2014 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

9th April 2014, 14:4710th April 2014, 11:51 | Written by Will Wood

Lewis Hamilton took his second victory in eight days at the Bahrain Grand Prix after holding off a strong challenge from team mate Nico Rosberg.

In an action packed race that thrilled viewers, some of the drivers could be heard getting rather excitable themselves over the team radio.

Not all of them were happy with how the race developed, particularly Nico Hulkenberg who agitated for his team to report one of his rivals to race director Charlie Whiting.

Esteban Gutierrez was taken by surprise when Pastor Maldonado flipped his car upside down at the first corner. He wasn’t the only driver to be infuriated by the Lotus pilot, Jean-Eric Vergne complaining “he tried to kill me” earlier in the race.

But the fight at the front was all about the Mercedes team mates. Paddy Lowe reminded both of his battling drivers to bring their cars home in one piece, but once the team’s second consecutive one-two finish was secured, Lowe was quick to praise his championship leading pairing on their professionalism.

Here’s how a thrilling Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded over team radio.

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2014 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	Ten minutes to go, ten minutes.
PR	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK, just on the switches, check you’re in mode-12. The lower start mode switch flicks over to the right hand side. You’re in torque-1 and clutch-5.
PR	?	Felipe Massa	Unidentified voice. Clutch-5? Yes. All correct.
PR	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Same as always, but I’ll run through it anyway. So after we fire up, pit lane speed limiter on and then a static bite-point learn once we’ve all left the grid. Then on the formation lap straight after the start, we’ll go into torque-4, recovering SOC [state of charge] ready for the race start. I think for eighth gear we may have to get you to sync first gear again, but we’ll let you know. Four tyre warmings and then the big ones are torque-3, ‘Eng’-1 and the rolling bite-point learn before you’re stationary. But I’ll remind you of all that before the end.
PR	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, so just a reminder to look where the yellow line is on your right-hand side. If you can see, just bear in mind where you are compared to that.
PR	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Vettel and Sutil on [medium] tyre
FL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Rear tyres are coming up nicely as well. So front brakes need a bit of work.
FL	?	Nico Rosberg	Unidentified voice. Brakes are starting to come up, tyres are 8.5 front, 9.5 rear. And gears are learnt.
FL	Bernadette Collins	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, we need to learn sixth, seventh and eighth. Six, seven, eight.
FL	Angel Baena	Marcus Ericsson	Rolling bite-point find before turn 15.
FL	?	Sebastian Vettel	Unidentified voice. Remember your procedures. It’s bite-point learn and two burnouts. Bite-point learn and two burnouts. Mode-7.
FL	? [American accent]	Sergio Perez	Perez then locked his brakes approaching the first corner Be careful with the front brakes into turn one, they’re slightly under temp.
1	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Cancel RS.
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Antonio Spagnolo	Magnussen has clipped Raikkonen’s right-rear on the opening lap Magnussen hit me again!
2	Antonio Spagnolo	Kimi Raikkonen	Understood, understood.
2	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	Contact with Maldonado on lap one left Vergne limping back to the pits with a damaged car Crazy, that Lotus guy! I don’t know who it was. Absolutely mental!
2	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	Copy that, copy that. Box.
2	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	The guy tried to kill me!
3	?	?	DRS enabled
3	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Nico at 0.9, he has DRS
3	?	?	And white H-5 position two, urgent. White H-5, position two.
4	Daniil Kvyat	Marco Matassa	Car’s locking.
4	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	OK Daniil, keep going like that. Keep going like that. You’re one-tenth faster than Daniel.
4	Daniil Kvyat	Marco Matassa	OK guys, this is ridiculous. Car is front locking way too hard.
4	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	OK Daniil, one click rearward brake bias.
5	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	I need information on fuel consumption compared to the other car.
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So you are saving more fuel than your team mate, but continue to save. Gap to Massa, 2.7. You have DRS.
5	Fernando Alonso	Andrea Stella	Alonso has lost seventh to Hulkenberg’s Force India We don’t have the power to keep him behind.
5	Jules Bianchi	Paul Davison	It’s even worse like this on power. It’s even worse on the straights.
5	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Yeah, the power will feel worse mate. The power will feel worse, but we have a higher top speed.
6	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So just look after that left-front. It looks like we have a little more understeer than the other car.
7	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So remember Nico, we have the alternative strategy which we’ll be going for which means you need to go longer on this first stint, looking after the tyres.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So let us know if it’s the front or rears that are taking the punishment.
7	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Front-left and left-rear. Got too much front wing.
8	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	Sutil has pitted for soft tyres Go engine mode position five and torque-8.
8	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	Target is 17. Target is 17 on that one.
9	Angel Baena	Marcus Ericsson	Multifunction three, position seven. Less higher-speed understeer.
9	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Your pace at the moment looks OK. We’ll have a look on the pitstop on the rear wing.
10	Fernando Alonso	Andrea Stella	Tyres are worn.
11	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	And Jenson we are in the window. In the window.
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	It’s really loose rear, but also quite a bit of understeer.
11	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Use your diff switches to track where the oversteer is.
11	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor, your pace is good. Your pace is very good, we’re sticking to Plan-A.
12	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico, go to strat-seven. Both cars strat-seven. Try braking five metres later into turn one.
12	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	And go strat mode seven. Strat mode seven, both cars are making the change.
12	Antonio Spagnolo	Kimi Raikkonen	How are the tyres?
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Antonio Spagnolo	Yeah my left-front is flat-spotted and it’s vibrating quite heavily. And I get some understeer in the right-hand corners.
13	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, this is good. Massa in front is starting to struggle, bringing Checo back with him.
13	Felipe Massa	Andrew Murdoch	I need to think about what to do, because I’m losing the rear tyres [distorted].
13	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	Copy Felipe. Go engine mode position four, torque-7.
13	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, cars are starting to pit. We are still on Plan-A.
14	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	My DRS is not working any more.
15	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Sutil has retired following contact with Jules Bianchi We have a gap behind. Adrian went off at turn one and stopped.
15	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	Can you not continue, Adrian?
15	Adrian Sutil	Marco Schupbach	I mean this has to be a penalty here!
15	Jules Bianchi	Paul Davison	I’m turning in and he’s just turning on me!
15	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Just be careful, looks like rear-left puncture. Diff entry 12 as well.
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Ricciardo is behind Vettel on quicker tyres We’re losing time like this.
16	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Understood mate.
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	We’ve got to decide what to do.
16	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Sebastian, let Daniel go through please. Daniel is quicker than you, let him by please.
16	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Copy. I’ll do it 11 – turn 11.
17	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	OK, we should box. No more rear tyres.
17	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Understood.
18	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Hamilton has come under attack for the lead by Rosberg Warn him, that was not on!
18	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy Nico, we need you to go to strat-10, you cannot use strat-six.
19	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian, you’ve realised the undercut. Ricciardo – 42.6. Respect the beeps, please. Respect the beeps.
19	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Box, Daniel. Box. Box this lap.
19	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	We’re on strategy two. Strategy two.
20	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So using DRS push hard now for two laps, push hard for two laps, thenwe got to [medium] tyre, alternative strategy.
20	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Hamilton pits from the lead Push hard, Nico! Push hard. Fuel is fine, fuel is OK. But you can still do lift and coast to look after the tyres later in the second stint.
20	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Just make sure we’re not late on the DRS down the straight from turn 10 to turn 11, Checo. Make sure you use the wing button as soon as you hear the tone.
20	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian the cars ahead are for position but we think the majority of them are three-stopping.
21	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	OK Adrian, box box. Ignition four. Ignition four. OK Adrian, we retire. You drive forwards into your garage. Watch Dominick.
21	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian, you’re minus-three, Button. He stopped around the same lap as you – we think you’re on the same strategy.
21	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK, Nico boxing this lap. You are four seconds safe.
21	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico, need bite-point seven and box, box, box.
22	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Rosberg pits for medium tyres So Nico, this will be a long stint on [medium] tyres.
22	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, we need to manage these tyres. Get the most out of them, minimise our time on the Mediums.
22	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	And Charge-9, Jules. Charge-9. Let’s try and get some tyre temp back. Front, minus five. Rear, minus ten.
22	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Already have oversteer now.
23	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK, Raikkonen and Vettel ahead are doing 41.0s. Cars ahead are doing 41.0s, you’re catching them at six tenths a lap.
24	Felipe Massa	Andrew Murdoch	Massa is behind his team mate Bottas, with two Force Indias close behind He’s losing his rears. He’s losing his rear tyres.
24	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	Copy that, understood. Try and use this to get by him.
24	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So you’re currently quicker than Lewis. You’re on Mediums, he’s on Softs. So remember, looking after the tyres on the stint.
24	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor, you’re doing a good job but we’re a little bit late on the tones, so try to lift on the tones please.
24	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	OK, copy that.
24	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Max, we need some fuel saving. A little hard coasting and we’ll see where we are.
25	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	Rears are starting to go, so be ready.
25	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	I would like to box now if possible.
25	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy, we’re boxing now. So box now, Valtteri.
26	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	And Kevin box this lap. Box this lap, confirm.
26	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Ricciardo is challenging Raikkonen for tenth OK, think about using ‘overtake’, exit 13 and exit 14. Use ‘overtake’ in both places.
27	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	Perez has passed Hulkenberg after his team mate failed to pass m OK, expecting Massa in, Checo. Let’s get by him.
27	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	He didn’t leave a space there. He just pushed me right off.
28	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	DRS is not working. DRS is not working.
28	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, understood. We’re going to manual mode. So ‘X-0-1’, please. ‘X-0-1’ and use DRS at the line.
28	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Did you copy that with Massa?
28	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Yeah, we copy that Nico. There’s not a lot we can do about it now. We’ll talk to Charlie…
28	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Interrupting Talk to Charlie. It’s pretty obvious!
28	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Yeah, we’re doing that. You concentrate on driving, mate.
28	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Just give me some feedback. Don’t leave me alone here!
28	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	OK, so Massa will be pitting shortly we believe. At the moment, we’re in P5.
29	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Perez has passed Massa Excellent job, Checo. Let’s break his DRS – use the ‘overtake’ button in a straight line.
29	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, so relatively speaking, sector one is the weakest.
29	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	In now Max. Clutch-8, torque-2.
30	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico the pace of the [medium] and the [soft] is different than we expected.
30	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Kobayashi in front is most likely two-stopping – you’ll have to overtake him on track.
31	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	Bottas has to take avoiding action to prevent running into Raikkonen in turn one What was he doing?
31	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	I don’t know, did he push you off the track? Let me know what he did, we’ll get straight on to Charlie.
32	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Rears are going away now. Starting to drop quite a bit.
32	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy that, Nico. Keep pushing for the temperatures. Keep pushing.
33	Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	The right-hand side of the cockpit’s getting pretty toasty.
33	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Understood Max. Engine temps are OK, so it must just be the insulation. Engine temps OK.
34	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Good job, Sebastian. Hang in there. We need a few more laps to make sure our last stint is not too long.
34	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Box and pit confirm, Checo.
35	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, we’re safe on fuel. So no more lift and coast.
35	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I heard you, man! I’m looking after my tyres.
35	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	I’m just starting to lose a lot of time now. Drop the front wing – minus eight.
35	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Box, box, box. Torque map one and box.
36	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	OK Kevin, we’re racing Maldonado in front for position. Remember, use overtake button.
36	Marcus Ericsson	Angel Baena	I’m losing power!
36	Angel Baena	Marcus Ericsson	Stop the car, stop the car now! Stop the car. Go to P-1, disconnect auxillery battery and then P-0. Car is safe, car is safe.
37	Felipe Massa	Andrew Murdoch	Can’t understand. There’s a problem with the [?] again. But we still got a better strategy [?]
37	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	No fuel saving, push to get him.
38	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So will be rich-6 as the end of this lap. Still if you can find more time it’s helpful.
38	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Magnussen is on ten lap old Softs. Magnussen is three-stopping, he’ll need to stop again.
39	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	How are we looking on fuel?
39	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	You’re doing a good job, JB. We need fuel-5 to the end, but we’re OK.
39	Antonio Spagnolo	Kimi Raikkonen	To go to the end we need 20 gram less every lap. Twenty less every lap.
40	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Alright Sebastian the expectation is at the end you’ll be under press from three-stoppers.
40	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	We need to stop too. I have no more rear tyres.
40	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So braking later into turn 11 for earlier apex and better exit.
42	Esteban Gutierrez	Craig Gardiner	The Safety Car is deployed as Maldondo pitches Gutierrez into a roll Woah! What was that?
42	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Are you OK?
42	Esteban Gutierrez	Craig Gardiner	I’m OK… I think I’m OK. I will not go out of the car.
42	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Thumbs up Esteban.
42	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Just put the thumbs up if you’re OK, otherwise you wait.
42	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	We broke something in the front.
43	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK brake temperatures are both lower, both front and rears.
43	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I’ve got a lot of push at the apex of corners, but I don’t want to go back on my rear- on my brake bias cause I seem to be locking rears.
43	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis if you go diff init three. Diff init three. Then we’ve got two HPP switch adjust. So will be HPP-11 to one. HPP-2 to mode one.
43	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Is Nico on new tyres?
43	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Afrim, Lewis. Nico behind on the Soft tyre.
43	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Should I try and burn fuel behind the Safety Car?
43	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	You can use low gear, high revs to burn fuel. Tyre temperatures are… ten front and ten rear currently. Brake temperatures are even and OK.
44	Kevin Magnussen	Mark Temple	Magnussen has retired OK, gearbox has gone… gearbox has gone.
44	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	OK, understoood. Pull over. Pull over where it’s safe and then switch the car off completely.
46	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian, for reference, you’ll probably have one less lap of racing laps on these stint thanks to the Safety Car compared to your middle stint.
46	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis, obvious I know, but you’re good on fuel so there’s no need to lift and coast. We’re pushing to the flag.
46	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Lewis, it’s Paddy.
46	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	What’s up?
46	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Ten laps left to race, can we just make sure we bring both cars home.
46	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Lapped cars are allowed to overtake the Safety Car Will the Safety Car let the others catch up?
46	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	They will do, Lewis. They may release it early though.
46	Paddy Lowe	Nico Rosberg	Nico, it’s Paddy here. There are about ten laps left to race. Can we make sure we just bring both cars home.
46	Nico Rosberg	Paddy Lowe	OK.
46	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK, Safety Car will be in this lap. You can go back racing from exit turn 15.
47	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	As the race resumes Button is warned about the clutch problem which has already claimed his team mate and will eventually put him out of the race. And Jenson, just be aware. Your shifts will be poor, I’m afraid. Shifts will be poor.
47	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Fuel is good to the end, fuel is good.
48	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I’ve got no power!
48	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, we’re looking into it. All looks OK on the data.
48	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	I have no rear grip!
48	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK, that’s because tyre pressure is still low. It’s coming up.
48	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Nice job, mate. Let’s keep going.
48	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Looks OK at the moment there. You’re doing a good job. Every straight lift.
49	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	When you’re ready to attack, it will be strat-6 and you can use the overtake. Battery is 80%.
49	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK good job, just keep the pressure on Ricciardo.
50	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	So your energy store is low so you only need to use the ‘overtake’ button when you really need it.
51	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	I’m really, really slow in the straights. Losing out on the tow, really losing a lot.
51	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Is Nico on strat 6?
51	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Affirm, we’re just mirroring what they’re doing.
51	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK, so let’s go back strat-3 when you can. We’re just going to mirror them.
51	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	It’s not obvious who Hulkenberg is referring to here. The last incident he was involved in on track was his unsuccessful attempt to pass his team mate at the restart on lap 46. What an idiot.
52	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Rosberg is challenging Hamilton for the lead once again So use ‘overtake’ where you need it.
53	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	You guys going to tell me whether I have DRS or not, or are you just going to keep quiet?
53	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson. Default, ‘X-4-6’.
53	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Red Bulls behind are fighting with each other. As you get further on, your Mediums will be better than theirs. So just keep it nice and tidy and just use your speed.
53	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Nico, strat-3 to charge the battery. You can still use overtake.
54	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Ricciardo has passed Hulkenberg for fourth OK good job, mate. Let’s get after Perez now.
54	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, you can use ‘overtake’ on the exit of corners now. Use ‘overtake’ where you need it.
55	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain, which corner did Kvyat go outside of the track limit?
55	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	He did two times in 13, one time in turn two.
55	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	So Checo, Ricciardo half a second faster – at that rate, he will not close on us. So this is an excellent job. Keep doing what you’re doing. Focus.
56	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	Keep using the ‘overtake’ button if you need to.
57	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	Last lap, Fernando. Last lap.
57	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis. You’ve got the energy. Use ‘overtake’ everywhere now. Use ‘overtake’.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Hamilton crosses the line to claim victory, ahead of Rosberg Nice work there Lewis! You had us all going there for a minute, mate.
VL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Fantastic job this weekend, guys! We didn’t really have the pace on this side of the garage but we still held on to it. Let’s work on that. Thanks.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Fantastic job, Lewis. Fantastic. And really great racing, well done.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Fantastic job Nico, and best of all great racing. Very well done.
VL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	And then someone should tell me that the sport is boring…
VL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Wow! Wow! P3. Fantastic job, Checo. Thank you very much.
VL	Sergio Perez	Gianpiero Lambiase	Yeah guys! Thank you very much. Woah, that was a hard race! Thank you very much guys, amazing job.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate. Very, very good job today. Excellent. I reckon one more lap, you’d have done him mate. Good effort.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yeah, true that big homie. Got close at the end. All right, cheers boys. Thank you. Good comeback.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	That was very good racing that, mate.
VL	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Well done Nico, P5. Well done.
VL	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Good job, Sebastian. Good job.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	I did what I could. For some reason I was nowhere on the straights… absolutely nowhere.
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	You got everything you could out of it, so, all the points add up at the end of the year. Well done.
VL	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe. Good job from your side. P7.
VL	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Good race, Valtteri. So P8. Not our day today, unfortunately.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	Thanks guys, well done. Good points again, but… just need to have a look at ourselves. We could have done better today.
VL	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	P11, Daniil. P11. Good effort from you today, it was not easy.
VL	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	OK Max, chequered flag. Chequered flag. Great job. You’re P13. Well done Max. So you beat Kobayashi and Bianchi and Maldonado as well.
VL	Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	Great job guys, we did well at the end. The car was so much stronger in the last half, but we didn’t really be able to use it because of the saving. But yeah. The car balance was pretty good.
VL	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Understood Max. Good job buddy.
VL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor, good job mate. Pace was good actually, that race. Shame about the incident at turn one, that’s really hurt us. But otherwise your pace was pretty good and we could’ve picked up some points there, potentially.
VL	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Very tough race, mate. But we got through it. We’re classified. So we are P16. Kobayashi is P15, Maldonado P14 and Max is in P13.

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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Will Wood

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46 comments on “2014 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Angela
9th April 2014, 14:51

Didn’t Kimi scold his engineer ??
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  9th April 2014, 16:12
  
  Yes he did, but the message wasn’t played on the main world feed broadcast or on the pit radio channel, which is where the messages above are from. It was played on the official F1 app and was noted on F1 Fanatic Live at the time:
  
  https://twitter.com/f1fanaticlive/status/452843580433113089
  
  Unfortunately I’ve not been able to find a means of playing it back and I didn’t want to include it without being certain of what he was saying. But he did sound pretty annoyed!
  1. Angela
    9th April 2014, 16:40
    
    Ok, thank you so much for clarifying.
  2. ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
    9th April 2014, 22:24
    
    Wonder if Ferrari had veto on radio transmission too….
    1. Dave (@)
      9th April 2014, 22:48
      
      No – all pit-to-car transmissions are unencrypted, and always available to FOM.
MrPaullyO
9th April 2014, 15:00

Thanks a ton Will. Always look forward to the transcripts here, so much insight and good stuff to sink the teeth into!
Joshua Mesh (@joshua-mesh)
9th April 2014, 15:14

Kevin Magnussen really needs to be careful before he becomes another crasher like Maldenado.
1. nickpkr251
  9th April 2014, 19:11
  
  oh c’mon he is the new halmiton, besides has only crash twice out of three, plus mad-onado flips people around !
JCost (@jcost)
9th April 2014, 15:29

<blockquoteWe broke something in the front.

Pastor Maldonado is a legend
1. Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
  9th April 2014, 15:37
  
  yeah Pastor, it was a Sauber
  1. Guillermo Deutsch
    9th April 2014, 16:18
    
    +1000
  2. Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
    9th April 2014, 16:41
    
    @keithedin
    
    That’s why I hate this guy . He rams someone , flips the other car and goes like
    ” I think I broke a little bit of front wing but the pace is good “.
    Total disregard for everything else. Sheesh what a personality!
  3. JCost (@jcost)
    10th April 2014, 7:47
    
    LOL!
2. Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
  9th April 2014, 16:27
  
  “We broke something in the front. ”
  
  No you didn’t…… you (Censored ) !!
  steamrolled something in front rather ..
3. andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
  9th April 2014, 16:30
  
  It’s funny cause he says “we broke” – no Pastor, you alone broke it, you clown.
  1. Pandaslap (@pandaslap)
    10th April 2014, 5:22
    
    @andrewf1
    
    I think Pastor is using the royal we.
4. nickpkr251
  9th April 2014, 19:14
  
  I think last time someone flip cars around got a race break, most likely Mladonado is bribing someone corrupt in FIA
  1. Peter (@boylep6)
    10th April 2014, 21:03
    
    The worrying thing about this is we have had 2 significant crashes with the low
    nose this year and now really worry about lifting the struck car.
    Something actually should be done.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
9th April 2014, 15:38

Gotta love Ricciardo “Yeah, true that big homie” ;)
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
9th April 2014, 16:28

Since when did Rennie become big homie ?
WH
9th April 2014, 16:42

Shame about the incident at turn one, that’s really hurt us.

Seems it’s not just Maldonado himself who needs a clip round the ear. What an arrogant, selfishly expedient thing to say.
1. Mike (@mike)
  10th April 2014, 2:40
  
  I disagree entirely. I think that’s him trying to be delicate about it to keep his driver happy. Which is, you know, part of his job.
disjunto (@disjunto)
9th April 2014, 16:47

Was there every a replay of the Maldonado/Vergne incident on the opening lap? I don’t remember seeing anything about it throughout the whole race, other than Vergne being incredibly annoyed.
1. Maimai (@maimai)
  9th April 2014, 20:30
  
  Yeah I’d want to see that too
  1. foleyger (@foleyger)
    9th April 2014, 21:22
    
    +1
erix
9th April 2014, 17:05

From 3 races in Ferrari, Kimi looks to have the raw pace but Alonso is smarter. Alonso uses more fuel in the beginning of the race to gain places at the start but also to reduce up to 0.1s per lap and cruising by the end, also if safety car appearing then he doesnt have to save fuel anymore. Kimi had more stable lap times whilst Alonso is more fast-slow-fast-slow lap times. Kimi is also too careful with the opponent and mostly keeps his racing line rather try to block them.
trublu (@trublu)
9th April 2014, 17:08

@keithcollantine
Mistake:
VL Paddy Lowe Lewis Hamilton Fantastic job Nico, and best of all great racing. Very well done.

Should be:
VL Paddy Lowe Nico Rosberg Fantastic job Nico, and best of all great racing. Very well done.
Nguyen Phan Duy
9th April 2014, 18:05

Hi guys, I’ve found this site recently, it’s very cool to find out team radio transcripts… This is the first time I read a full team radio transcript and so it seems to have so many strange things to me, as the following ones. There’re quite a lot of terminology :d.

(1) PR- Ham: What is the “yellow line” ?
(2) PR-Ros: I dont get what the figures 8.5 and 9.5 are. Otherwise, the engineer said to him on the formation lap :” all the gears are learnt”. Im not sure, but I guess the drivers have to use everygear on formation lap to make sure these’re smooth, that’s why he said “learnt”. Is that correct ?
(3) Does the phrase “Rolling bite-point” at the beginning of the race mean the drivers have to roll the rotary to the “BITE” point on their steering wheel ? Because I see on the wheel of a W05, there’s a “BITE” on the second place of the middle rotary. But on lap 21, Ros needed “bite point seven”. So what is the “seven” ?
(4) Lap 28: for Hulk: He asked his engineer for copy something. I guess they wanted to complain something to Charlie. But it seemed having no collision between Hulk and Mas, so what made they needed to talk to Charlie.

Can anyone explain ? Thanks a million !
1. GeeMac (@geemac)
  10th April 2014, 9:21
  
  1) The “yellow line” is a little yellow line next to the grid hatchings that the drivers use as reference to make sure they are in their grid slot correctly. You can see it at the back of this image.
  
  https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/merc-hami-bahr-2014-10.jpg
  
  2) 8.5 and 9.5 are the tyre temperatures I believe (so they where at 108.5 and 109.5 degrees Celsius ). By “learning the gears” I think they mean they have to synchronize all the gears in the gearbox by changing into them during the formation lap.
  
  3) “Bite Point” refers to the clutch bite point. The bite point adjusts how the clutch engages as the drivers release the paddle, so they can execute a perfect launch. As I understand it, they have 2 clutch paddles to use at the start. They hold both down and when the lights go green they release one fully and then release the other gradually to feed in the power properly to get the best start possible. They seem to have to find the bite point when they are rolling and standing still, and most steering wheels have a “BP” switch on them. The “7” probably just refers to the fact that they have multiple bite points available.
  
  4) When the drivers say “copy” on the radio they usually do it to say they have acknowledged an instruction. When Hulk said “did you copy that” he was probably just checking the team saw whatever bothered him so they could get on to Charlie if necessary.
Nick (@nick-uk)
9th April 2014, 18:39

RE No. 27

Nico says Lewis didn’t leave a space. Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t the rule that you have to leave a space in the braking zones when defending, and not as Nico is suggesting, to have to leave space all the time – otherwise what is the point in defending?
1. GeeMac (@geemac)
  10th April 2014, 9:23
  
  @nick-uk According to Alonso “all the time you have to leave a space”. ;)
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sMZG0MLcc
2. BasCB (@bascb)
  10th April 2014, 12:59
  
  it was very much a “in the heat of the moment” comment @nick-uk, I think Rosberg himself mentioned after the race that it had been tough but fair racing all along.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
9th April 2014, 18:49

Interesting to note that Seb had absolutely no qualms about letting Dan through. Yeah I understand that it wasn’t for the lead of the race but it tells me one thing, Seb was unhappy about Mark ignoring orders and taking the fight to him at the Brazilian GP 2012 and that was probably the reason why Seb didn’t think twice before ignoring the orders.

A lot had been said about Seb thinking of himself above the team and even fingers were pointed at Christian Horner for his lack of leadership to tame the German Bull but I really feel there was more to the Multi 21 saga than met the eye.
1. nickpkr251
  9th April 2014, 19:16
  
  Webber was weaker than Vettel so Vettel didn’t see the point, I think he respect Ricciardo much more as drives the cars faster than himself !
  1. HK (@me4me)
    10th April 2014, 8:24
    
    I think the situation is very different. In Malaysia last year he was happy with the car, and probably quicker than his teammate. This year in Bahrain, he wasn’t happy with the car at all and not very quick either. So instead, he played the team game when there wasn’t anything he could gain by not allowing RIC to pass.
    1. Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
      10th April 2014, 16:52
      
      @me4me I think it’s mainly because there was no strategic reason for him to be held behind Webber last year. He was faster, they were both in contention for the win and on their last stints, so he should have been allowed to go for it.
      
      This was a different situation entirely: it was early in the race and a purely strategic call to allow Ricciardo to use the pace advantage of his tyres, which Vettel should in theory have later redressed. It did not fundamentally compromise his race, whereas multi-21 blatantly did.
      
      He is compliant when there is reason to be essentially is the conclusion. In Malaysia he stole the win because he was the faster driver, quite simply.
n
9th April 2014, 20:03

“Seb was unhappy about Mark ignoring orders and taking the fight to him at the Brazilian GP 2012”

Yeah, and Mark was probably unhappy about having is brand new front wing ripped off his car and put on his championship rival and teammates car right in the middle of a tight season.

Not bad for a number 2 and all that…. Redbull created the problems themselves :]
1. David Margono (@woshidavid95)
  10th April 2014, 2:33
  
  For starters, Mark never wanted the front wing as seen from the FP sessions and thus it’d make sense to give it to Vettel who was on pole as well… making himself out to be some victim since he doesn’t have the ability to beat Vettel in a straight fight and you know that. Even in 2010, it was Vettel who bore the brunt of reliability issues, most notably Australia and Korea where he should have won but retired through issues beyond his control.
  1. LoudHoward (@loudhoward)
    10th April 2014, 12:27
    
    To be fair to Mark, even though he didn’t have a massive opinion on the wing he still wanted it on his car, Seb liked the feel yes, but as far as I know the entire team knew it was worth time (hence the reason for having it). It was also before qualifying that it was swapped over.
    
    Your better argument would be to ignore Mark and Seb in the situation and just go with the “whoevers ahead in the championship gets the priority on parts if there isn’t enough to go around”. It’s a reasonable position, so no need to knock Mark to try and make your point.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
9th April 2014, 23:37

Nothing from Kobayashi? Very disappointing. Kamui’s every sentence is filled with wisdom and humour but all that is listed are inanities from all of the other drivers. One can only assume that this is a CONSPIRACY!!!
FERNANDO123 (@fernando123)
10th April 2014, 2:03

Homie ! lmao
BMaf
10th April 2014, 5:06

I dont understand what the “diff swithes” is, on lap 11. Can anyone explain ?
1. GeeMac (@geemac)
  10th April 2014, 9:26
  
  They are the settings for the differential. The cars all have switches for “entry” “mid” “hi-speed” and “exit” to adjust the effect of the diff at different stages of the corners.
  
  http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/2014/2014-tech-guide-steering-wheel/
alphaa (@alphaa)
10th April 2014, 9:21

There were much radio between Alonso and his engineer…. or are they not sharing it?
1. @HoHum (@hohum)
  10th April 2014, 15:34
  
  apparently Italian TV have more Ferrari radio broadcasts than the FOM release.
Sofia
10th April 2014, 9:57

I am crazy about this and was wondering about that Lotus guy.. Thanks a lot for providing the chat between them.. I am really enjoying reading all this stuff..!!!