In the United States GP. there was a before and an after. Fernando Alonso was penalized for driving the car in dangerous conditions after losing a mirror during the race, losing the epic seventh place that he will have achieved after a brutal return.

The Asturian went to overtake Spear Strollwhen the Canadian crossed him and the Alpine flew through the air, crashing laterally against the wall. It looked like he was going to give up, but he pitted just to change the front wing, thus being able to complete the test.

During the race, when overtaking Kevin Magnussen, his right rearview mirror exploded, so the Oviedo finished the race with a mirror. After the race, the car received the ‘OK’ from the FIAbut a few hours later, he was sanctioned after a protested. Ultimately, Alonso’s sanction has been lifted being already in Mexico and recovered his seventh place.

And it is that Kevin Magnussen suffered the black and orange flag in no less than three separate races before. In Canada, Hungary and Singaporethe Dane suffered ‘end plate’ damage, forcing the FIA ​​to stop in the pits to change the front wing after removing the black and orange flag.

The meaning of this flag is that the driver is forced to stop in the “pit” because his car has damage that could pose a risk to the rest of the cars. A Yuki Tsunoda in Azerbaijan The DRS did not work and his team asked him not to use the rear wing for the rest of the race, but the FIA ​​did not rule.

Charles Leclerc in Silverstone He also raced without the “end plate” and the FIA ​​did not force him to stop. The FIA ​​criteria didn’t seem the same with some drivers or others despite the fact that the issues were the same. This is why the FIA ​​changed its vision with this flag and, above all, since they realized their mistake with Fernando Alonso in United States.

“We wouldn’t show a flag…”

Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Technical Managerexplains in ‘Motorsport Week’ that after the incident with too changed their outlook:We have revised our criteria on the black and orange flagfrom Mexico (with case too) and then we saw one or two cars that didn’t have the black and orange flag.”

They point out their mistake with Tsunoda in Azerbaijan“We analyzed it and we think we overreacted a bit, We had a situation where Baku where a car was allowed to drive with damage the car really shouldn’t have driven with: One of the AlphaTauri whose rear wing was damaged. It was a big risk. That’s where we went wrong.”

“So I think it created an overreaction where we started to see the cars as dangerous even when they were on the edge, let’s say, so we went in the wrong direction and We took corrective action after the United States.“, To add.

Finally, make sure that from 2023 they will use another criterion to use the black and orange flag: “In 99% of the cases, the teams bring the cars to any place by themselves, so the need for intervention is eliminated, because the teams are, in general, quite responsible. We would not post a flag for a wobbly front end plate or wobbly fender“.