Kevin Magnussen was called into the pits in Singapore with a loose front wing endplate. “I think we took some corrective action after the US.” So we went a bit too far in one direction. “I think then that created a bit of an overreaction where we started deeming cars unsafe even when they were a bit on the limit, let’s say. “That was one of AlphaTauris with rear wing damage that was taped up or something like that, that was ridiculous.

“We had a situation in Baku where objectively a car was let to run with damage that really a car should not be running with,” said Tombazis. The team brought Tsunoda into the pits, only to repair the car by taping the wing up so it would not come loose before sending the AT03 car back out. Tombazis explained this dated back to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in June, when the black and orange flag was shown to AlphaTauri driver Tsunoda after the DRS flap on his rear wing failed. FIA set to reduce use of F1 black-and-orange flag warnings.“Our assessment was, having analysed the situation, that we overreacted a bit.” Read Also: “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,” said Tombazis.

The FIA is set to reduce its use of the black and orange flag moving forward as a result, with its technical chief, Tombazis, accepting there had been an overreaction. It prompted Haas to launch a protest against Fernando Alonso’s car in Austin, which raced with a loose rear view mirror that eventually fell off due to accident damage. Haas drivers were told to pit on three occasions in 2022 due to a loose front wing endplate, despite the team feeling the car was still safe and not posing any risk.

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