Tony Fernandes said at the Monaco Grand Prix that he would like to get rid of the flags, waved by marshals to tell slower drivers to move aside when they are about to be lapped during a race.
Formula One's blue warning flags are making Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes see red.
The Malaysian told Reuters at the Monaco Grand Prix that he would like to get rid of the flags, waved by marshals to tell slower drivers to move aside when they are about to be lapped during a race.
"Drivers are paid to overtake, whether they are back markers or at the front," said the aviation entrepreneur, whose men can expect to be looking in their mirrors and moving out of the way repeatedly in Sunday's race.
"I think it would be good for the sport to get rid of blue flags.
"In the days of (the late team boss) Ken Tyrrell, he would never let any car pass," added Fernandes.
"If it's really hard for a world champion to get past a back marker then I think it's a sad day for racing. I think racing is all about getting past people and overtaking and adding a little bit of ''je ne sais quoi''.
"You've got a driver saying it's ridiculous that he's lapping someone four times, so why should he be complaining about overtaking a guy that he's lapping four times?," added the Formula One newcomer.
Fernandes' comments were controversial in the light of safety concerns ahead of Sunday's race, with some of the sport's new teams lapping seven seconds slower than the frontrunners on a tight and twisty circuit where overtaking is extremely challenging.
Under the sport's regulations, a light blue flag tells a driver that he must move aside to be lapped. If he ignores three successive blue flags during the race, he faces a penalty.
Fernandes said abolishing them would make the sport less predictable.
He dismissed safety fears, saying that there was also a concern for the slower drivers if they had to constantly move off the racing line and worry about what was behind them.
Some of the tail-enders said after last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix that they were able to complete as few as 15 of 66 laps without a blue flag being waved at them.
Germany's Timo Glock, who drives for the new Virgin Racing team, added that he expected to see lots more on Sunday.
"We had a lot of blue flags coming up in Barcelona and Barcelona is a really easy track to have a look at your mirrors and see and judge where the others are.
"That will be a bit more challenging here," he said.
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