Yellow flag icon in F1

[Daston]

Hey guys,

Is it just me or does the yellow flag icon (ie the lap indicator going yellow) change quite a bit without any comments on it.

In the last race it went yellow a couple of seconds then back to normal and for one period stayed yellow for a good 20 seconds and still no one commented. Is the software just buggy and there really were no yellows on track, or does JL & MB not see what we see.

[10 Pence Short]

It'll be linked to race control and the new on-track flag lights. That means that a driver going wide on a corner or having a minor spin will bring on the yellow flags on circuit and on the on screen graphic.

Lots of yellow flag incidents may only last a few seconds as the driver recovers the situation, but will still show up on the screen.

[lord summerisle]

10 Pence Short said:

It'll be linked to race control and the new on-track flag lights. That means that a driver going wide on a corner or having a minor spin will bring on the yellow flags on circuit and on the on screen graphic.

Lots of yellow flag incidents may only last a few seconds as the driver recovers the situation, but will still show up on the screen.

Correct.
All flag marshals are on a radio network. one for Yellow Flags, one for blue flags. the BF radio is for the flag marshal on blue to listen too, rather than talk on.

the Yellow Flag marshal is to call in each time they put out and withdraw their yellow flag.
at the British GP, the guys in control of the lights were also calling in when they put the lights on, as a back up. But as said, when the yellow light is activated, it notifies Race Control.
RC can also control the whole panel themselves.
this is a light control panel: http://twitpic.com/294jwx
To me has some design flaws, but since the only buttons that work when the marshal preses them is the yellow, double yellow and the off button, some of those flaws are neutralised

And since there only seems to be 17 light boxes to go around the circuit, the lights cover a much greater distance than the flags (17 light points to 30+ flag points at the BGP.)