When the 2014 season began it was clear we were about to see an increase in the amount of
team radio traffic due to the demands placed on drivers by their
considerably more complicated cars.
The FIA has now decided to impose limits on
what drivers may be told by their teams with the intention of preventing
them from getting too much assistance with driving their cars. The changes will
come into effect from the first practice session on Friday at Singapore.
This is significant because the FIA is attempting to do something it had
previously indicated wasn’t possible. At the end of 2010 a ban on teams issuing
orders to their drivers – for example, to relinquish a position to their team
mate – was lifted. Earlier in the season Felipe Massa had given up victory
to Fernando Alonso in the German Grand Prix after being given the
now-infamous radio message “Fernando is faster than you”.
The FIA now proposes to forbid a much broader range of team radio messages
and also prevent teams from getting around the ban by using code words.
Ironically, team orders will not be part of the new ban.
Nor will instructions for drivers to make a pit stop or traffic information
relating to other cars. However driving style advice, instructions on car
settings and information about tyre and brake wear will be forbidden.
At a stroke the FIA has created a huge new area to police. All radio traffic
between each of the 22 cars could now be grounds for an infringement and subject
to a protest. A review of some of the common messages heard in recent races
gives insight into who stands to benefit and lose from the new policy, how much
radio traffic will now be illegal, and where potential grey areas could cause the kind of
“controversies” teams have already warned about.
Driving style
Following the increase in the use of team radio broadcasts in recent seasons,
some commentators have criticised messages to drivers telling them how to alter
their driving style. Stopping this appears to be one of the main focuses of the
new approach.
Here are some examples of messages like this we’ve heard in recent races:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 21 | Angel Baena | Marcus Ericsson | Kamui braking later two, three and five. You can improve exit
nine. |
Austria | 64 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Guys give me some updates on where I can be quicker. |
Austria | 64 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah copy that Lewis we’ll just get a couple of clean laps, mostly traffic
that’s been hurting you. Mainly turns five and six, we’ll give you more information soon. So braking at turn two and three, where you are managing, and turn five and six. |
Germany | 6 | Gianpiero Lambiase | Sergio Perez | Checo, focus on the exit of turn 12. We’re losing two tenths on the exit of
turn 12 alone, OK? That’s where our time loss is at the moment. |
Britain | 13 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | Be more progressive with the steering, turns one and two. |
Hungary | 8 | Gianpiero Lambiase | Sergio Perez | Checo, use shorter gears at all apexes, please. Use a lower gear at all
apexes. Too slow on the throttle down to turn two as well, OK? Nico far more aggressive on the throttle down to turn two. Stop the car a bit earlier for the apex of turn one and get on the power. |
However clamping down on this type of radio message could go beyond giving
information on how a driver should take a certain corner.
It could include telling them whether they should be conserving their tyres
or pushing, and whether they should attack a rival or hold position. Even
general words of encouragement like “just keep it up” could be interpreted as an
instruction to maintain the current pace instead of lapping more quickly or
slowly.
There are other potential grey areas as well. For example, can drivers be
given information about the status of an area of the track from a safety point
of view, as they were in Canada? And if so how much can they be told without it
being considered excessive assistance?
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | 2 | Brad Joyce | Sergio Perez | Checo, the information we have, or that we can give you, is that there is
less debris off-line in those corners. Stay off-line if you can. And more brake temperature. |
Canada | 3 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | OK Sebastian, if you go through the chicane again – turn three and turn four
– just have a good look at the track conditions. There’s fluid on the exit of turn four, which we think is on-line. Just have a good look, you know better. |
Canada | 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Need someone to keep an eye out at the restart to see what people do in turn
four, please. If people clean it up, I can attack there. |
Canada | 8 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah Lewis, I’m sure you’ve seen it, but the outside of turn four does look
bad, so you are going to have to modify your line, obviously. |
And will team members be allowed to remind drivers about specific rules? If
not we could see an increase in penalties as drivers struggle to recall the more
obscure parts of F1′s 55-page Sporting Regulations.
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Britain | 2 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | And remember, ten car lengths behind Safety Car. |
Hungary | 10 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | And remember, you’re racing to Safety Car line two. You’re racing to Safety
Car line two, which is at pit exit. Box, box. |
These are the kinds of details teams will want to clear up before this
weekend’s track action begins.
Car operation
In 2003 the FIA banned teams from using pit-to-car telemetry to adjust their
cars without any input from the driver while they were on the circuit. Since
then, teams have replicated that approach by giving drivers instructions on the
radio to make the necessary changes in the cockpit via the multi-function dials
on their steering wheels.
Judging by the sheer volume of messages drivers receive relating to car
settings, having to master their car controls without assistance from the pit
wall is going to be a significant challenge.
Some drivers have already had problems navigating the myriad options
available to them in their cars’ menus. Here’s a small sample of the kind of
messages we already hear along these lines:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | 6 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | Right Sebastian, think about bias for restart. You’re currently minus-two,
which would be good for on-track, but could be a bit short for first lap. And ten car lengths, if you can. |
Canada | 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Antonio Spagnolo | I don’t know what is ‘P4′? |
Canada | 16 | Antonio Spagnolo | Kimi Raikkonen | OK, so it’s 12 clicks on the ’10′-button, and four clicks on the
’1′-button. |
Canada | 32 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | Nico, we need to increase fuel saving again. Fuel is increasing at the
moment. So where you can, longer gears and a little bit more Hoagys. |
Austria | 23 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis let’s lay off the overtake for a bit. We’ll just get that ESS up,
get this battery charge back up. |
Austria | 23 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | I have plenty of pace. Can I charge it more? |
Austria | 23 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah we’ll look into it Lewis, we are on the limit though at the
moment. |
Britain | 5 | Brad Joyce | Nico Hulkenberg | We’re on the bottom of the state of store, no overtake. No
overtake. |
Germany | 23 | Mark Temple | Kevin Magnussen | And Kevin, you’ll have to switch to ‘golf three’, where you would’ve used
the overtake, and then switch back to ‘golf six’. |
Germany | 23 | Kevin Magnussen | Mark Temple | It doesn’t work. It doesn’t switch on when you switch these. |
Germany | 23 | Mark Temple | Kevin Magnussen | So, it won’t make the overtake button work, but if you switch to ‘golf six’
on the start fin– ‘golf three’ on the start/finish line and then leave it there until turn six, that will give the extra power. |
It’s not hard to see how this might lead some teams to simplify the control
systems on their cars. There isn’t much room in an F1 cockpit for a user’s
manual so they may have to reduce the functionality available to their
drivers.
This
could have interesting consequences for how drivers use their cars’ high
performance settings. Access to these is restricted because of the extra strain
they place upon the car.
Teams try to limit how frequently drivers use them in the heat of battle, but
haven’t always been successful. Both Mercedes drivers are known to have made
unauthorised use of their car’s high power settings on occasions this year, and
Sebastian Vettel did
the same during his battle with Mark Webber in Malaysia last year.
Teams may give their drivers a pre-defined maximum number of presses on their
overtake button, or add another signal on their display which shows when it is
available.
Preventing teams from giving instructions on how to change settings on their
cars could be to the detriment of less experienced drivers, who are more likely
to need this sort of assistance. And those teams without their own simulator,
such as Sauber, will have less opportunity to prepare for this significant
change in policy.
Tyre and brake management
The FIA is normally very wary of making any change which might be seen as a
compromise on safety standards. Removing the ability for teams to warn their
drivers about the extent of their brake and tyre wear could be seen as that,
although drivers are likely to be given access to this information through their
steering wheel displays.
That means no more messages like this:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 8 | Andrew Murdoch | Felipe Massa | Keep looking after the rear-left, we have to look after the rear-left tyre.
Try diff entry four. |
Austria | 9 | Andrew Murdoch | Felipe Massa | We need to keep looking after the rear-left exit turns one, two and three.
Obviously keep short-shifting where possible. |
Austria | 10 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Front brakes again over limit. Just have a think about the
compromises. |
Austria | 23 | Gary Gannon | Max Chilton | Let’s try and use the tyre to keep Kobayashi behind, use the tyre. We’ll
adjust our plan and use the tyre. |
Austria | 33 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Brake info please. |
Austria | 33 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Last lap you were over target. Not by much. It doesn’t take much
management. |
Canada | 34 | Nico Rosberg | Tony Ross | Where is my team mate on brake balance, forwards or rearwards? |
Canada | 35 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | He’s more rearwards of you, you’re more forwards. |
Austria | 20 | Francesco Nenci | Jules Bianchi | We have hot front brake temperatures. Brake balance minus four clicks on the
dash. |
Hungary | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | My brakes are still not working, it’s still on ‘passive’. |
Hungary | 2 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | OK, so we just need to get some brake temperature into the front-right. It
is starting to come up. |
Hungary | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | It’s still in ‘passive’ though. |
Hungary | 2 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah, copy that Lewis. As soon as we get the temperature up, we can go
driver default one-zero again. |
Hungary | 22 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | Sebastian, your front caliper is a little warm. Rearwards on bias if you
can. Rearwards on bias if you can. |
It remains to be seen what degree of car damage teams are allowed to warn
their drivers about. It’s hard to imagine the FIA forbidding a team from
instructing a driver to retire a car on safety grounds – for example, if they
noticed an imminent rear wing failure.
The need to warn a driver about a potential brake failure is sure to be a
concern as this weekend’s race is being held at one of the toughest tracks on
the calendar for brake wear.
Big brother’s listening
Television
viewers are played some radio messages on the main world feed and more are heard
via the pit wall channel. During each race the total number played has varied
from less than 100 to almost 300 over the past months, with a
conspicuous fall in the last two races.
However it’s likely the vast majority of race traffic to F1 drivers is never
broadcast in the first place. Additional messages are often added to FOM’s
post-race highlights videos and the end-of-season reviews. This season we have
tended to hear many messages involving the Mercedes drivers, who have usually
been leading, but far few from other teams – such as Ferrari, from whom we heard
only one message during the last race.
While the FIA has the ability to listen to and record all radio
communications, for the purposes of prompt enforcement of the rules they would
have to do so in real-time for every car – which would presumably involved
having one delegate assigned to listening to all the communications from each
driver.
The messages above are only a small sample of those broadcast so far this
year and are not representative of how many communications are made between each
team and their drivers. As we only hear a portion of the messages from each
team, that make it very hard to judge who has been using their radios the most
and therefore who stands to lose more from the new interpretation of the
rules.
For example, because the two Mercedes drivers are usually in contention for
victory this year, we hear much more from their radio than we did in previous
recent seasons.
When the 2014 season began it was clear we were about to see an increase in the amount of
team radio traffic due to the demands placed on drivers by their
considerably more complicated cars.
The FIA has now decided to impose limits on
what drivers may be told by their teams with the intention of preventing
them from getting too much assistance with driving their cars. The changes will
come into effect from the first practice session on Friday at Singapore.
This is significant because the FIA is attempting to do something it had
previously indicated wasn’t possible. At the end of 2010 a ban on teams issuing
orders to their drivers – for example, to relinquish a position to their team
mate – was lifted. Earlier in the season Felipe Massa had given up victory
to Fernando Alonso in the German Grand Prix after being given the
now-infamous radio message “Fernando is faster than you”.
The FIA now proposes to forbid a much broader range of team radio messages
and also prevent teams from getting around the ban by using code words.
Ironically, team orders will not be part of the new ban.
Nor will instructions for drivers to make a pit stop or traffic information
relating to other cars. However driving style advice, instructions on car
settings and information about tyre and brake wear will be forbidden.
At a stroke the FIA has created a huge new area to police. All radio traffic
between each of the 22 cars could now be grounds for an infringement and subject
to a protest. A review of some of the common messages heard in recent races
gives insight into who stands to benefit and lose from the new policy, how much
radio traffic will now be illegal, and where potential grey areas could cause the kind of
“controversies” teams have already warned about.
Driving style
Following the increase in the use of team radio broadcasts in recent seasons,
some commentators have criticised messages to drivers telling them how to alter
their driving style. Stopping this appears to be one of the main focuses of the
new approach.
Here are some examples of messages like this we’ve heard in recent races:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 21 | Angel Baena | Marcus Ericsson | Kamui braking later two, three and five. You can improve exit
nine. |
Austria | 64 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Guys give me some updates on where I can be quicker. |
Austria | 64 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah copy that Lewis we’ll just get a couple of clean laps, mostly traffic
that’s been hurting you. Mainly turns five and six, we’ll give you more information soon. So braking at turn two and three, where you are managing, and turn five and six. |
Germany | 6 | Gianpiero Lambiase | Sergio Perez | Checo, focus on the exit of turn 12. We’re losing two tenths on the exit of
turn 12 alone, OK? That’s where our time loss is at the moment. |
Britain | 13 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | Be more progressive with the steering, turns one and two. |
Hungary | 8 | Gianpiero Lambiase | Sergio Perez | Checo, use shorter gears at all apexes, please. Use a lower gear at all
apexes. Too slow on the throttle down to turn two as well, OK? Nico far more aggressive on the throttle down to turn two. Stop the car a bit earlier for the apex of turn one and get on the power. |
However clamping down on this type of radio message could go beyond giving
information on how a driver should take a certain corner.
It could include telling them whether they should be conserving their tyres
or pushing, and whether they should attack a rival or hold position. Even
general words of encouragement like “just keep it up” could be interpreted as an
instruction to maintain the current pace instead of lapping more quickly or
slowly.
There are other potential grey areas as well. For example, can drivers be
given information about the status of an area of the track from a safety point
of view, as they were in Canada? And if so how much can they be told without it
being considered excessive assistance?
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | 2 | Brad Joyce | Sergio Perez | Checo, the information we have, or that we can give you, is that there is
less debris off-line in those corners. Stay off-line if you can. And more brake temperature. |
Canada | 3 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | OK Sebastian, if you go through the chicane again – turn three and turn four
– just have a good look at the track conditions. There’s fluid on the exit of turn four, which we think is on-line. Just have a good look, you know better. |
Canada | 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Need someone to keep an eye out at the restart to see what people do in turn
four, please. If people clean it up, I can attack there. |
Canada | 8 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah Lewis, I’m sure you’ve seen it, but the outside of turn four does look
bad, so you are going to have to modify your line, obviously. |
And will team members be allowed to remind drivers about specific rules? If
not we could see an increase in penalties as drivers struggle to recall the more
obscure parts of F1′s 55-page Sporting Regulations.
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Britain | 2 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | And remember, ten car lengths behind Safety Car. |
Hungary | 10 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | And remember, you’re racing to Safety Car line two. You’re racing to Safety
Car line two, which is at pit exit. Box, box. |
These are the kinds of details teams will want to clear up before this
weekend’s track action begins.
Car operation
In 2003 the FIA banned teams from using pit-to-car telemetry to adjust their
cars without any input from the driver while they were on the circuit. Since
then, teams have replicated that approach by giving drivers instructions on the
radio to make the necessary changes in the cockpit via the multi-function dials
on their steering wheels.
Judging by the sheer volume of messages drivers receive relating to car
settings, having to master their car controls without assistance from the pit
wall is going to be a significant challenge.
Some drivers have already had problems navigating the myriad options
available to them in their cars’ menus. Here’s a small sample of the kind of
messages we already hear along these lines:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | 6 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | Right Sebastian, think about bias for restart. You’re currently minus-two,
which would be good for on-track, but could be a bit short for first lap. And ten car lengths, if you can. |
Canada | 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Antonio Spagnolo | I don’t know what is ‘P4′? |
Canada | 16 | Antonio Spagnolo | Kimi Raikkonen | OK, so it’s 12 clicks on the ’10′-button, and four clicks on the
’1′-button. |
Canada | 32 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | Nico, we need to increase fuel saving again. Fuel is increasing at the
moment. So where you can, longer gears and a little bit more Hoagys. |
Austria | 23 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis let’s lay off the overtake for a bit. We’ll just get that ESS up,
get this battery charge back up. |
Austria | 23 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | I have plenty of pace. Can I charge it more? |
Austria | 23 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah we’ll look into it Lewis, we are on the limit though at the
moment. |
Britain | 5 | Brad Joyce | Nico Hulkenberg | We’re on the bottom of the state of store, no overtake. No
overtake. |
Germany | 23 | Mark Temple | Kevin Magnussen | And Kevin, you’ll have to switch to ‘golf three’, where you would’ve used
the overtake, and then switch back to ‘golf six’. |
Germany | 23 | Kevin Magnussen | Mark Temple | It doesn’t work. It doesn’t switch on when you switch these. |
Germany | 23 | Mark Temple | Kevin Magnussen | So, it won’t make the overtake button work, but if you switch to ‘golf six’
on the start fin– ‘golf three’ on the start/finish line and then leave it there until turn six, that will give the extra power. |
It’s not hard to see how this might lead some teams to simplify the control
systems on their cars. There isn’t much room in an F1 cockpit for a user’s
manual so they may have to reduce the functionality available to their
drivers.
This
could have interesting consequences for how drivers use their cars’ high
performance settings. Access to these is restricted because of the extra strain
they place upon the car.
Teams try to limit how frequently drivers use them in the heat of battle, but
haven’t always been successful. Both Mercedes drivers are known to have made
unauthorised use of their car’s high power settings on occasions this year, and
Sebastian Vettel did
the same during his battle with Mark Webber in Malaysia last year.
Teams may give their drivers a pre-defined maximum number of presses on their
overtake button, or add another signal on their display which shows when it is
available.
Preventing teams from giving instructions on how to change settings on their
cars could be to the detriment of less experienced drivers, who are more likely
to need this sort of assistance. And those teams without their own simulator,
such as Sauber, will have less opportunity to prepare for this significant
change in policy.
Tyre and brake management
The FIA is normally very wary of making any change which might be seen as a
compromise on safety standards. Removing the ability for teams to warn their
drivers about the extent of their brake and tyre wear could be seen as that,
although drivers are likely to be given access to this information through their
steering wheel displays.
That means no more messages like this:
Race | Lap | From | To | Message |
---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 8 | Andrew Murdoch | Felipe Massa | Keep looking after the rear-left, we have to look after the rear-left tyre.
Try diff entry four. |
Austria | 9 | Andrew Murdoch | Felipe Massa | We need to keep looking after the rear-left exit turns one, two and three.
Obviously keep short-shifting where possible. |
Austria | 10 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Front brakes again over limit. Just have a think about the
compromises. |
Austria | 23 | Gary Gannon | Max Chilton | Let’s try and use the tyre to keep Kobayashi behind, use the tyre. We’ll
adjust our plan and use the tyre. |
Austria | 33 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | Brake info please. |
Austria | 33 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Last lap you were over target. Not by much. It doesn’t take much
management. |
Canada | 34 | Nico Rosberg | Tony Ross | Where is my team mate on brake balance, forwards or rearwards? |
Canada | 35 | Tony Ross | Nico Rosberg | He’s more rearwards of you, you’re more forwards. |
Austria | 20 | Francesco Nenci | Jules Bianchi | We have hot front brake temperatures. Brake balance minus four clicks on the
dash. |
Hungary | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | My brakes are still not working, it’s still on ‘passive’. |
Hungary | 2 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | OK, so we just need to get some brake temperature into the front-right. It
is starting to come up. |
Hungary | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Peter Bonnington | It’s still in ‘passive’ though. |
Hungary | 2 | Peter Bonnington | Lewis Hamilton | Yeah, copy that Lewis. As soon as we get the temperature up, we can go
driver default one-zero again. |
Hungary | 22 | Guillaume Rocquelin | Sebastian Vettel | Sebastian, your front caliper is a little warm. Rearwards on bias if you
can. Rearwards on bias if you can. |
It remains to be seen what degree of car damage teams are allowed to warn
their drivers about. It’s hard to imagine the FIA forbidding a team from
instructing a driver to retire a car on safety grounds – for example, if they
noticed an imminent rear wing failure.
The need to warn a driver about a potential brake failure is sure to be a
concern as this weekend’s race is being held at one of the toughest tracks on
the calendar for brake wear.
Big brother’s listening
Television
viewers are played some radio messages on the main world feed and more are heard
via the pit wall channel. During each race the total number played has varied
from less than 100 to almost 300 over the past months, with a
conspicuous fall in the last two races.
However it’s likely the vast majority of race traffic to F1 drivers is never
broadcast in the first place. Additional messages are often added to FOM’s
post-race highlights videos and the end-of-season reviews. This season we have
tended to hear many messages involving the Mercedes drivers, who have usually
been leading, but far few from other teams – such as Ferrari, from whom we heard
only one message during the last race.
While the FIA has the ability to listen to and record all radio
communications, for the purposes of prompt enforcement of the rules they would
have to do so in real-time for every car – which would presumably involved
having one delegate assigned to listening to all the communications from each
driver.
The messages above are only a small sample of those broadcast so far this
year and are not representative of how many communications are made between each
team and their drivers. As we only hear a portion of the messages from each
team, that make it very hard to judge who has been using their radios the most
and therefore who stands to lose more from the new interpretation of the
rules.
For example, because the two Mercedes drivers are usually in contention for
victory this year, we hear much more from their radio than we did in previous
recent seasons.