Radio silence

Motor Racing – Formula One World Championship – Belgian Grand Prix – Practice Day – Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

I have been following Formula 1 for the better part of the last two decades and I am still surprised by the speed with which the pit radio rules in the sport were amended. In the weeks between the Italian and the Singapore Grand Prix, the FIA announced that a number of standard radio messages received by the drivers from the pit wall are no longer allowed.

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The communication will now be limited to basic information on the driver’s own lap time, gaps from the nearest opponents, traffic and puncture warnings and pit stop strategy. The information about competitors will be even more limited – only gaps, current tyre choice, car problems and potential race strategies. The drivers will also receive messages from race control (flags, penalties and safety car deployment). And yes, team orders will also be allowed, unless they are coded (one wonders how Infiniti Red Bull Racing will now issue theirs).

In contrast with other Formula 1 fans, I am actually in favor of the ruling. The Sporting Regulations (License, driving protocol and penalties, 20.1) clearly state that “the driver must drive the car alone and unaided.” In the recent weeks, we have witnessed a number of occasions in which a driver was directed to break at a certain point on the track as this made his teammate faster in a given sector. This kind of micromanaging can hardly be considered “alone and unaided.”

Fernando Alonso’s response to the issue has been that “it is like basketball or football not allowing the coach to say anything.” The truth, however, is that Formula 1 is not like basketball or football, it is an individual sport. The competitors are supposed to figure out on track issues by themselves. In this respect, F1 is more like tennis and coaching is forbidden during tennis matches. It is you against the other tennis player/driver, not your team of race engineers against his.

But while I agree with the rule clarification on principle, there are certain aspects of the way that it was implemented that bother me. Changing the interpretation of the Sporting Regulations in the middle of the season will not only affect reliability but it is also unfairly penalises certain drivers and has the potential to go too far.

The new policy means that a driver will receive very little warning when there is a developing problem with his car. The team might know that the engine or the gear box is in a critical condition but they cannot share this information with the driver and it is impossible to develop an alternative control system as fast as the rule was introduced. The 2014 power units have been marginal in terms of reliability and with limited pit wall information they will start failing a lot more often.

Implementing the rule change in the middle of the season is also unfair as it penalises the drivers that already had problems earlier in the year. Sebastian Vettel has used so many of his power unit components that the German will certainly be forced to start from the middle of the grid by default very soon. Even more importantly, however, Lewis Hamilton has experienced a lot more problems with his Mercedes car than the championship leader Nico Rosberg, so I will not be surprised if the radio ban ends up impacting the drivers’ championship battle.

And then there is my biggest concern – the changes will go too far. The “alone and unaided” rule is sufficiently broad to accommodate an interpretation that bans all telemetry being received sent from the car to the pit wall. Bernie Ecclestone himself has made comments that suggest that there is a plan to go after telemetry next. The specifics of this plan are unclear but I feel banning telemetry outright will severely limit car development.

Patience and careful impact analysis are not the Formula 1 powers’ forte. A few boring races at the end of 2013 (just before a major regulation overhaul) were enough to convince them that there should be an ad-hoc points rule for the last race of a season. Now, it only remains to be seen if it will be that strange decision or the radio ban that sways the 2014 drivers’ championship.


Message types allowed:
– Acknowledgement that a driver message has been heard.
– Lap or sector time detail.
– Lap time detail of a competitor.
– Gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race.
– “Push hard”, “push now”, “you will be racing xx” or similar.
– Helping with warning of traffic during a practice session or race.
– Giving the gaps between cars in qualifying so as to better position the car for a clear lap.
– Puncture warning.
– Tyre choice at the next pit stop.
– Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
– Tyre specification of a competitor.
– Indication of a potential problem with a competitor’s car during a race.
– Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
– Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions.

Message types not allowed:
– Sector time detail of a competitor and where a competitor is faster or slower.
– Adjustment of power unit settings.
– Adjustment of power unit setting to de-rate the systems.
– Adjustment of gearbox settings.
– Learning of gears of the gearbox (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards).
– Balancing the SOC [state-of-charge of batteries] or adjusting for performance.
– Information on fuel flow settings (except if requested to do so by race control).
– Information on level of fuel saving needed.
– Information on tyre pressures or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards).
– Information on differential settings.
– Start maps related to clutch position, for race start and pit stops.
– Information on clutch maps or settings, e.g. bite point.
– Burn-outs prior to race starts.
– Information on brake balance or BBW (brake-by-wire) settings.
– Warning on brake wear or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards).
– Selection of driver default settings (other than in the case of a clearly identified problem with the car).
– Answering a direct question from a driver, e.g. “Am I using the right torque map”?
– Any message that appears to be coded.




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