'd have picked himself up from what happened – again it was just the circumstances of what else was going on on the racetrack. Shakey may well have crashed due to oil being down, which as the leader he was the first to come across – is that his 'fault?'
I'm not quite sure how to resolve this one but I think it's a good debating topic. For me, if you're taking a race back a lap because of a red flag, you should include all the people who crossed the line before the incident – it's not like they caused the incident on purpose after all. But likewise I can see the opposite side of the coin. It's a tricky one.
What are our thoughts?