zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Here's What Happened With The Flag Blunder That Ended The F1 Canadian Grand Prix Two Laps Early
Here's What Happened With The Flag Blunder That Ended The F1 Canadian Grand Prix Two Laps Early-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:14

It wasn’t surprising that Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took the checkered flag first on Sunday at the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix. What was surprising was when he took it, since a major miscommunication led the flag to be waved before the finish and effectively end the race more than five miles early.

The flag waved on lap 69 of 70, which is a joke in itself, and didn’t wave for the first time in front of race leader Vettel like it should have on the next lap. Race stewards treated the checkered flag like a red flag after the fact, reverting the finishing order to the order at lap 68. Even then, another checkered flag waved for Vettel when he actually finished the scheduled race distance.

While it was obvious to drivers, commentators and viewers that something had gone wrong, it wasn’t clear what happened. Plenty of people blamed Canadian model Winnie Harlow for the mishap, since she was the one who waved the flag—even in the comments section of an in which she said she was just following instructions on when to wave it.

But F1 race director Charlie Whiting said it was all due to a miscommunication with local officials, according to . Whiting said he thinks the official got confused by a television graphic logging lap 69 of 70, thinking it was showing laps completed instead of the lap drivers were on. The latter was true.

From Autosport:

“The chequered flag was shown a lap early because of a miscommunication with the guy that they call the starter here, who starts and finishes the races,” said Whiting.

“He thought it was the last lap, he asked race control to confirm it, they confirmed it, but they thought he was making a statement when he was asking a question.

“He just showed it a lap early, or he told the flag waver to show it a lap early, so it wasn’t anything to do with the fact that it was a celebrity flag waver.”

Whiting said he thinks that’s a common mistake outside of people who work regularly with F1, according to Autosport. He said F1 needs to do a better job of briefing the local people working the race, since the series is “dealing with a lot of human beings, different countries, [and] different languages.”

Even when the checkered waved early and other marshals around the track were waving congratulatory flags for the winner, drivers seemed to not slow down because something was up. But there were a couple of close battles that could’ve been affected by the mishap, even if Vettel was in his own zip code for the win.

Max Verstappen was about a second behind Valtteri Bottas for second place near the end of the race, and Lewis Hamilton was about the same interval behind fourth-place Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas and Ricciardo second and fourth, respectively, at lap 68 and in the running order after the actual 70 laps, too.

Regardless, mistakes happen. Plus, ending that parade a couple of laps early wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened on a Sunday afternoon.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
The Lexus RC F GT3 Proves The Best Application For Lexus' Grille Is 'Menacing Race Car'
The Lexus RC F GT3 Proves The Best Application For Lexus' Grille Is 'Menacing Race Car'
Yet again, race cars hold the answer. This time, it’s with an aesthetic grievance: Lexus’ . While impressive in their complexity, the end result on the road car looks like some kind of unsettling alien web meant for trapping possums on the road and shooting them into an alternate dimension....
Jul 10, 2025
How Flying Race Cars Taught Us To Be Safer And Smarter
How Flying Race Cars Taught Us To Be Safer And Smarter
Inevitably, a race car will fly. It’s bad and we can only hope that nobody gets hurt. But, from these flights we can improve and learn how to prevent things like that from happening again. From this video, courtesy of our friends at , we can trace how safety features...
Jul 10, 2025
Here Are This Year's Winners Of The Toughest Race Around, The Dakar Rally
Here Are This Year's Winners Of The Toughest Race Around, The Dakar Rally
One of the most extreme and dangerous racing events around, the Dakar Rally, concluded its 2017 edition on Saturday after bad weather . And while is a feat of its own, some people actually manage to win it. In this year’s rally, those people were Sam Sunderlandin the bikes category,...
Jul 10, 2025
Valtteri Bottas Gets Mercedes F1 Seat, Felipe Massa Un-retires After Two Months
Valtteri Bottas Gets Mercedes F1 Seat, Felipe Massa Un-retires After Two Months
The international nightmare is over; . The Mercedes F1 team, whose newly crowned champion , will add Williams’ Valtteri Bottas to its lineup. Taking Bottas’ seat will be Felipe Massa, who retired from Williams less than two months ago. The vacant Mercedes seat was an unexpected twist, given that champion...
Jul 10, 2025
Weekend Motorsports Roundup, Jan. 14-15, 2017
Weekend Motorsports Roundup, Jan. 14-15, 2017
Welcome to the Jalopnik , where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend? It’s going to be a fun...
Jul 10, 2025
Two Top-Three Riders Sent To Hospital After Brutal Dakar Rally Stage
Two Top-Three Riders Sent To Hospital After Brutal Dakar Rally Stage
Today’s Stage 10 of the Dakar Rally has been especially hard on motorcyclists. In addition to Simon Marcic, who with Stéphane Peterhansel earlier today, two riders have withdrawn from the rally due to injury—both of whom were among the top three riders of the rally. The second rider of the...
Jul 10, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved