Formula One governing body FIA recently confirmed that lap times set by drivers who drive through double waved yellow flag sectors will be immediately deleted.

During the Turkish Grand Prix qualifying Fernando Alonso set lap-time through the double waved yellow flag sectors and it was immediately deleted.

The FIA race director Michael Masi explained the change in his event notes ahead of the United States Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen currently leading the way over Lewis Hamilton in the battle to become the 2021 world champion.

“Any driver passing through a double waved yellow marshalling sector must reduce speed significantly and be prepared to change direction or stop,” wrote Masi.

“In order for the stewards to be satisfied that any such driver has complied with these requirements, it must be clear that he has not attempted to set a meaningful lap time, for practical purposes any driver in a double yellow sector will have that lap time deleted.”

Masi also added that following Turkish Grand Prix, deleting lap times altogether could be a solution to avoid any confusion over how much drivers must slow down.

“There’s probably a little bit of tweaking of wording that we can do,” he said. “It’s been one of those that’s been as it has been for quite a while.

“There’s some refining that we can probably do to make it clearer for everyone.”

Spaniard’s situation was immediately followed by Lando Norris escaping with just a warning after crossing the pit-entry line in Russia, as the McLaren driver struggled to keep the car on track as the rain began to fall.

Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen beats seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton as Formula 1’s fan favourite in the sport’s latest global survey.

Vote from 167,000 fans conducted by Motorsport Network, in association with Nielsen Sports, with an average age of 32 and coming from 187 countries, placed Red Bull’s Verstappen top of the popularity stakes with McLaren emerging as the favourite F1 team.

Briton Lando Norris on the second position ahead of fellow citizen Hamilton. Hamilton stays a firm favourite in the UK, Brazil and Canada, It is Verstappen that tops the tables votes from the Netherlands, Japan and the United States.

F1 Global Survey 2021 – Top 10 Favourite Drivers

Max Verstappen – 14.4%
Lando Norris – 13.7%
Lewis Hamilton – 12.5%
Daniel Ricciardo – 10.2%
Sebastian Vettel – 9%
Charles Leclerc – 7.4%
Fernando Alonso – 7.3%
Kimi Raikkonen – 5.4%
George Russell – 4%
Pierre Gasly – 2.9%

F1 Global Survey 2021 – Top 5 Favourite Teams

McLaren 29.5%
Red Bull 19.7%
Ferrari 17.9%
Mercedes 11.9%
Alpine 3.1%

Speaking in a virtual press conference to announce the survey’s results ahead of this weekend’s showpiece US GP in Austin, F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said of the fans’ feedback: “Their views are very valuable to all of us, and we are extremely pleased for what we have heard. We take that very seriously.

“One very important element for us is it shows that today Formula 1 is the most followed platform internationally and this is really great. This is something that shows who we are and the things that we need to do in order to progress with this growth that we are living today.

“It’s clear that we are reaching new fans and people that are also coming to the sport with a different vision. So we need to respect the traditions of the ones who are super-avid about motorsport with the fans who are getting into this business.”

“The number [in the survey] is very encouraging because you need to consider the mixed feeling of having a more traditional fan less happy for the change while the new fans are really happy to see things moving in a different way,” said Domenicali.

“As it’s stated on the survey, we are not even thinking to go with all the Grand Prix in a different format. We are thinking that we can create a very fixed number, that I think will be six, in the next future with this format with changes that we are thinking about together with the teams to improve the quality of the offer.”