Professional motor racing is a serious business. Having said that, F1 fans have expressed their discontent with letting celebrities and A-listers wave the checkered flag. At first glance, it seems harmless, right? What could go wrong, anyway? However, the rules of the checkered flag mean that errors in terms of waving it anytime before or after the prescribed lap count can have drastic measures on the result itself. A case in point is the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix.

At the 2018 Canadian GP, Canadian model Winnie Harlow was privileged with the responsibility of waving the checkered flag at the end of the 70-lap long race. That being said, according to Bleacher Report, “Supermodel Winnie Harlow inadvertently ended the Canadian Grand Prix two laps early when she mistakenly waved the checkered flag on the 69th lap rather than waiting for Lap 70.”

As ESPN reported, “The race became official based on the standings through 68 laps, with the final two laps wiped from the record book.”

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Sebastian Vettel assumed the race victory, with Lewis Hamilton following him in 2nd place. However, post-race, she received major backlash from the fans. In any case, this wasn’t the last time a celebrity was mocked for their checkered flag antics. But as it turns out, she wasn’t at fault at all!

F1 chief Ross Brawn cleared the air over Winnie Harlow’s gaffe

In the aftermath of the entire fiasco, they revealed that Harlow wasn’t actually in the wrong. As it turns out, she was merely following the instructions passed on to her. It was, in fact, two confused officials who were to blame for the gaffe. And Ross Brawn leaped to the defense of the mocked model.

Sky Sports quoted him as saying, “Supermodel Winnie Harlow was an innocent victim at the end of the race. I was sad to see her so heavily criticised when, as race director Charlie Whiting explained, it was all down to a misunderstanding between two officials.” He ended it on a philosophical note.

“As the saying goes, ‘to err is human’ and all of us – drivers, managers, engineers, mechanics, journalists and fans – make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them and try to prevent them happening again in the future.”

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Even though Harlow wasn’t at fault in this case, does it still make sense for Formula 1 to allow celebrities, as opposed to F1 fans, to wave the checkered flag?