For your first question "is it possible to define how quickly the lapped driver needs to obey the flags?"
- In the rFm folder where the .rfm files are located for each racing series, there is a line there for rules and with regards to blue flags, here are the options:
// How blue flags are used. This value can be overridden through the player file; default=3, possible values
// are: 0=no blue flags, 1=show but never penalize for not moving over, 2=show and penalize if necessary for
// vehicles withing 0.3 seconds, 3=0.5 seconds, 4=0.7 seconds, 5=0.9 seconds, 6=1.1 seconds.
BlueFlags = 1
- IMO, for offline racing and in my experience, the AI's never really get to follow these lines or rules... I don't know, maybe I messed up something in my files and I am too tired to reinstall the whole game but this never really works for me...
For the second question "is it possible to define what the penalty is for not obeying blue flags?"
- I haven't been penalized for this situation despite turning on the said settings in the .rfm files. I guess for offline racing, there isn't a way to set this but for the peeps there racing online, maybe they can shed some light if this is possible online...
Anyway, sorry for maybe giving a bit of the negative side of things with regards to your question but in my years of using rFactor, those where some of the disappointments I got...
And also if you want to get more explanation about how rules work, the rfm file "NSCRS06" will get you most of the information about it aside from the blue flags...