Kovalainen proposes blue flag ban

Heikki Kovalainen’s proposal to help spice up the racing in formula one is to scrap blue flags, according to Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the Malaysian entrepreneur said Kovalainen, the new team’s Finnish driver, proposes that “lapped cars should not be blue flagged, which may allow time for trailing cars to catch up to the leaders”.

Currently in F1, blue flags are waved when a lapped car needs to allow higher-placed cars to pass.

The issue of boring races has been high on the agenda in the wake of the 2010 season opener in Bahrain, the first GP since 1993 without refuelling pitstops.

“There are going to be boring bits in every sport,” said Fernandes in an interview in Kuala Lumpur.

In fact, had Sebastian Vettel’s Renault spark plug not let him down last Sunday, F1 could have staged a wheel to wheel battle for victory between the German and Fernando Alonso.

“I was getting some relaxed laps and was maybe waiting for the last ten laps to attack,” Fernando Alonso confirmed to Italy’s Autosprint magazine, “but then we were lucky with Vettel’s problem.”

Mark Webber was initially highly critical of the processional Bahrain race, but as he touched down in Melbourne this week he predicted there is “no way the next four races will go like Bahrain”.

“I think there will be some other races this year that won’t be like that,” the Australian told local media.

“The fuelling thing is not such a big deal,” added the 33-year-old.  “The cars are so quick and that’s what we like (and) the spectators love, but trying to get the balance of good racing is always difficult.”

© RIF|GMM