In the latest draft of the FIA International Sporting Regulations, the governing body clarified how laps under red flag conditions are managed following the Ollie Bearman incident at Imola. The key factor will now be the moment the Race Control sends the signal to the teams, even if trackside flags or LEDs activate later. Any lap completed after the signal will be invalidated.
The most recent draft of the FIA International Sporting Regulations introduced a small but significant addition regarding the classification of laps completed under red flag conditions. It is not a major change, but rather a series of precise clarifications through a dedicated paragraph, designed to prevent situations like the one experienced at Imola with Oliver Bearman in 2025.
Looking back a few months, after the red flag caused by Franco Colapinto’s incident at the end of the first qualifying session, Race Control chose to delay the start of Q2 to verify exactly which drivers had completed a lap before the session was neutralized. Initially, the system validated Oliver Bearman’s time, only to cancel it moments later, resulting in the British driver being excluded from Q2.
This was a bitter conclusion, as Bearman had set a time that would almost certainly have allowed him to advance. After the session, he expressed his frustration, emphasizing that he had received no red flag notification before completing his lap, a circumstance that he believed should have ensured his time remained valid.
Beyond the physical red flags displayed by marshals or the LED panels around the track, each driver’s steering wheel features LEDs indicating track conditions, including session interruptions. This system allows drivers to react promptly to yellow or red flags. However, Ollie Bearman’s wheel showed no warning before he crossed the finish line. The lights on his wheel, like the trackside LEDs, only activated after he had passed the line.
The most relevant data came from Race Control: the red flag message had been sent to the teams with sufficient notice, meaning before Ollie Bearman crossed the line. In contrast, the physical red flags and LED panels on the track were only displayed after the British driver had finished his lap.
The current regulations state that red flag deployment must be accompanied by the activation of orange lights at the top of the starting grid lights, which in this case coincide with the lower lights indicating the session’s end. In practice, the orange red flag lights were briefly activated after Lance Stroll, who was just ahead of Oliver Bearman, crossed the line, then turned off immediately before Oliver Bearman’s finish.
Effectively, even without physical red flags displayed, the session had already been neutralized, which is why Oliver Bearman’s lap time was invalidated. The confusing situation prompted his team to request clarification and led the FIA to amend the international regulations, now applicable across all categories beyond F1.
The new rule states: “When a car crosses the control line to complete a lap after a red flag has been displayed: (a) that lap time will not be considered valid; (b) the moment of the first display will be determined by the official timing system or, if unavailable or unsynchronized, as jointly confirmed by the Race Director and Chief Timekeeper; (c) if a lap time is nevertheless recorded after the first red flag display, the stewards must cancel it.”
In effect, the FIA has prioritized the signal sent by Race Control to teams via the official portal, where teams monitor every communication in real time. This confirms that this message will be the reference point, even if it is transmitted a few seconds before the physical display of red flags, as happened in the Bearman case.
This technical adjustment ensures that human or hardware delays in activating trackside light panels no longer create “grey areas” in qualifying results. For drivers, the message is clear: the moment the system triggers the neutralization, the session is dead, regardless of what they see on the trackside screens. While this might feel harsh for a driver on a flying lap, it provides the FIA with a definitive, timestamped metric to maintain consistency across all FIA-sanctioned championships.
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