2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

9th November 2013, 10:309th November 2013, 9:20 | Written by Keith Collantine

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix didn’t produce the same kind of drama on the team radio were heard in India but there was still plenty going on.

Both Toro Rosso and Caterham chose to rearrange the running order of their drivers during the race for strategic reasons. In Caterham’s case Charles Pic was urged to move aside many laps after Giedo van der Garde first pointed out he was being held up by his team mate, and Pic was given instructions on his driving style on more than one occasion.

There was an abrupt change of tone on Felipe Massa’s radio towards the end of the race. Early on his pace was “perfect” and Rob Smedley had cheered his passing moves on the likes of Lewis Hamilton while updating him on his position relative to team mate Fernando Alonso.

But in the final stint Massa’s switch to medium tyres cost him time and Alonso, who was never heard from all race on the team radio (except by proxy), came out ahead.

At the end of the race Sebastian Vettel’s seventh consecutive win was the cue for more doughnuts and some amusing messages which harked back to the most celebrated team radio moment of 2012.

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	15 to go.
PR	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Ten minutes to go.
PR	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Brake material is now as you had in qualifying. Didn’t look too bad, just replaced it as a precaution. So we’re confident it should be good. We’ve gone up two degrees on the front wing. As you said we’ve got plenty of scope on the diff so make sure you use that. Have a think about your starting torque mode, you dropped it down to torque two on those opening laps. Maybe torque three will be good for the first stint but I’ll let you judge that one.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	In terms of aero balance, where are we compared to where we were in quali.
PR	Jock Clear	Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis compared to where you were at the end of qualifying you will be about half a percent further forwards on aero balance.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Jock Clear	OK that’s good.
PR	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So where we are at the moment now Lewis we will definitely come down the two turns on the front wing for the [medium] tyre unless we hear from you. It’s important to give us that feedback middle of the stint whether it’s a front issue or rear issue you’re suffering on the tyres. We are expecting front-right graining. You know that you’ve got to protect it through sector one, particularly turns one and three.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	That’s blowing hot air. It’s blowing hot air at me.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Guys I just want to say thank you so much for all the hard work getting the car ready. Especially also this morning, you know, I just really appreciate it.
PR	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Switches are all set for the start: Mixture five, torque one, and we’re in clutch six for this start. After we’ve turned the pit limit off we’ll do the normal procedures. Go KERS 7-8-7 and when we put you on the ground when the blankets come off with 30 seconds to go do two static bite points, remember hard on the brakes for that.
PR	Mark Slade	Kimi Raikkonen	There are four other cars on [mediums] in front of us. So Button, Sutil, Gutierrez and Bottas.
PR	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Everybody is on [softs] apart from Button in 12th, Gutierrez, Bottas [in] 15th, 16th and Raikkonen at the back also on [mediums] everybody else on [softs].
PR	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	30 seconds, Paul.
PR	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Go into RS modes now please and overtake button on.
FL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Cancel RS [distorted].
FL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Cancel RS, all gears are learned.
FL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Gearbox is good and engine is on target so we need 20% KERS.
FL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	No boost at the moment and we’re looking for two burn-outs out of turn eight and turn nine and a lift-and-coast into eight please.
FL	?	Giedo van der Garde	Giedo we need to use the seventh gear synchronise so seventh gear and little bit throttle please in two seconds.
FL	Bernadette Collins	Jenson Button	Keep warming the brakes. Yellow G1.
FL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Good clutch prep so straight to your box, focus on KERS at the start and KERS 8 when you stop.
FL	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Mixture two, Jules, two burn-outs and the rolling bite point as you come up to your grid slot.
FL	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	This is a red start. Remember react to the beep quickly, use KERS in gear two.
1	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Button collided with Di Resta on the first lap. Damage: front wing.
1	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson how bad is the damage, how bad is the balance?
1	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Quite a lot of understeer. Can you see it in the data?
1	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson we are going to need to box this lap.
1	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Tyres are still OK though.
1	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson one more lap, stay out one more lap.
2	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Information: Button front wing damage and Raikkonen has retired.
2	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Confirming box this lap.
2	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Box this lap.
2	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	This will be front wing and the [soft] tyre.
3	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Button will box this lap.
3	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Temperatures: fronts are stabilising so you can go forward on brake balance, rearwards 16 as well
3	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Hulkenberg has DRS.
3	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Field is bunched up behind so we think we will go to target lap.
4	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	+3.2 Rosberg. Rosberg 47.7.
4	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	OK, it still OK with the car? I feel really slow in a straight line.
4	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We think everything is OK we will look into it.
4	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Multifunction seven P1 one when you can.
5	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Mix six, Max, for cooling, both cars.
5	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Track is clear, front-left tyre is high temperature.
5	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Brake balance one click forwards. Think about the lift in turn three and watch you slip.
5	Mark Webber	Simon Rennie	What’s wring with the KERS, mate?
5	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	KERS 13. It’s a little bit empty at the moment, we’re going to charge it up. No more KERS this lap.
6	Giedo van der Garde	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Van der Garde was eventually allowed past Pic (see below) Charles is holding me up a lot.
6	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Copy that. Just keep pushing.
6	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Gap to Webber two seconds, you’re doing a good job with that.
7	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	How are the tyres?
7	Charles Pic	Tim Wright	They are OK for the moment.
7	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Make sure you can maintain this pace to give us flexibility, OK?
7	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Car’s OK, a little bit understeery.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, recommend half a turn rearwards on brake balance may help with the understeer. You also have torque three for more hand brake.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Push, push, push. Box, box.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’re going to come down one-and-a-half turns for the [medium] tyre. Box, box. Pit confirm.
8	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Gearbox seven. Jev, Dan has converted to his strategy B, for your info. Keep going like you are, see if you can overtake.
8	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	Little a bit of degradation on the tyres, so…
8	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Yeah you should do but we’re in line at the minute in what we think, so we’re still OK.
9	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Nico do you think you can do two more laps?
9	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Yes.
9	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Box, Romain, no front wing adjust.
9	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Kill the tyres but stay out for now, stay out this lap.
9	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Webber is in the pits. You were +10 Webber.
9	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Five-tenths faster than Alonso last lap.
9	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	We’re going to box this lap.
9	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	I’ve got more time, there’s more time in the tyres, just so you know.
9	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	If you can maintain this pace for one more lap then we will do that.
10	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	The rear tyres are starting to drop now.
10	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Rosberg stayed out, need to keep pushing.
10	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	We have completed nine laps, just manage the pace.
10	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Perfect, that’s good, green first sector. Just keep looking after the tyres, this is perfect.
10	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Box, boost to zero.
11	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Can you do one more lap at this pace?
11	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Roger, yes.
11	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Understood, stay out.
11	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	That front-left is still above target. If we can’t make the pass we need to drop back and look after the tyres, target -2.
11	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	There will be a warm-up slope then after that target +.2 on the delta time. You have Vergne and Di Resta in front on used [medium] tyres.
12	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	That’s a good couple of laps. We are definitely box this lap so everything you can from this set now please.
12	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	OK box this lap.
12	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	We need to improve turn two and turn three, and a bit the last part of the last sector.
12	Jules Bianchi	Paul Davison	How many laps with these tyres?
12	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Recovery three, Jules, we need 19 more laps with these tyres. Mixture eight, it’s the same as mix two just better on exits.
13	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Fernando saying that the front tyres are ‘one’ for him, so very degraded front tyres for Fernando.
13	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	On the [soft] you are rear wear limited. Front temperatures well under control now, even front and rear, go forward on brake balance.
13	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Your shifting too early from five to six and six to seven.
13	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	We’ve broken Vergne’s DRS. There’s nothing wrong with this pace, Paul, come on.
14	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Giedo is quicker in turn 18 and 21. You’re braking aggressively and your exit is poor. Rear tyres are at the limit. You can use quick-shift at turn eight and eleven.
14	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	What times are people doing in these tyres?
14	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Checo last lap 1’48.3
14	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Let’s go for it, let’s get past Bottas, he’s half a second slower than us.
15	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	We have completed 13 laps. Gap to Fernando is stable at 3.4 seconds. This is absolutely perfect, just keep going.
15	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	If we can’t make the move stick then we’ll need to back off. Target traction 1,300.
15	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Vettel is the car in front now. He’s already done his pit stop. Vettel five seconds in front. Tell me about the tyre. We have completed 14 laps.
15	Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	Start to feel a little bit [distorted]
15	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Understood, let’s see what we can do, we’re still good.
16	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Next car is Di Resta on used [soft] tyres. Gap to Webber is 1.5 seconds.
16	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	Fernando box now, use all the KERS.
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Way too much understeer.
16	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We need to try and cool the car right-hand side,
16	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Go diff high-speed nine. Webber has now passed Vergne he is 1.5 seconds behind.
17	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Line, Jev, line.
18	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Your pace is quite a bit better than other people on [medium]. That’s OK, just open up the gap progressively. We are on plan.
18	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Fernando has pitted, he’s obviously come out. We should have two cars between us when we pit now. So let’s push on this lap.
18	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Rosberg and Webber behind on fresh mediums. They are seven laps old. Let’s reduce pedal crossover, Paul.
18	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	You have [DRS].
18	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Box at the end of this lap. It is absolutely fine where you’re going to come out.
18	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	I’d like you to push now, start to use up the rubber, push.
19	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	Box. Clutch eight. We go for [soft], front wing for [soft]? They degrade at the rear.
19	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Minus two.
19	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	Copy, minus two.
20	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We do need to cool the car.
20	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Smedley is pleased with Massa’s track position as he rejoins the pits after his pit stop. Oh you beauty, right in front of Hulkenberg.
20	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Caterham’s lap time is starting to level out, they’re doing low 50s as well, let’s keep it up.
20	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Target lap time: 47.0. Rosberg 48.0s.
20	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	That was a good first sector, Adrian, keep pushing to keep the temperature in them now.
20	Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	Yes [distorted] now.
21	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	We are now in the window. Yellow G5. That’s the quickest way to the end.
21	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Nice clean stop, Paul, We will be racing Maldonado, minus one turn.
21	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Racing Di Resta out of the pits, think about your KERS.
21	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	You can afford to push, build the gap to Massa, we think he may be on a one-stop.
21	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Temps look fine now you’re in free air.
21	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re +26 Webber. He obviously stopped before you. I’ll give you his pace.
22	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	At the moment we suggest you keep a two second gap to Webber to look after the tyres. We need to keep an eye on the gap to Grosjean, though.
22	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Button was also advised to use X22 during practice to turn off the beeps which let him know when to use DRS, because they were too loud. Use DRS, we need a default X22 to switch tones off.
22	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	[Distorted.]
22	Giedo van der Garde	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Pic finally told to let Van der Garde through. He’s holding me up a lot.
22	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Charles, let Giedo past.
22	Charles Pic	Tim Wright	Why? We are in different strategy?
22	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Giedo is faster than you. If Giedo does not pull away we will swap back.
23	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re quicker than Mark in sector one. Save your tyres there.
23	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	These tyres are starting to go
23	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy.
24	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Charles let Giedo past in turn eight.
24	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK you’ve got a 14 second gap to next traffic.
24	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Tyre management is good. Looks after rear turn three. Gutierrez behind on [soft].
24	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	People getting quicker on their set?
24	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Majority of the field are being held up by the early [medium] runners.
25	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	We’re racing a mixture of one- and two-stoppers. We’re still sticking to plan A so we’ve got good pace in the end and able to attack.
25	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	The soft tyre appearance was very good considering the stint lengths. Just watch out for traction on this set, especially at the beginning. We expect the guys ahead to pit within seven or eight laps.
25	Paul di Resta	GianPiero Lambiase	I don’t think I can overtake so I’m just looking after them.
25	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Good info.
26	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Front wing feedback when you can.
26	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	At the moment I would keep the front wing.
26	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Understood.
26	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Massa passes Hamilton. Oh, sweet. I like that.
26	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Box now, 20 seconds.
26	Pastor Maldonado	Andrew Murdoch	Copy, box.
26	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I don’t know what’s wrong with the car, just no grip.
26	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Copy that Lewis.
26	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	You’ll be racing Pastor at the pit exit.
27	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Recovery three Daniel. And torque two, third sector.
27	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	No chance.
27	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	OK, Nico, come on, keep pushing. I give you more front flap for the high speed and I help you with the tyre pressure for the next set.
27	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Censored by FOM. Even low-speed now stability’s all **.
27	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy.
27	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Good lad. Right, free track in front of us. Go on. Pace management now.
28	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Need you to look after this tyre set, we’re taking it to the end. The other car’s on a different strategy to us.
28	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We need to cool the car right-hand side.
28	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Box this lap, confirm.
28	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	OK.
28	Giedo van der Garde	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Balance is quite OK. It’s going to a little bit of oversteer now.
28	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	You will be racing Checo at the pit exit.
28	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Checo and Hulkenberg at the pit exit.
29	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	Hulkenberg is released from his pit box in front of Perez. I nearly crash with the Sauber.
29	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Push hard now to get your pit window.
29	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Van der Garde is getting blues. Be careful, he might not do the right thing.
30	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Let him past on the straight.
30	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Blue flag, Vettel. Let him past now.
30	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Max is going to try and reach the end without stopping again. Max is going to try and one-stop only, so no more stops for him.
30	Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	Maldonado pushed me off the circuit so I had to cut the chicane.
30	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Copy that, Adrian.
31	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Just keep your head down, just settle down and keep your head down.
31	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’ve got to do 26 laps on these tyres. We need to pull Massa into our pit window. He’s currently 1.9 seconds out of it. Last lap for Massa 47.7.
32	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	The longer we go, the stronger we are especially with a Safety Car. Don’t abuse the tyres.
32	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Push the oil button, Daniel.
32	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Racing for position five. Massa is one second unsafe in our pit window. Last lap 48.0 for Massa.
33	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Marussia scrap their plan to one-stop. Box this lap, Jules. Both cars will stop again. A one-stop will not work, Jules, so box this lap, torque four, clutch six and three red lights. Mixture one, Jules.
33	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Engine 20.
34	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Box, boost to zero.
34	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	We can see the balance is stable but the tyres are wearing. We’re measuring tyre wear.
34	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	How long for Bottas’s stop? When is he going to the pits?
34	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Will be around ten laps, Nico.
34	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Pace is good at the moment. If you feel the tyres are good for our strategy, pace is good.
35	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Most people ahead are on two stops. Perez behind is likely one-stop. So we need to defend that position.
35	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Which of the guys in front do I need to catch?
35	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’ve got Vergne and Di Resta, we need to pass them on-track. They are on [medium] tyres, Di Resta 13 lap, Vergne 16 lap. We’ve got 22 laps remaining.
35	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	[Distorted.]
35	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy, understood.
36	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	You need to use 80 KERS before the last corner.
36	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re catching up a gaggle of nine cars who are fighting for position from P9 down.
36	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Understood.
36	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Ricciardo similar tyre age going to the end.
36	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Vettel doing 46.4, you’re 46.8 so the pace is good. 20 laps remaining, so we just need to pass Di Resta and Vergne on-track, we’re catching them in.
37	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Tyres temperatures still good, 15 all round.
37	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Starting to lose a little bit of tyre temperature so we can push a little bit through the high speed.
37	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Williams leaving race control in no doubt who cost Bottas time. Blue flag.
37	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy, Chilton holding you up badly.
37	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Box, torque map one and box.
38	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	If you’re happy with that pace, Nico, and it’s not damaging the tyres, just keep the pace like that. Tyre wear as I say 45% remaining and we’re doing less laps on this stint.
38	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Let’s use the KERS to get past Sutil. Try different strategies. Points are one place ahead. If we can get past Sutil we’re in the points.
38	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Massa turn one, Massa and Alonso turn one, use KERS.
38	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Tyres will be good to the end, tyres will be OK up till the end.
38	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Suggest you look after the tyres a bit now and then close on Webber for the end of the race. Tyre temperatures all OK.
39	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	The cars behind are closing the gap. You’re lapping 47.0, Ricciardo 46.7.
39	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Massa in, he’ll be dropping behind.
39	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Giedo is lapping in the 47s. Blue flag Grosjean then Alonso.
40	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	We need to look after those rears. We need to make sure we can keep those rears. Watch the traction phases and also watch left-rear in the high speed.
40	Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	OK.
40	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	It’s all about being smart now, OK. So track limits, focus on braking, clean exits. No mistakes, that’s the plan, no mistakes.
40	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Understood.
41	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Charles you’ve improved in turn 21. 21 is better. But you are losing time in 5, 6 and 18 by going too fast into the corner on the brakes and losing in the mid and exit.
41	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	16 laps to go so you can really push on the tyres now, you need to push on the tyres.
42	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Vettel leading then Webber, Rosberg, Grosjean, Alonso, Di Resta, Vergne, Lewis, Massa, Bottas. Vergne ahead, 23 lap old [medium] tyres.
42	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Hamilton’s tone has a hint of frustration. Thank you.
42	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Sutil has been told to look after his rear tyres, let’s stay on the attack.
42	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Suggest boost ten out of turn nine, we’re not getting a full lap
43	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Try going rearward on brake balance at turn seven, just for front locking.
43	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	We’ve got four laps until a blue flag for Vettel than that should be the last blue flag of the race. Let’s try to build tyre temp, front -5, rear -5.
44	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Black button on.
44	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Green F4 for state of store. And use the orange E switch.
44	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Blue flag Rosberg and watch out for the front-left.
44	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re the quickest car on track right now.
44	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	12 laps remaining so you’ve got Di Resta in front of Vergne four seconds, we can get them both.
45	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Hamilton is through on Vergne, he was one second faster. Pick up the pace a little bit, Paul.
45	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Keep pushing, this is good pace.
46	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Need information about the tyres. Do I push a little or take it easier?
46	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	All good. Maintain this pace.
47	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Williams’ assessment proved optimistic. Ten laps to go, start to close the gap, just manage these tyres until the end. You’re P12, there’ll be points for us today.
47	Pastor Maldonado	Andrew Murdoch	Copy that.
47	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Eight laps remaining end of this lap. Gap to Webber 4.8, gap to Grosjean 3.7. All similar lap times.
48	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	Special two till the end, keep pushing. People in front are fighting.
48	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Massa had expected to be given the faster soft tyres for the medium stint but was put on mediums. Pay attention now: Fernando has the soft tyre so he’s quick at the moment. Let’s see how they last.
48	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Press the oil button. Limit DRS where you can.
49	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Gap to Jules 2.3 seconds.
49	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Be patient Sebastian, OK, be patient.
50	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Tyres are good to the end so let’s push, close up, pressure on Sutil.
50	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	As you can see you’re just coming up to Vergne he is really struggling, he’s in the high 1’49s.
50	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Don’t overheat your tyres behind this guy, OK, just take your time.
50	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	We need to let Vettel through otherwise we’re going to get a penalty.
50	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Copy that. I was pulling away. Doesn’t make any sense.
50	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy that, I agree.
51	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	You can use overtake button on all straights.
51	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You’re back in the gaggle of cars ahead, all fighting for position.
51	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Anything can happen, they might have an accident and block the track, so be careful.
52	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Alonso has passed Hamilton, Alonso behind, he used KERS second straight.
52	Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	Need to let Daniel go, Jev.
52	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	The cars in front will soon get blue flags for Vettel, use it as an opportunity to overtake them. Vergne struggling a lot.
52	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Hamilton is on the medium tyre, won’t have as good a traction.
53	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Mate you’re +31 Webber, you can just sit back and watch the show ahead, OK?
53	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Too late now I’m in the middle of the pack.
53	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK.
53	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Push behind Vettel, could be a good opportunity to close on other cars.
53	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Three laps to go, Sutil struggling in the middle sector, let’s keep the pressure and attack, we can get him.
54	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	You’ll get blue flags for Alonso, he’s 2.5 seconds a lap quicker than you.
54	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	If it’s too dangerous you can drop all the way back, OK? You can let Bottas and Ricciardo go by.
54	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Bottas is by Ricciardo, you can let him by if you want, it’s up to you. If you’re comfortable where you are, stay there.
55	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Last lap. Careful, the cars ahead are fighting for position. Anything can happen. Last lap.
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	That was a world champion’s drive, well done, brilliant job.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Woohoo! Yes! Guys the car was absolutely wonderful. I don’t know what you’ve done, it was really, really good. Thank you. You don’t get to race cars like this too often. I love you guys. Yes! Yes, we gave everything we had.
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You did your job mate well done.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Happier now?
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Yeah, I’ve counted, that 125,000 dollars.
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	By the way, you can pay that one!
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	You do need to bring the car back, OK. Bring the car back into the pit lane.
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Sorry to be on your case but you do need to bring it home, OK? In the garage.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Ah… Let me quote: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah I know what I’m doing’
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Yeah. I’ve got the evidence to the contrary. You did pretty good today, though.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	We were, we were. Thank you guys. Everything we did, we did it together. This year, last year, the year before, the year before, the year before. And the next years! Woo!
VL	Christian Horner	Mark Webber	Well done Mark that was a very strong drive, great drive. One-two. Brilliant, well done.
VL	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Shame about the start but nice job on Rosberg, very good.
VL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Excellent job Nico so P3, well done.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Yeah thanks guys. I mean, sorry with Webber, could have been second today, but anyway…
VL	Ross Brawn	Nico Rosberg	Brilliant job Nico that was a fabulous drive, well done. That was a really good, sensible, thoughtful drive Well done, great job.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Ross Brawn	Thank you Ross.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Well done Romain, P4, good drive today, good recovery.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah good job guys.
VL	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Fantastic, fantastic, an absolute master class. Well done mate, P6. And for info a great team result: Sauber P13, P14. We were the only team to one-stop it. Both you and Adrian one-stopped it.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	I’m afraid that’s P7.
VL	Ross Brawn	Lewis Hamilton	Lewis, good effort, didn’t quite have the car today but that’s some very important points so good effort, well done.
VL	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	OK so P8. Lost a position, unfortunately. Vettel won it by 30 seconds to his team mate. Webber second, Rosberg third, Grosjean then Alonso. Di Resta sixth – he did a one-stop, he did almost the same as us – Hamilton, us, Perez, Sutil.
VL	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Great job getting last Sutil on the last lap, really nicely done.
VL	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	Oh, what a race, man. Very difficult to get past. The traction was nowhere.
VL	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Yeah we can see that from the TV. I think you did a really good job though getting past at the end there. Obviously we’ll have a look and try to understand why traction was so poor.
VL	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Yes, we pitted you a little earlier than we would have done due to trying to cover some cars. So that’s why you had to do a longer stint on the soft tyre than predicted. You did a 27-lap stint on those so that was a good job.
VL	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	P11 in the end. Good job from your side.
VL	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Jenson such a shame about the start. I think that is a fantastic, truly fantastic stint you just put together there. Great discipline, great tyre management and actually really good pace. Such a shame about the start but a great job.
VL	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Yeah, cheers. That’s what happens I guess when you’re down on the grid so far. But that’s where we got ourselves. Good to see we had a bit more pace this weekend. Just a pity we couldn’t really shot it in the race.
VL	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Yeah, absolutely. It’s a shame, I think, given how it panned out as well. The strategy we had and the tyre management plan we had was spot-on. We could have had a really good result. But as you say, that’s what happens when you qualify there.
VL	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	So we are 13.
VL	Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Copy. Thank you guys.
VL	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Car is not the same as all weekend. Struggling so much, unbelievable. Even in the stability, we’ve been good all, weekend, just disappeared today.
VL	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy that.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Good drive, Valtteri. Remember to pick up rubber. Some good moves there. A drive that deserved a bit more than P15. Pastor was P11 in the end with his alternative strategy. But good job.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Sorry about the first lap. Just all the guys with [softs] I got passed, couldn’t do much, sorry about that.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy that. You weren’t the only one to struggle with warm-up on the [medium] at the start.

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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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix data

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

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25 comments on “2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
9th November 2013, 10:48
VL – Sebastian Vettel: Ah… Let me quote: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah I know what I’m doing’
VL – Guilluame Rocquelin: Yeah. I’ve got the evidence to the contrary. You did pretty good today, though.
They are like brothers: it’s fantastic to listen to at times!
1. PhilEReid (@philereid)
  9th November 2013, 11:01
  @vettel1 Can’t argue with that. The only other engineer/drive combo as good is Smedley/Massa.
  1. Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
    9th November 2013, 11:28
    I do like them too, it just frustrates me slightly when you hear team orders being given :/
    Rocky sure does want to get his hands on understatement of the year trophy though, eh? ;)
    1. Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
      9th November 2013, 12:27
      @vettel1 yeah understatement of the year ,especially after the title on the FLAP .
      But great combo . Rocky – Vettel is a fantastic combo .
  2. Patrick (@paeschli)
    9th November 2013, 13:00
    Oh you beauty, right in front of Hulkenberg.
    was nice too :D
2. MahavirShah (@mahavirshah)
  9th November 2013, 13:18
  @vettel1 : Exactly what I thought as well Max. Really heartening to see. They make a fine pair, entertaining and focused.
HK (@me4me)
9th November 2013, 11:15
Rocky sounded nervous when Vettel was in backmarker-traffic. I guess it shows how much they still wanted to win the race, and not risk anything. Also intersting as always to listen to Lewis comments. He really says how he feels, doesn’t he..
1. Nick (@npf1)
  9th November 2013, 14:28
  Also interesting to note they went out of their way to mention van der Garde. I can’t remember Vettel ever tripping over backmarkers, but in his pursuit of fastest laps and maximising every lap, I understand Red Bull’s concern.
  Great stuff as always, @keithcollantine
  1. periwinkle (@shena)
    9th November 2013, 18:04
    @npf1 Maybe there were other occasions that haven’t been informed to the audiences though, seemingly the incident between him and Webber in Montreal was the trigger. From then on we kept hearing similar messages from Rocky.
    I can’t remember Vettel ever tripping over backmarkers
    Malaysia last year was the closest case I can recall.
    1. periwinkle (@shena)
      9th November 2013, 18:40
      Besides, the fact that in the last few races they were in the position where they could afford to lose a bit of time in order to avoid any sorts of dangerous situations with backmarkers probably made them more cautious than before.
  2. xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
    9th November 2013, 21:02
    At Canada, Webber and van der garde collided because VDG was being a bit of an idiot
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
9th November 2013, 11:24
We were, we were. Thank you guys. Everything we did, we did it together. This year, last year, the year before, the year before, the year before. And the next years! Woo!
That says a lot from Vettel-Red Bull relationship.
1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
  9th November 2013, 13:29
  Haters will hate… but yes, @fer-no65 I agree with you. I know Red Bull hasn’t had really bad times recenty (at least not with Vettel) but it looks like total partnership going into the team. I hope Ricciardo blends in well, better than what Webber has experienced these years. (which of course wasn’t totally bad, as all his F1 victories have been with Red Bull too).
2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
  9th November 2013, 13:30
  yes, @fer-no65 I agree with you. I know Red Bull hasn’t had really bad times recenty (at least not with Vettel) but it looks like total partnership going into the team. I hope Ricciardo blends in well, better than what Webber has experienced these years. (which of course wasn’t totally bad, as all his F1 victories have been with Red Bull too).
vjm
9th November 2013, 13:15
Has ever been a race when Hulk didn’t use bad words on the radio? ;P
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th November 2013, 14:24
FOM’s highlights video has just gone up and includes a clip from Alonso’s radio during the race of him complaining about Vergne, which wasn’t broadcast at the time:
http://www.formula1.com/video/race_edits/
Hairs (@hairs)
9th November 2013, 15:33
Another race where McLaren’s tyre managers are telling button to take it easy or box, and he’s telling them there’s still pace or time left in them.
Another example of why mclaren are going down the route of Williams, if they don’t stop the rot it will be difficult to get back. Winning is a habit.
AldoG
9th November 2013, 15:51
One more time, nothing from Alonso. Really odd.
1. HardHitter
  9th November 2013, 21:53
  Illuminati…Keith is hiding the truth!!! Or maybe he just can’t understand Italian. Nail biting moments, Eh?
  1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    9th November 2013, 22:10
    Nope, there were no messages broadcast from him in English, Italian, Welsh or any other language!
harish (@harishmech04)
9th November 2013, 19:24
VL Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin Ah… Let me quote: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah I know what I’m doing’
Haha ..He’ll never end without having a say at his FINN’s
periwinkle (@shena)
10th November 2013, 1:00
Just noticed almost every race we get to hear long and detailed messages about start procedure from Webber’s race engineer. Probably FOM presume people are interested in them due to his tendency to have a bad start. Also there seems to be always more conversations between Mercedes pit wall and their drivers during pre-race and formation lap, though it could be that FOM just pick up theirs more often.
I hope FOM cut down the number of Rocky’s messages aired on the channel. During a second half of a race like this one pretty much every message from him is telling Seb to bring the car home in the safest manner, which can be a little off putting for fans – obviously Crofty was one of t1hem. Don’t get me wrong, what Rocky’s doing is perfectly fine and some of them are actually quite funny. Still we can live with less of them, can’t we and there has to be more interesting conversations from other camps, I guess.
1. periwinkle (@shena)
  10th November 2013, 1:09
  ‘on the channel’ I mean on the main channel. I imagine it’s less of an issue on the pit lane channel, as we get loads of other messages too.
magon4 (@magon4)
10th November 2013, 8:01
I really like the Caterham policy of “let him pass, and if he’s not faster, we’ll let you pass him again”. I think that is fair and completely okay in terms of team order.
sofea
28th November 2013, 13:46
when i see the team radio, i always see Rocky told Sebastian this and that, but we haven’t see the respond from Seb equally…..hmmm…maybe Seb just want to concentrate his race …..hahaha….