F1's Red Flags are... a red flag

Formula One's unusual springtime break followed a record-breaking Australian Grand Prix. Unfortunately for F1, that broken record isn't one the content-deprived marketing team can sell over this quiet April. Instead, that long Melbourne day saw the highest number of red flag stoppages in a single race, with three, and the weeks without racing have left fans without any distractions from a calamitous end to a Sunday's racing.

In case you missed it, the three slowdowns that punctuated the 2023 Aussie GP came courtesy of Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, and a catastrophic third start with four crash-induced retirements. Albon hit the barriers, leaving gravel all over the track, Magnussen smashed into the wall, stranding his broken Haas on the run to Turn 3, and two two-car pile-ups triggered the final stoppage.

Not that the FIA are asking, but, in my opinion, only the latter necessitated a red flag. Yet even that red flag would've been unnecessary had the second stoppage remained a safety car. The question, then, is why were there so many in a relatively standard weather-unaffected race.

After taking a look through the history books (AKA Wikipedia), there is an increase in F1's red flag frequency. Although the sport has always used them, today's race control seems far more likely to trigger a race stoppage than before. For example, 13 races since 2020 had at least one red flag, while the three seasons prior had just one. Yes, we've had Romain Grosjean's terrifying fireball crash and Guanyu Zhou's upside-down Alfa Romeo in that time, but they're some exceptions among the mundane.

The 'races with multiple red flags' statistic paints the modern era vs F1 history picture more vividly: five rounds over the last ten years have had two or more red flags, while 1950-2013 had just one. That uptick comes despite increased safety with more tarmac run-offs and better-built cars.

There's a point, and I believe Australia is it for me, where red flags begin changing the sport into a spectacle. Stopping a Grand Prix because of gravel or debris on the track is madness, as is red flagging the race to clear wreckage where a safety car slowdown would serve the same job.

Aside from the lottery that a race restart has for the competitors, the inconsistency of the rule application this trend is causing leads me to think F1 and the FIA are putting the show first rather than the sport. There feels like an element of Hollywood in a safety car period now, where you wonder, "Will this be a red flag or not," or, "How chaotic might a restart be," and that isn't a sport.

The race start is one of the most nail-biting parts of any Grand Prix, yet having too many risks diminishing their appeal. It's like a penalty shootout in football pulling in the views, but with rules stating the referee might — or might not — trigger one after any red card. Sure, it'd make for edge-of-your-seat viewing every time they send a player off the pitch, and the team comfortably leading the match might find themselves suddenly losing, but that's not how sports work.

I fear we're in a new age of F1 where the showrunners believe recent fans won't stick by if there are too many boring races and are taking countermeasures to manufacture drama. If Drive to Survive and the sensational 2021 championship are fans' jumping on points, it's unlikely they'll see anything matching that on-track drama for many years, but that's not a bad thing; it's real. There's no need to try and artificially try to generate theatre.

Twisting the sport to try and force its best bits to come more frequently is a disservice to what F1 is and why fans watch. A goalless draw on a wet Tuesday night doesn't mean football fans quit the sport; they know the next 3-2 thriller might be around the corner. Equally, a dull Grand Prix doesn't need red-flag intervention to remind fans how fantastic F1 is. Let the racers race, and the entertainment will naturally follow.