IndyCar Revises Full Course Yellow Policy After Incident Involving Alexander Rossi

IndyCar Officiating has revised its criteria for deploying a full course yellow following an incident in the Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Course marshals initially deployed a local yellow at the incident location and start-finish line.

A full course yellow was initiated on the following lap after Rossi began to exit the vehicle. The decision to use a local yellow instead of an immediate full course yellow created confusion for race leaders. Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood, who were running first and second, hesitated to pit during the local yellow.

When the full course yellow was called, pit lane was closed, placing both drivers at the back of the field after their stops. Rossi expressed frustration with the delay in deploying the full course yellow while cars continued at high speed. The incident occurred on lap 21 of the race on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Effective immediately, IndyCar Officiating will no longer consider pit windows or the running order of cars when deciding to deploy a full course yellow. The decision will be based primarily on driver status, vehicle position and condition, location and readiness of safety personnel, recovery access, and speed differential between affected cars and approaching traffic.

Local yellow procedures remain unchanged. The previous assessment process had included additional factors such as laps remaining and timing of approaching traffic along with competitive considerations. "The Lap 21 incident on Saturday made clear that there needs to be a cleaner standard for how race control moves from a local to a full course yellow," IndyCar Officiating’s Independent Officiating Board chair Raj Nair said.

" The president of INDYCAR stated that the most important job in race control is to ensure the safety of drivers, crews, safety workers and fans. The updated standard has been communicated to teams and drivers. The race result from the May 8 event stands as posted.

Rossi cited the failure of a hybrid component he said the drivers had not requested. He questioned the priorities in the decision not to immediately throw a full course yellow with a car stopped on the front straight. Palou said the team made a mistake by staying out during the local yellow.

He noted the car speed allowed a recovery to fifth place in the race won by Christian Lundgaard. Kirkwood said the team had positioned itself for a potential win but was caught out by events. Josef Newgarden said the stopped car was out of the way in a yellow section and that other drivers had the opportunity to pit before the full course yellow was called.