Isn't the flag they race under based on the country that issues their racing license? Generally that would be a country they hold citizenship in, but I'd imagine, in theory, it's possible for it to be different
[Kamui Kobayashi drove under the Monaco flag in Formula E because of that.](https://twitter.com/FIAFormulaE/status/933733450443608064)
Fabienne Wohlwend drove under a Swiss flag in WSeries for the same reason (Although had a Liechtenstein flag on her car...).
> Isn't the flag they race under based on the country that issues their racing license?
No. For example, Andre Lotterer had a Japanese and then a Belgian licence while representing Germany.
Nope. This is covered in 9.4.2 of the FIA’s International Sporting Code.
“9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies.”
Not in F1. The driver races under the flag of their passport. A recent example are Stroll and Latifi in 2020 that had to race under US licenses because the Canadian issuer shut down. But they were still under the Canadian flag.
In other categories is based on the country that issues their license.
Rules say drivers will drive under the flag on their passport. Some drivers have double nationality , so they can change which flag they want to drive under, just like Rosberg did. But yes, it has nothing to do where their license was issued.
Its "Article 9.4 Nationality of a competitor or driver" of the International Sporting Code
>9.4.1 As far as the application of the Code is concerned, any Competitor or Driver who has obtained their Licence from an ASN takes the nationality of that ASN for the period of validity of that Licence.
>9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies.
For Albon, his mother is Thai so bloodright laws give him the nationality too
I guess if Mazepin (if he was still in F1) changed nationality, for example, Citizenship by Investment in St Kitts and Nevis, he would be able to race under the St Kitts Flag rather than the Neutral "RAF" Flag
> 9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies.
So he wouldn't need a St Kitts licence, just a St Kitts passport.
Essentially my question was, do you have to be a Chinese national to drive under the Chinese flag, or is it alright if your of Chinese origin have and have a different passport
Your nationality according to the FIA is determined by the passport you hold. Although, I honestly can't remember a time where a driver changed nationalities mid-career and you would think at one point or another someone would have changed their citizenship.
There are exceptions, Northern Irish drivers have driven under British, Irish and Northern Irish flags despite not holding Irish passports (which isn't needed anyway) and Northern Ireland not being a sovereign state or even having an official flag.
Having said that if he's been here since he was 12 then he could ahve taken British Citizenship years ago so the chances are he's not intending to.
> despite not holding Irish passports
This is due to the Good Friday Agreement. This confirms that those born in Northern Ireland can legally identify themselves as either British or Irish citizens, passport or not.
> I honestly can't remember a time where a driver changed nationalities mid-career
Romain Grosjean did that. Started out as Swiss and occasionally [ran under the Swiss flag up until 2010](https://i.imgur.com/Udbnz0N.png) alongside racing under the French one in other series. Doornbos did that too, officially he was racing under a Monaco license during his time at Minardi, before going back to Dutch at Red Bull. *Oh and Alex Albon too, he was a Brit in Formula Renault.
There's a guy in F2 right now, Brad Benavides, who switched from Spanish to American 3 races into last year's F3 season.
Also last year in the same F3 field there were 2 others, Oliver Goethe (Danish -> Monacan) and Christian Mansell (Aussie -> Brit) who raced under a different nationality in EF Open earlier that year. As an extra fun bit, Goethe is going to be *a third nationality* this season, having registered as German.
So in short, it's relatively common.
>As an extra fun bit, Goethe is going to be a third nationality this season, having registered as German.
I'll see your Oliver Goethe and raise you a Zdenek Chovanec. He's Czech-Venezuelan by birth, but racing under a Portuguese licence.
But unlike Goethe he's always raced with just the Portuguese license as far as I know.
Back in the 90s there was also Bertrand Gachot of course, who raced as Belgian and French in F1 and added Luxembourger later in sportscars, all the while putting an EU flag on his cars instead.
It's not. Robert Doornbos is not a Monegasque citizen and doesn't have a Monegasque passport either, yet he raced as a Monegasque driver in his first races in F1. He once explained the reason was purely administrative. The first time you apply for a super licence, an ASN needs to issue a letter of recommendation along with a career results overview and a copy of your international A licence. The Monegasque ASN was able to help Doornbos out much faster than the Dutch one would've been able to, so he went with a Monegasque superlicence rather than a Dutch one.
From the FIA Sporting Code:
"All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize giving ceremonies."
You can compete with a racing license issued by whatever country you want but the FIA will not refer to you as being of that nationality if you don't hold a passport.
Huh, interesting! I'm pretty sure they added that bit after Doornbos' spell as a Monegasque driver though, because I remember him being referred to as a Monegasque driver on the timing and results screens back then, he's also referred to as Monegasque on F1.com's results page for 2005 and on [this snapshot](https://web.archive.org/web/20060314163635/http://www.fia.com/sport/Championships/F1/F1_Classifications/2005/Championship/2005.html) of the FIA's results page from way back when.
I expect the Chinese government isn’t going to make him give up his passport. It’s great PR for them to have a Chinese driver in F1. Easy to look the other way.
No that wouldn’t make sense
At this point he’s eligible for “indefinite leave to remain” which he could keep renewing as long as he isn’t outside the UK for >2 years continuous. Analogous to a US green card; can be a pathway to citizenship but is in itself a valid means of legally remaining and working as a foreign-born resident.
Before this he would have been eligible for sportsperson visas. There is (or was) one for 16+ elite athletes and coaches, and a “sports visitor” visa with more open eligibility. They permit travel, work, study, etc. They require some documentation from your intended team and approval from the UK’s National level motorsport organization. I imagine the process of applying for and renewing these is fairly streamlined given how many international drivers come to the UK for karting, British f4, GB3, junior academies, and so on.
With some countries if you become a naturalised citizen of that country you have to renounce any other citizenships you hold.
Albon isn't Chinese and he has citizenship of both Britain and Thailand through his parents, not through naturalisation.
Never said he was Chinese, just used him as an example.
The UK takes the very pragmatic view that you can have as many passports as you like but to not expect the UK to intervene against those countries on things like national service or anything where you're treated differently by those countries because you are a citizen
Doubt Grosjean is the only driver to have swiss on the side, wouldn't be suprised if there were a fair few with monegasque passports too.
Verstappen was is Belgian as well as Dutch and I'd be surprised post Brexit if Lando hadn't taken a Belgian passport too just for convenience if he didn't have one before.
Highly doubtful. Ho-Pin Tung has both the dutch and chinese citizenship and races under the Chinese flag most of the time. He isn't as high profile as F1 would be.
Why would he naturalise? He's likely eligible for indefinite leave to remain by this point.
If he decided to, he would have to switch to driving under a UK flag because the superlicence nationality matches your passport nationality (those with multiple citizenships, like Max and Albon, choose which one). Obvious he never would as it would be of detriment to him.
as i understand it, you can race under any flag you have a passport for, hence why robert schwartzman can race under the israeli flag - he has an israeli passport
No, see Ho-Pin Tung. Has dual nationality, born in The Netherlands and is basically just a Dutchman with Chinese roots, and eventually raced under the Chinese flag in many classes.
Does Zhou *want* to become a British citizen?
Also, the flag you race under is determined by the nationality in your FIA Super Licence. Providing he doesn't change that, I don't see an issue.
Isn't the flag they race under based on the country that issues their racing license? Generally that would be a country they hold citizenship in, but I'd imagine, in theory, it's possible for it to be different
[Kamui Kobayashi drove under the Monaco flag in Formula E because of that.](https://twitter.com/FIAFormulaE/status/933733450443608064) Fabienne Wohlwend drove under a Swiss flag in WSeries for the same reason (Although had a Liechtenstein flag on her car...).
> Isn't the flag they race under based on the country that issues their racing license? No. For example, Andre Lotterer had a Japanese and then a Belgian licence while representing Germany.
I don’t believe so, as both latifi and stroll raced under American racing licenses during covid.
Nope. This is covered in 9.4.2 of the FIA’s International Sporting Code. “9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies.”
Not in F1. The driver races under the flag of their passport. A recent example are Stroll and Latifi in 2020 that had to race under US licenses because the Canadian issuer shut down. But they were still under the Canadian flag. In other categories is based on the country that issues their license.
I don’t know that this is true. Don’t think Albon has a Thai passport. Just chose to race under that flag.
Albon has dual nationality as far as I am aware. He chose to race under the Thai flag to honour his heritage/mother or something like that.
He chose to race under the Thai flag to honour his Thai sponsors
Exactly… I think ultimately it is a driver’s choice to race under a certain flag. It definitely isn’t where the license comes from.
Rules say drivers will drive under the flag on their passport. Some drivers have double nationality , so they can change which flag they want to drive under, just like Rosberg did. But yes, it has nothing to do where their license was issued.
Its "Article 9.4 Nationality of a competitor or driver" of the International Sporting Code >9.4.1 As far as the application of the Code is concerned, any Competitor or Driver who has obtained their Licence from an ASN takes the nationality of that ASN for the period of validity of that Licence. >9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies. For Albon, his mother is Thai so bloodright laws give him the nationality too
I guess if Mazepin (if he was still in F1) changed nationality, for example, Citizenship by Investment in St Kitts and Nevis, he would be able to race under the St Kitts Flag rather than the Neutral "RAF" Flag
It would still hinge on their motorsport federation authorising the licence.
> 9.4.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize-giving ceremonies. So he wouldn't need a St Kitts licence, just a St Kitts passport.
Why would he do that? He would lose his sponsors.
Essentially my question was, do you have to be a Chinese national to drive under the Chinese flag, or is it alright if your of Chinese origin have and have a different passport
Your nationality according to the FIA is determined by the passport you hold. Although, I honestly can't remember a time where a driver changed nationalities mid-career and you would think at one point or another someone would have changed their citizenship.
There are exceptions, Northern Irish drivers have driven under British, Irish and Northern Irish flags despite not holding Irish passports (which isn't needed anyway) and Northern Ireland not being a sovereign state or even having an official flag. Having said that if he's been here since he was 12 then he could ahve taken British Citizenship years ago so the chances are he's not intending to.
> despite not holding Irish passports This is due to the Good Friday Agreement. This confirms that those born in Northern Ireland can legally identify themselves as either British or Irish citizens, passport or not.
> I honestly can't remember a time where a driver changed nationalities mid-career Romain Grosjean did that. Started out as Swiss and occasionally [ran under the Swiss flag up until 2010](https://i.imgur.com/Udbnz0N.png) alongside racing under the French one in other series. Doornbos did that too, officially he was racing under a Monaco license during his time at Minardi, before going back to Dutch at Red Bull. *Oh and Alex Albon too, he was a Brit in Formula Renault. There's a guy in F2 right now, Brad Benavides, who switched from Spanish to American 3 races into last year's F3 season. Also last year in the same F3 field there were 2 others, Oliver Goethe (Danish -> Monacan) and Christian Mansell (Aussie -> Brit) who raced under a different nationality in EF Open earlier that year. As an extra fun bit, Goethe is going to be *a third nationality* this season, having registered as German. So in short, it's relatively common.
Nico rosberg started as a Finnish driver then switched to German
Rosberg holds both passports, though, so it's not the same thing.
So does romain
>As an extra fun bit, Goethe is going to be a third nationality this season, having registered as German. I'll see your Oliver Goethe and raise you a Zdenek Chovanec. He's Czech-Venezuelan by birth, but racing under a Portuguese licence.
Tbt to kiwi Marcus Armstrong racing as Italian. Wasn’t sure if that was on the basis of Prema, his residing in maranello for FDA, or what
But unlike Goethe he's always raced with just the Portuguese license as far as I know. Back in the 90s there was also Bertrand Gachot of course, who raced as Belgian and French in F1 and added Luxembourger later in sportscars, all the while putting an EU flag on his cars instead.
It's not. Robert Doornbos is not a Monegasque citizen and doesn't have a Monegasque passport either, yet he raced as a Monegasque driver in his first races in F1. He once explained the reason was purely administrative. The first time you apply for a super licence, an ASN needs to issue a letter of recommendation along with a career results overview and a copy of your international A licence. The Monegasque ASN was able to help Doornbos out much faster than the Dutch one would've been able to, so he went with a Monegasque superlicence rather than a Dutch one.
From the FIA Sporting Code: "All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize giving ceremonies." You can compete with a racing license issued by whatever country you want but the FIA will not refer to you as being of that nationality if you don't hold a passport.
Huh, interesting! I'm pretty sure they added that bit after Doornbos' spell as a Monegasque driver though, because I remember him being referred to as a Monegasque driver on the timing and results screens back then, he's also referred to as Monegasque on F1.com's results page for 2005 and on [this snapshot](https://web.archive.org/web/20060314163635/http://www.fia.com/sport/Championships/F1/F1_Classifications/2005/Championship/2005.html) of the FIA's results page from way back when.
I expect the Chinese government isn’t going to make him give up his passport. It’s great PR for them to have a Chinese driver in F1. Easy to look the other way.
He seems pretty proud to be the first Chinese driver in F1 so I don’t see him going after British citizenship
He might haven to get British Citizenship to stay/work/live in the country he’s been in since he was a kid though.
No that wouldn’t make sense At this point he’s eligible for “indefinite leave to remain” which he could keep renewing as long as he isn’t outside the UK for >2 years continuous. Analogous to a US green card; can be a pathway to citizenship but is in itself a valid means of legally remaining and working as a foreign-born resident. Before this he would have been eligible for sportsperson visas. There is (or was) one for 16+ elite athletes and coaches, and a “sports visitor” visa with more open eligibility. They permit travel, work, study, etc. They require some documentation from your intended team and approval from the UK’s National level motorsport organization. I imagine the process of applying for and renewing these is fairly streamlined given how many international drivers come to the UK for karting, British f4, GB3, junior academies, and so on.
Yes completely agree. Just a hypothetical question. Pretty unlikely for zhou to do so.
Taking a British passport diesn't stop you being chinese, just look at Albon Edit: Lads, I know he's not Chinese...
wait isnt albon thai?
Yes, just using it as proof you can be British and race under a different flag.
With some countries if you become a naturalised citizen of that country you have to renounce any other citizenships you hold. Albon isn't Chinese and he has citizenship of both Britain and Thailand through his parents, not through naturalisation.
Never said he was Chinese, just used him as an example. The UK takes the very pragmatic view that you can have as many passports as you like but to not expect the UK to intervene against those countries on things like national service or anything where you're treated differently by those countries because you are a citizen
Or grosjean being swiss but still french
Doubt Grosjean is the only driver to have swiss on the side, wouldn't be suprised if there were a fair few with monegasque passports too. Verstappen was is Belgian as well as Dutch and I'd be surprised post Brexit if Lando hadn't taken a Belgian passport too just for convenience if he didn't have one before.
yup, three drivers with belgian citizenship right now afaik, Max, Lando and Stroll
Stroll's Belgian? TiL
all of them are belgian through their moms and all of them race under a different flag
Who knew that all you needed to start an F1 eugenics programme is Belgian women?
Yes it does because China doesn’t allow it. Albon is a dual national with Thailand which does allow it
Are you being intentionally or unintentionally racist here? Albon is of Thai heritage.
Or maybe not racist at all and just pointing out F1's only example currently of a British passport holder racing under another flag
Highly doubtful. Ho-Pin Tung has both the dutch and chinese citizenship and races under the Chinese flag most of the time. He isn't as high profile as F1 would be.
Seems a big if. Has he shown any intention of doing so?
>Nah, just curious generally cuz he's been living in the UK for the last 10 years. He's done schooling here as well.
he'd never do it unless china goes AWOL probably, they give him his sponsors and he loves his country
Can pre-season testing just hurry the fuck up.
Well.....given the fact that most of his financial backing comes from china.......
Have we hit peak off season yet?
Why would he naturalise? He's likely eligible for indefinite leave to remain by this point. If he decided to, he would have to switch to driving under a UK flag because the superlicence nationality matches your passport nationality (those with multiple citizenships, like Max and Albon, choose which one). Obvious he never would as it would be of detriment to him.
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If Albon, born and raised in the UK can race under a Thai flag. I don’t see why, on principal Zhou couldn’t still race under a Chinese flag.
as i understand it, you can race under any flag you have a passport for, hence why robert schwartzman can race under the israeli flag - he has an israeli passport
No, see Ho-Pin Tung. Has dual nationality, born in The Netherlands and is basically just a Dutchman with Chinese roots, and eventually raced under the Chinese flag in many classes.
Tung Ho-Pin as a Dutch citizen had raced under Chinese flag several times, it’s about the racing license, not the citizenship.
Does Zhou *want* to become a British citizen? Also, the flag you race under is determined by the nationality in your FIA Super Licence. Providing he doesn't change that, I don't see an issue.