Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Spa-Francorchamps, 2013

2013 Belgian Grand Prix team radio transcript

2013 Belgian Grand Prix

29th August 2013, 12:0010th October 2013, 15:35 | Written by Keith Collantine

As the anticipated rain failed to materialise the radio chatter at the Belgian Grand Prix was the usual mix of strategy, tyre management and penalties.

Only a handful of drivers went down the route of one-stop strategies. McLaren considered for Button and switched back and forth between different options during the course of the race, eventually deciding to stop twice.

The most interesting aspect of the Sergio Perez-Romain Grosjean captured on the radio was that the following Felipe Massa chose to comment on it, perhaps hoping the stewards would give Perez a penalty, as they eventually did. Perez complained more than once about getting a drive-through for forcing Grosjean off the track.

Likewise Esteban Gutierrez was unhappy at taking a penalty for going off the track at Blanchimont while passing Pastor Maldonado.

Before the start of the race an exchange between Nico Rosberg and his engineers showed the extent to which teams go to keep sensitive information from being broadcast.

There was an interesting moment around Sebastian Vettel’s second pit stop when he was initially told to pit, then the order was cancelled. He came in on the next lap.

Nico Hulkenberg was despondent about his car’s performance at the end of a race in which he’d complained more than once about tyre degradation. Team mate Gutierrez seemed to have a better-handling car.

Here’s what was broadcast of the teams’ radio messages during the Belgian Grand Prix.

2013 Belgian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Going to do our burn-outs as planned. Coming up to the race start we’ll do our static bite point learn once we’ve fired up and we’ve left the grid before the formation start. On the formation lap, as always, I’ll tell you mixture one and clutch setting. Then on the first lap of the race we’ll go revs 1 and to torque 3 for running. We’ll need a one light release out of 15 on the formation lap, one light out of 15.
PR	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	As we discussed it will be four lights on the start here. After the engine starts and once we’re away from the car and you’re on the deck you’ll do your static bite point learn and then formation start. On the formation lap we’ll do one light KERS out of 15.
PR	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Leave the pit lane speed limiter off this time around. And KERS mode, we only need it at six this time so we don’t need to change it on the formation lap.
PR	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	All of the top ten cars are on [medium].
FL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg asks his team whether they should start on new tyres. Team mate and pole sitter Hamilton started on new mediums, the Red Bulls were on used mediums and behind him Di Resta was on new mediums. Are you sure it’s not better to start with a fresh set? To make sure that I get a good start? You say we’ll get a chance at the stops but most likely in the dry the Red Bulls are just a little bit faster. So my point of view is starting on a fresh one then I should get a good start.
FL	James ?	Nico Rosberg	I’ve given Tony some information on a different channel, I don’t want to broadcast it on a driver channel, he’ll have a chat to you.
FL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	I heard what you said. James made the choice. James, if you want to comment on Nico’s channel please do so now. We are fitting set three as planned.
FL	James ?	Nico Rosberg	I commented on the other channel so it wasn’t a driver radio so it’s not broadcast so I’ll try to be encrypted about this. It’s not the start, it’s the reason of the length of that middle stint.
FL	Jock Clear	Lewis Hamilton	Have you and Bono discussed the change from [medium] to [hard], front flap?
FL	Lewis Hamilton	Jock Clear	No
FL	Jock Clear	Peter Bonnington	Bono do you want to talk about that, I suggested between one-and-a-half and two. It’s probably up to Lewis what we agree so that we have a pre-plan.
FL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah Lewis so just quickly Jock’s analysis came out with one-and-a-half to two turns. In the run on Friday we did one-and-a-half turns, obviously not a great balance at the moment we’re recommending one-and-a-half but two is an option. We’ll communicate with you at that stop for what you feel.
FL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Yeah, OK.
FL	Jock Clear	Peter Bonnington	So, Bono and Lewis, if we don’t hear anything else, what are we doing? One-and-a-half at the moment and then change on discussion?
FL	Peter Bonnington	Jock Clear	Affirm, Jock.
FL	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Continue to heat the brakes and remember KERS charge nine zero.
FL	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Vergne is [medium], Ricciardo [hard] and Gutierrez behind on the [hard] as well.
FL	Unknown	Jenson Button	HPB to mid position please Jenson and launch map on.
FL	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	After burnouts RPM 70 for standing.
1	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Cancel RS.
1	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Red switch down when you can.
1	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	Just check if the front wing is fine.
1	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	OK we’ll have a look.
2	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	KERS ten, one-zero. You’re at nine at the moment. OK, ten confirmed.
2	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	The front wing is fine, front wing looked fine when you passed me.
2	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	RFA [DRS] will be active next lap. Gap to Button 0.8. Harvest three when you can, please.
3	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Sebastian you’re plus two eight Hamilton, plus three Hamilton. Hamilton 56.0. Need to save your tyres, we don’t want any more than this.
4	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Is everything OK with my front wing?
4	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK we’ll double-check and get back to you.
4	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Data looks OK. Diff entry three.
4	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	I [distorted] completely but I cannot see anything. [Distorted] the KERS do not work.
4	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Well done Daniel, keep pushing, mix six.
4	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Go mix two. Tyres are up to temp now.
4	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Try diff entry three for understeer. Alonso next car behind.
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Several messages to drivers giving advice on driving style were played. Rosberg seemed to receive more than most. Tyre temperatures are all good, all within limits.
5	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Hamilton 55.7
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Tyres are going away already. [Distorted] target but not much longer.
5	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy Nico. Brake bar plus one for rear protection.
5	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Harvest mode six. For Eau Rouge Nico taking in seventh, still with KERS boost, it’s quicker.
6	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Massa ahead may have a KERS problem so attack him.
6	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Alonso now the car behind. You are on your target lap.
7	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Mix five Jev, let’s see if we can get him, come on!
7	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	No response from Di Resta was played. We are strategy A Paul, let’s have a tyres update please.
7	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Harvest six when you can please. Try carrying more speed through the apex of turn five.
7	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	You can push more the tyres turn ten and eleven.
8	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Hulkenberg was one of the first drivers to pit along with Massa on lap nine. From lap times target looks good, Nico, we stick to target. Looks all OK. Good job so far.
8	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	We’ve completed seven lap, we’re thinking more Plan A.
9	Mark Slade	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus discovered at Raikkonen’s first pit stop his front left brake duct had ingested a visor tear-off strip. Brake temperatures are a bit high, manage them if you can, please.
9	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Cars are still quite bunched up behind. We think Plan B could be the correct strategy but drive for Plan A.
9	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	OK.
10	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Pic’s engine fails. We have to stop the car, find a safe place to stop and stop the car this lap. Save the engine, box box, slow in.
10	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Charles is out of the race, just take care of your tyres.
10	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	Perez passed Grosjean at Les Combes on lap eight but pushed the Lotus off the track. That allowed Massa to pass Grosjean. For information Perez put Grosjean out on braking, he pushed Grosjean to the left.
10	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Yeah OK it’s nothing to do with you so just stay where you are.
11	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So push hard now, Nico.
11	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Give us a balance check.
11	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Balance is OK.
12	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Default eleven, one-one. Hamilton in the pits.
12	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Going up on entry might help the exit. If the exit is your biggest problem, go up on entry. Jules is on entry nine.
13	Mark Slade	Kimi Raikkonen	Raikkonen has trouble understanding what he’s being told. Left-front wear is high so we need to manage it as much as we can please to get it back under control.
13	Kimi Raikkonen	Mark Slade	I don’t understand anything because you speak too early.
13	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	The two cars in front are helping, we’d say?
13	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	[Censored] pushed me completely off-track.
13	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Confirm Charlie is looking into the incident.
14	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Perez objects to his drive-through penalty for forcing Grosjean off. We have been given a drive-through, we must do it this lap. It’s for the incident with Grosjean. We’re in a good position though so let’s keep pushing, you’re doing a really good job. We must come in this lap for the drive-through.
14	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	Why the drive-through.
14	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	For forcing Grosjean off the track when you overtook him.
14	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	I had the corner.
14	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	And Alonso is the next car in front, who’s just stopped. Rear temperatures are 16, still OK.
14	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Box, torque map one and box.
14	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	I did nothing wrong.
14	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We’ll look at it after the race. Just let’s stay focused, we can still get some good points in this race. You’re doing really well up ’til now, let’s keep doing that.
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	To be honest the car and the tyre feels like [distorted]. Feels really poor grip.
15	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy, Nico.
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Marco Matassa	Unlike most of his rivals (including his team mate) Ricciardo started on the hard tyres. He pitted on lap 16, later than most, which eventually helped him gain positions. What do you think we do? Is it worth staying out or are we going to lose time with the faster cars for nothing?
15	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	We are looking at that, stay with Jev behind you, keep pushing.
15	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	In now Max for [mediums].
16	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Ricciardo also on the hard tyre. He is the car in front, obviously.
17	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Pace is high 53s.
17	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So holding 25s so we can get on good target with fuel.
17	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Seven more laps this stint, mixture 3.
17	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Your lap times at the minute are similar to Vergne in front.
18	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Button started on the medium tyres and it seems Plan A was to make one stop and Plan B to make two. He made his first pit stop on lap 17. Switching to Plan B, push now.
18	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Alonso 53.9 but he was behind Button. The next lap will be more representative.
19	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	Perez reports the state of his tyres. I’m in F3 now. Very close to F4.
19	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Understood, which tyre is limiting?
19	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	The rears.
19	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Engine 29, two-nine.
19	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	KERS two, minus one click brake balance.
19	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	How are the tyres Esteban, question?
19	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	They feel OK.
19	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So just try controlling the slip to help the rear tyres, stop them overheating.
20	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	On lap 15 Hamilton had let Alonso past at the hairpin, belieivng he’d be able to use DRS to re-pass the Ferrari. It didn’t work, leaving Hamilton chasing Alonso and Vettel. Are we catching Vettel together?
20	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Vettel six tenths faster last lap. You were within a tenth of Alonso.
21	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Good job, mix 20.
21	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Great job with Massa. Car in front is Grosjean, he looks like he could be trying to one-stop. You’re two-and-a-half seconds back from him.
21	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We’ve inspected the tyres, think about protecting rear-right through ten and eleven.
21	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Nico still five laps to target, I’ll help you with the pressures on the next set.
22	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Hamilton has used the tyre wear indicator on his steering wheel to communicate to his team the state of his tyres. We copy your wear switch. You are on your target lap but we need to tune it so do not come into the pits unless you hear the command.
22	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	That’s OK. I’m getting everything I can out of this car.
22	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Copy that Lewis, we just need to make sure we can manage that [hard] stint at the end.
22	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Safety Car window open and we need about another four, five laps. If you can up that pace let’s go for it. I’ll tell you if there’s anywhere we can pick up the pace in sector two. If you can go quicker please go quicker. Braking less in corner ten.
23	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	For Lotus, Plan B was a one-stop. Grosjean split the race exactly in two, switching to hards at the end of lap 22. I’m sure you know we are Plan B.
24	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	McLaren considered their strategic options after Perez’s penalty. He’d switched to hards on lap 18 and they decided to keep him out until the end of the race. We think the best thing to do is to push and try to get in front of the cars in front. We’ll decide on the best strategy depending on how it goes in the next five to ten laps,
24	Paul di Resta	GianPiero Lambiase	Struggling with the front-left
24	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Copy.
25	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Tyre phase please, Jev
25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Phil Charles	I have front graining.
25	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Understood.
25	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	What times are Rosberg doing?
25	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Rosberg on [medium] tyre that lap 1’53.7.
25	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Main time loss relative to Jenson six-tenths middle sector.
27	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Do you prefer [hard] or [medium]?
27	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	[Hard] at the moment.
27	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK, understood.
27	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	18 laps on this tyre set, 18 laps remaining.
27	Kimi Raikkonen	Mark Slade	Despite having the tear-off removed from his duct, Raikkonen’s brake had overheated too much and eventually failed. Box, I had a brake failure. Something wrong with the brakes.
27	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Well one Jev, next one, get your head down.
28	Giedo van der Garde	Juan Pablo Ramirez	The rears are starting to go a little bit.
28	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	OK settle down mate we’ll get them on the next straight. Watch out for Di Resta behind.
29	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Di Resta catches Maldonado, Gutierrez and Sutil. So that’s a train: Maldonado, Gutierrez, Sutil ahead.
29	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Gutierrez passes Maldonado at the chicane, who then hits to the Force Indias, putting Di Resta out. Switch the engine off.
29	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Rosberg is advised to back off by six tenths of a second per lap. You can slow the pace down, go plus 0.6 on delta time.
30	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	No problems behind, really. Button he only did one stop so far, he is on hard, and Hamilton is still behind you.
30	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Vettel is initially told to pit, then hurriedly told to stay out. This may have been a reaction to the possibility of the Safety Car coming out because of the Maldonado/Di Resta collision, and the fact his team mate was also pitting at the same time may have played a role. Box, torque map one and box.
30	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Stay out, stay out, stay out.
30	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Stay out.
30	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Confirmed. Stay out.
30	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	We’re a lot quicker than Hulkenberg this time, let’s see if we can get him, we’re a lot quicker now.
30	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Box, torque map one and box.
31	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Blue flag Rosberg. In now, clutch five, torque five.
31	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	We have three laps of special two, use them when you need them. Thirteen laps to go.
31	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	This pace is good, let’s see if we can find another tenth or two. We’re catching Ricciardo in front.
31	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	There are 14 laps to go. [hard] or [medium] tyre next stop?
31	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	I still think [hard].
31	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK understand and I agree.
31	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull are also concerned about the possibility of rain. You need to use your tyres to the end of the race. Use your tyres. We need to build up a gap, there could be some rain coming. So do it progressively, but open the gap.
32	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Vergne and Hulkenberg made their last pit stops together on lap 24. Mix five Jev, we’ve got to overtake Hulkenberg. And release six. We’ve got to get him done, you’ve got to overtake him now, Jev.
32	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Information: Mark did 16 laps on his [hards] in the middle of the race.
32	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	McLaren believe they can switch Button back to a one-stopper. They eventually abandon the idea and he makes his second stop on lap 34. There are 12 more laps to go. We think we can go back to Plan A.
32	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	OK, I’m up for that.
33	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’re going to need to pick up the pace a little bit. Webber now catching Nico, he is on the [medium] tyre, so just start lifting that pace.
34	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Gap to Webber is two seconds. Situation is Button is in front of Hamilton, he may not stop again, so we will need to overtake him in the race.
34	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Situation is the two cars in front are quite a long way ahead. Behind the two Mercedes are not much quicker than us. Webber’s behind them, he is quicker but he’s being held up.
34	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	You’re coming up to lap Chilton ahead. Chilton has a penalty drive-through.
34	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We need to pick up the pace. We also believe Button has switched back to a one-stop so we’re going to need to pass him on-track.
35	Jean-Eric Vergne	Phil Charles	Vergne finally gets past Hulkenberg nine laps after their pit stops. [Distorted but clearly shouting for joy]
35	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Well done Jev, Sutil next, come on get your head down, really good laps now.
35	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Tyre management good but do not put more energy than this. Ten more laps.
36	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We are still racing Vergne and Hulkenberg behind. Eight-and-a-half second gap behind. I’ll keep you updated.
36	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Same lap time as Nico last lap, gap 2.6 seconds.
37	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	That did look a bit closer. Concentrate on getting a good exit from turn one and use all your KERS.
37	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Two-tenths faster than Nico last lap. Webber looks like he’s starting to drop, I’ll keep you updated.
37	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	You are the quickest car on the circuit. Two seconds a lap faster than Webber.
37	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Good job Max you built temp there. Fronts -5 rears -12.
38	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	No response from Maldonado is played as he is informed of his penalty for taking Di Resta out of the race. You need to box for a penalty, ten second stop-and-go.
38	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	We have to go to the end, there’s no advantage in pitting now, stay out.
38	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	I will have none left by the end of the race.
39	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Perez six seconds in front of you, two seconds slower. You can catch him, come one Daniel, go for it!
39	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Two-tenths faster than Nico last lap. Six laps remaining.
39	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Car behind now Ricciardo on five-lap-old [mediums]. We’re going to be racing him to the end, let’s do everything we can to keep him behind us. We are P10.
40	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Five laps to go, Mark, let’s have a good go at Rosberg.
40	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Good lad, that’s a good pass. That puts us up into P7.
41	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Gutierrez in front has got a drive-through. We’re going to be pretty close to him when he comes out after his drive-through.
42	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Push hard this lap, four laps to go.
42	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re +15 Alonso. Make sure you stay within your car and within yourself, OK? Remember careful track limits under braking.
42	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Perez has been passed by Ricciardo and is down to 11th. Vergne is the next car behind. His pace is the same as us. So if you can keep going this position is safe. We may still get a position towards the end if we’re lucky.
42	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Bianchi’s KERS fails. KERS recovery one, do not use KERS.
43	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	In front of Vergne, Perez 1.3 slower than you.
43	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Two laps to go, Ricciardo catching 1.6 seconds per lap. He is 4.6 behind.
44	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Last lap, Sebastian.
44	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Fuel three, please.
44	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Bring it home, stay away from the kerbs.
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	Fantastic Sebastian you won the Belgian Grand Prix! Brilliant drive, well done, great performance.
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Nice one, mate.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Nice one boys, nice one! Yes! Thank you, the car was absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much, it was so nice to drive. Unbelievable. Thank you guys.
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’ve got to be careful mate there’s a lot of people in the pit lane and they’re not paying any attention.
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	Seb, Michael Manning the Irish leprechaun is coming up with you today.
VL	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	Alonso is congratulated on his “great race” in Italian.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Well done Lewis that’s P3. Race as you probably imagine it’s Vettel one, Alonso, then Lewis, Nico right behind you, Webber, Button, Massa, Grosjean, Sutil and Ricciardo.
VL	Ross Brawn	Lewis Hamilton	Lewis it’s Ross. Good drive today. Didn’t quite have the car we’d hoped but not so far off. Very, very good drive, made the most of what we had, well done.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Solid drive man.
VL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Good job, Nico.
VL	Ross Brawn	Nico Rosberg	Good drive today Nico. Didn’t quite have the car we hoped but very good drive, important points, well done.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Yeah, thank you.
VL	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Great job. You know the routine here so around turn one, into the pit exit. Great drive, JB.
VL	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	How far were we behind third?
VL	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	About 12, 13 seconds behind third place, Lewis.
VL	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	That was a well-fought race to be honest. Think we did mostly what we could correct. From 12th in the first lap up to seven is not too bad. Passing cars and passed them with the strategy as well. It was a good drive, well done.
VL	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	Yeah the strategy was a problem – er, sorry, the start was a problem. Just lost too many positions at the first corner.
VL	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Yep. Anyway, it was a good recovery.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	That was a very difficult race. We finished P8
VL	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	It was difficult today.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Yeah just didn’t have the pace but I think you made the most of it. Good job.
VL	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Well done Adrian, easy on the throttle on the way in. Good man. Great job, mate. P9.
VL	Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	Yeah it was a good effort.
VL	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Well done, Daniel. P10.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Marco Matassa	Bravo!
VL	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We finished P11. Unfortunately that drive-through I think cost us a potential seventh or eighth position. We’ll have a good look at that afterwards. Good job in the last stint managing the tyres.
VL	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Hard luck today. P12, Daniel P10.
VL	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Jesus Christ. I don’t know about the car it was not together at all. The balance is so far apart, there’s understeer, oversteer. Car is all over the place. It’s so damn difficult.
VL	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Yeah we are way too slow. Sorry for that. Sorry about the pit stop. Remember to switch off.
VL	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	What happened to Esteban in the end?
VL	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	He got a drive-through, I don’t know why. I think he left the track with all four wheels. We’ll see after. Nico, thanks for the push. Remember to switch off. See you later.
VL	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	We had a very good pace, we’ll look a bit more into it. We disagree about the drive-through, sorry about that.
VL	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Is not fair because he didn’t leave me space anyway.
VL	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	We understand. Sorry. Our biggest problem was the qualifying, isn’t it?
VL	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Yeah because the pace was good.
VL	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	It was very good, yes. Thanks Esteban. It’s also good for us because the car was good. It’s a morale boost, anyway. And we try to do better, OK?
VL	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Copy. We keep motivation up.
VL	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	Yes please!
VL	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	P15 Valtteri. Remember to come down the pit lane the wrong way.

Lap: Refers to lap message was broadcast on. There may be a delay between messages being said and being broadcast. PR = pre-race; FL = formation lap; VL = victory lap.
Message: Repetitive or irrelevant messages omitted. Notes in italics. Highlights in bold.

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
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56 comments on “2013 Belgian Grand Prix team radio transcript”

andae23 (@andae23)
29th August 2013, 12:10
Interesting conversation at Sauber after the race: Hulkenberg said the car was “all over the place” and his engineer responds with “Yeah we are way too slow”. But Gutierrez was very positive about his pace, with his engineer saying “the car was good”. Huh?
1. Enigma (@enigma)
  29th August 2013, 12:19
  Different setups? Strange.
2. skd
  29th August 2013, 13:23
  Different races. GUT is racing Caterham and Marussia. And he is a rookie. HULK is racing force India and McLaren on a good day. You’re going to get much better feedback from the better and more experienced driver. Also it’s likely that GUT was on a higher df aka slower setup to protect his lack of ability/experience.
3. Diego (@ironcito)
  29th August 2013, 19:45
  Or different standards. Maybe Hulk expects more.
4. JP (@jonathanproc)
  29th August 2013, 19:50
  @andae23 Possibly because Hulkenberg has experienced a lot better cars. Force India are always rather good around Spa and last year he finished 4th with them. On the other hand this was Gutierrez’s first experience in an F1 car at Spa, so probably the fastest car he’s ever drove around the track.
5. Deej92 (@deej92)
  29th August 2013, 21:35
  Gutierrez had the stronger pace out of the two in the race. If he didn’t have the drive-through, he would’ve been very close with Hulkenberg, after starting 10 places down.
nackavich (@nackavich)
29th August 2013, 12:19
These radio transcripts make boring races appear exciting
1. iFelix (@ifelix)
  29th August 2013, 13:49
  Indeed!
2. Traverse (@)
  29th August 2013, 21:49
  Or maybe boring races make radio transcripts appear more exciting…
Enigma (@enigma)
29th August 2013, 12:20
Text in bold is really useful as I usually can’t be bothered to read the whole transcript.
Dominique (@tryneplague)
29th August 2013, 12:44
Has Massa become a Grosjean fan since Hungary?
1. Rigi (@rigi)
  29th August 2013, 13:13
  @tryneplague hahaha, i was thinking the same!
2. iFelix (@ifelix)
  29th August 2013, 13:52
  seems like it :)
  Actually it’s nice that other drivers voice their opinion on events.
  1. Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
    29th August 2013, 14:11
    I think it may have more to do with him gaining a position if Perez gets a drive-through!
    1. celeste (@celeste)
      29th August 2013, 17:04
      Smart tactical Massa FTW!
    2. Breno (@austus)
      29th August 2013, 23:04
      Or he was surprised it wasnt Grosjean’s fault!
    3. iFelix (@ifelix)
      30th August 2013, 12:41
      Well in Hungary he Argus that Grosjean shouldn’t be penealised. So ist wasn’t necessarily self-serving
      1. iFelix (@ifelix)
        30th August 2013, 12:42
        argued I meant! Damn spelling corrector :)
periwinkle (@shena)
29th August 2013, 13:04
#35 Vergne finally gets past Hulkenberg nine laps after their pit stops.
[Distorted but clearly shouting for joy]
Some suggest the message was about tyres. ‘Puncture on the rear!’ (audio)
JEV: I think we could have done a bit better than this 12th place, because my pace was good until the final stint when I had a slow puncture almost right from the start of it, which meant my performance dropped off
It’s impossible to know exactly at what point he picked it up and his race engineer’s response doesn’t seem quite right to a puncture report though.
zoom (@zoomracing)
29th August 2013, 13:22
Keith, did Alonso said anything after Stella congratulated him for the great race?.
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  29th August 2013, 13:54
  @zoomracing If he did, it wasn’t broadcast on the pit wall channel or the main feed. But as others have noted before we don’t hear much of Alonso’s radio messages. Either not as much is being said or it’s being left out by FOM.
  1. zoom (@zoomracing)
    29th August 2013, 16:06
    thanks
  2. dennis (@dennis)
    30th August 2013, 7:56
    His powerslide out of the chicane on the last lap made me believe he was a bit gutted after the race.
jh1806 (@jh1806)
29th August 2013, 14:25
Not sure whose mistake this is:
VL Jenson Button Dave Robson How far were we behind third?
VL Dave Robson Jenson Button About 12, 13 seconds behind third place, >>>Lewis<<<.
1. JimG (@jimg)
  29th August 2013, 14:28
  I understood that to mean that Lewis was in third place.
  1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    29th August 2013, 14:41
    @jh1806 @jimg Exactly, he was saying Hamilton was third.
JimG (@jimg)
29th August 2013, 14:27
I love this feature, but I find it distracting to have the tyre type code names translated from “prime” and “option” to “[hard]” and “[medium]”, partly because the square brackets are jarring (although I understand that they are there to show that the original has been changed), and partly because I have to translate back in my head as to whether it’s the prime or option tyres which are being discussed.
My preference would be to leave “prime” and “option” in the text and add a reminder at the top, e.g. “prime = hard, option = medium”.
But please keep it going, either way!
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  29th August 2013, 14:42
  @jimg Some teams use the prime/option distinction, some use the hard/medium/soft/super-soft distinction. I use the latter because it conveys more information. I wouldn’t want to mix both styles in the same article.
  1. celeste (@celeste)
    29th August 2013, 17:28
    Maybe he spoke japanese as a Samurai would do “arigatou” :D
  2. Elliot Cuzzillo (@ecuzzillo)
    29th August 2013, 19:43
    FWIW, I don’t mind terribly, but I would prefer to read exactly what they said. I think most people who read these transcripts pay pretty close attention to these things and would have no trouble keeping everything straight.
    I love the transcripts, by the way. They’re my favorite feature of the already-great site.
    1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      29th August 2013, 21:16
      @ecuzzillo I’m not saying people aren’t capable of understanding the distinction, but for consistency within the article and across the site I have a set style which I use. Juggling between the more specific hard/medium/soft/super-soft and less specific prime/option seems pointless.
      And, as indicated in the article, these are not verbatim transcripts anyway, largely because of the huge amount of repetition that goes on.
      Glad you like them, though!
N7 (@m77)
29th August 2013, 14:38
I wonder what Grosjean calls Perez!
1. wsrgo (@wsrgo)
  29th August 2013, 15:15
  Sarge-YO!!!
Cornflakes (@cornflakes)
29th August 2013, 14:56
You’d have thought Rosberg would have discussed tyre choices before he was in the car. I know that would be the first time they would have seen rivals tyre’s, but I’m still suprised the level of conversation that soon before the start.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
29th August 2013, 16:49
No mention of Vernge’s apparent slow puncture on the radio transcripts. Was it that major an issue?
1. AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
  29th August 2013, 17:50
  @vettel1, to me it felt as if Jean-Eric I-blow-away-my-teammate-when-I-don’t-have-a-problem Vergne, was desperately looking for an excuse. From the transcript it doesn’t sound as if he noticed anything (of course we don’t know what else they said over the radio).
  1. celeste (@celeste)
    29th August 2013, 18:42
    Didn´t his team principal mention it in the end of the race PR notes?
    1. AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
      29th August 2013, 19:24
      @celeste, yes he did, and I don’t dispute there was something, but I don’t think it was very serious, judging by what we see from the transcript (and his lap times, and the fact they didn’t pit him). Perhaps it was even beneficial to run the tyre at lower pressures than prescribed by Pirelli…
    2. Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
      29th August 2013, 20:20
      @celeste @adrianmorse what I was implicitly implying is that I don’t really think the argument that JEV had a slow puncture can be used too heavily against Ricciardo – I did have that challenge used against me when discussing Dan’s true racing ability showing through.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th August 2013, 20:10
This is great!
1. Traverse (@)
  29th August 2013, 22:01
  The abomination that is the ‘official’ F1 website could learn a lot from F1F. I can’t bring myself read it anymore.
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
29th August 2013, 21:17
These transcripts are the best.
Traverse (@)
29th August 2013, 22:02
I was pleasantly surprised by di Resta’s restraint toward Gutierrez, I was expecting a rant from di Resta but these transcripts appear to confirm his discipline.
davidwhite (@davidwhite)
29th August 2013, 22:54
These radio transcripts are fantastic! Thanks Keith.
Breno (@austus)
29th August 2013, 23:06
It’s nice to see Alonso still has a radio!
1. Traverse (@)
  29th August 2013, 23:29
  Now all he has to do is speak English so that I/we can understand him!
  1. Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
    30th August 2013, 1:14
    I remember when Alonso first went to Ferrari, all the radio chatter was in English..I guess he has learned Italian over the years.
2. Sudha S (@cbeSudha)
  30th August 2013, 4:16
  Either Alonso and Stella speak in Italian a lot and it does not get translated, or they dont speak too much or they have a secret channel to communicate in. Why dont they read Samurai quotes over his radio to motivate him though :-)
tmax (@tmax)
30th August 2013, 2:54
Good lad Et all…… Rob has become the Father figure for Massa…..guiding him like a small child…..
and not to mention Rocky….. Stay in the car and stay within Yourself OK ?????
I think these 2 have a very tight bond with their drivers.
SamH
30th August 2013, 21:14
Was Vergne really ‘shouting for joy’ after passing someone for 11th or whatever it was
I can’t imagine it :D
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
31st August 2013, 10:59
James from Mercedes is James Vowles, their chief strategist – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Vowles
Grego Franco
5th September 2013, 6:06
What does these two mean?
-KERS ten, one-zero
-Harvest mode six
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  5th September 2013, 8:14
  The second one determines how much energy is harvested by KERS when the car decelerates. The first will just be a KERS setting.
ndhanik
8th September 2013, 23:17
I noticed that teams always tell their drivers to do “burn outs” before the race start. What is that?
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  9th September 2013, 8:32
  To generate heat in their rear tyres.
  1. ndhanik
    9th September 2013, 23:26
    Thank you!