If you’re a go kart beginner, you will have probably realized that there are plenty of flags, and each of these flags will have different meaning. And you will need to have a clear idea of what these flags mean.
So, it’s really important for you to understand that because some of those flags can impact the result of your race most of the times in a negative way if you don’t know what they mean.
Here’s the list of the five most important go k art flags:
- Yellow Flag
- Black and white flag
- Black flag
- Black and orange flag
- Red Flag
Yellow Flag
And let’s get started with the first flag which is the yellow flag. The yellow flag means that there’s a crash hence you should not overtake. No overtaking is allowed therefore you have to just keep up your speed and reduce it by a little bit in that specific area where the crashes happened to make sure that you’re not going to get involved in the crash. That could be very dangerous at times.
There could be Marshal that are trying to remove the broken kart or just helping to fix the situation. So, please be aware, anytime that you see a yellow flag, you’re not allowed to overtake and you should be reducing a little bit your speed.
Because if the crashes in front of you, if there is marshals on tracks, you’re not going to want to hit them. You just have to be aware of that.
It’s important because if you overtake during a race, you’re going to get penalized. And you’re going to get the time penalty and sometimes a disqualification.
So, it depends on the specific rules of each and every championship. But, again, please be aware of this.
Black and white flag
The second most important flag is the black and white flag.
This flag is shown to you if you have been misbehaving, if you have perhaps crashed into another guy or if you have bumped him, whatever you did was not according to rules. It’s like a yellow flag for soccer.
They give you this white and black flag and if you keep repeating what you did, you’re gonna get a black flag.
And as we will see later, a black flag is really like a disqualification from the race. So, let’s keep going with the black and white flag.
So oftentimes, as I said, is maybe due to the fact that you have bumped into somebody, or maybe have been defending too aggressively. It really depends also from the stewards, sometimes the stewards allow you to be a bit more aggressive.
But sometimes they are very, very strict. So, it depends, again, on the championships and where you’re racing. In Italy, where I’ve been racing, it’s quite strict.
Especially now with the front bumpers, there’s basically very little tolerance.
Black flag
The next flag is the black flag and that is going to be a consequence of having received another black white flag before or maybe you’ve just really been misbehaving so badly that you’re going to receive a Black Flag straight away.
So again, that is a sign that you have been doing something very, very wrong and oftentimes caused a collision, caused the crash.
And so, you have to immediately get out of the race, go to the pits and oftentimes, you will have to go and say sorry to the kart that you’ve hit to the driver and also to the steward sometimes.
But it kind of depends but I just want you to understand that whenever there is a black flag for you, you have to just stop immediately, not on track, but you have to go to the pits.
That means your race is over and it’s the worst thing you can get.
Black and orange flag
And the next flag is the black and orange flag. This means you have a technical issue. So perhaps you have lost something on your card and it needs to be fixed.
So, you will have to go to the pits within two laps of receiving the flag. And it means probably that your race is over unless the mechanics will be able to fix it and send you back.
But oftentimes your race will be compromised and it’s going to be difficult to recover everything that you’ve lost. The final two flags are the blue flag which you get when you get lapped during a race. And leaders are coming, you’re going to be getting lapped.
So, what you have to do is let them go through safely without causing any collision. And oftentimes, they will require you to go through the pits.
Red flag
And then the final flag is the red flag. You get the red flag if big crashes happened. And they just have to stop the race to perhaps require the ambulance to come or for any other major reasons.
So again, when you see the red flag, you will have to stop.
Oftentimes, you will have to stop on the start finish straight or they will require you to go through the pits, it will depend from time to time.
Conclusion:
Anyways, these were the main flags I wanted you to know before getting into your first go kart races and I hope they were helpful for sure.
There will be new flags perhaps coming in the future. And please let me let me know if I’ve missed any flags. And send me an email for that. See you soon.