Marshals at some posts displayed Safety Car boards during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after several drivers crashed at the first corner following a restart, although race control had not deployed the Safety Car. The stewards disclosed the incorrect signals while explaining why Gabriel Bortoleto received a 10-second time penalty for overtaking Sergio Perez under yellow flags. Their decision acknowledged that the signals confused Bortoleto, but said the waved yellow flags still had to be obeyed.

The stewards wrote that “at the relevant time, marshal posts in this area were displaying physical ‘SC’ boards together with waved yellow flags.” They added: “However, the stewards established that, at that time, the Safety Car had not in fact been deployed by race control.”

In their account of Bortoleto’s explanation, the stewards said he first reacted to the boards and flags, then checked for other indications. “[Bortoleto] explained that he initially reacted to the SC boards and yellow flags. However, he did not see any corresponding electronic indication and did not receive a Safety Car indication on his steering wheel. He was also informed by his team that the Safety Car had not been deployed. Bortoleto therefore became uncertain as to the actual status of the race and, not wishing to lose position unnecessarily, subsequently overtook [Perez].”

The officials accepted that the mixed messages played a substantial part in the circumstances. “The stewards accept that the conflicting information contributed significantly to the situation. In particular, as the Safety Car had not been deployed, Bortoleto cannot be considered to have overtaken another car under Safety Car conditions.”

Bortoleto said he had seen the yellow flags but believed they were part of the same Safety Car indication as the boards. He thought the flags no longer applied after his team told him the Safety Car had not been sent out. The stewards rejected that interpretation, finding that the flags remained an instruction on their own.

“A waved yellow flag is an instruction in its own right and must be respected irrespective of any accompanying signal. A driver cannot disregard a yellow flag based on his own assessment as to why it has been displayed or whether it should have been displayed. The 2026 FIA practice likewise treats yellow flag indications as requiring compliance even where surrounding circumstances are unusual,” the stewards said.

They concluded that Bortoleto had passed Perez while the yellow flag condition was still active. “Accordingly, notwithstanding the understandable confusion concerning the SC boards, Bortoleto had seen the waved yellow flags and nevertheless overtook Perez while the yellow flag condition remained in effect. The stewards therefore determine that Bortoleto overtook another car under yellow flag conditions.”

The stewards said the erroneous Safety Car indications and conflicting information did not remove a driver’s obligation to follow the yellow flag instruction. “The stewards acknowledge that the erroneous SC indications and the conflicting information contributed to the circumstances of the incident. However, these circumstances do not remove the obligation to respect a waved yellow flag and the stewards therefore apply the standard penalty for overtaking under a single yellow flag.”

RaceFans published its report on Sept. 26, 2026, at 18:30, with an updated time of Sept. 27 at 8:21. The article was written by Keith Collantine, who founded RaceFans in 2005 under its original name, F1 Fanatic. A lifelong motor sport fan, Collantine had worked as a motoring journalist before beginning to run the site full-time in 2010, fulfilling his ambition to focus entirely on his interest in motor racing.

Based on reporting by RaceFans.