2014 British GP qualifying team radio transcript

The ever-changing conditions during qualifying for the British Grand Prix could hardly have been better designed to test the skills of the drivers – and their strategists – to the limit.

Occasional flurries of rain made for volatile track conditions which made judging which tyre to use extremely difficult. It led to some surprise eliminations in Q1 including both Williams and Ferrari drivers.

In Q2 Romain Grosjean and Max Chilton believed they could have gone faster had it not been for the double waved yellow flags at Luffield after Esteban Gutierrez crashed his Sauber.

But the biggest surprise of all came in Q3, where several drivers made significant gains in lap time despite being slower through the first two sectors. Jenson Button was tipped off about the potential to gain time in sector three, which was a message Lewis Hamilton could have done with hearing as he abandoned his final flying effort after just four corners.

He had picked his way past Sergio Perez on the out-lap and Force India were unimpressed their driver had lost his place in the queue. He failed to begin his last lap in time and dropped four places to seventh as a result.

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2014 British Grand Prix qualifying team radio transcript

Phase	Time	From	To	Message
Q1	18:00	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	OK Max, so we’ll send you down to the end of the pit lane. There’s about one minute ’til the green. One minute until the green. So wait at the end of the pit lane.
Q1	17:01	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	We’ll target a constant SOC [state of charge] – so constant pushing, no charging lap.
Q1		Esteban Gutierrez	Craig Gardiner	OK, so this first corner seems pretty dry…
Q1	16:09	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Everybody’s on Inters.
Q1		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	No sync in first gear.
Q1		Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Track is very dry.
Q1	14:00	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	I mean, it’s really dry out here at the moment, except for turn eight.
Q1		Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy. Do you want to do just one timed lap to get a lap in and then box for hards? Should just get a lap on board, Nico. So just prepare for a lap, Nico. Go for ‘deploy’, so will be strat five.
Q1	11:59	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	So Checo, for your information, we have more rain. We have more rain on the pit wall. Very light, but it is raining again on the pit wall.
Q1	11:35	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	The rears need to cool down.
Q1		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Yeah, let’s cool the tyres down. Look for the wet patches.
Q1	10:56	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	If the weather stays just as it is, I think it should be slicks. If we can get the temperatures up.
Q1		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yep, we agree with you there Lewis.
Q1	8:05	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	I mean, there are some corners where it’s still difficult. So, err, don’t you think better [medium tyre] maybe? What is the downside of going [medium]?
Q1		Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	The only downside Nico is that if it doesn’t rain, we won’t have a new set for the race.
Q1	7:45	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	OK, we’re going to go [medium] tyre. So we’ll pull back into the garage, Nico and fit [medium] and just discuss our settings.
Q1	7:33	Kevin Magnussen	Mark Temple	We’re not going to go quicker on these tyres. They’re gone.
Q1		Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	OK. We think it might be ready for dry tyres at the end, so we don’t want to pit too soon and lose temperature. So let’s try and go once more past and try and keep temperature in the brakes.
Q1	5:55	Tim Wright	Kamui Kobayashi	Box, box, Kamui. Box, box. We have an issue, we will have to go back into the garage. Box, box.
Q1	5:08	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, so all the cars we are competing against are on Medium tyres.
Q1	4:40	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	OK Dany, good warm-up on tyres. Good warm-up on tyres and brakes.
Q1	3:51	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, caution on pit exit. It’s quite slippy.
Q1	3:28	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, you’re going to get one timed lap on medium tyres. One timed lap on medium tyres.
Q1	1:38	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Why is my DRS not working?
Q1		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, it has been disabled. The system has been disabled. Jenson, you did go off the track, so we need another timed lap. We need to make another one count, Jenson.
Q1		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Yeah, I went off the track because I had traffic in front!
Q1	1:04	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian, mode seven, mode seven. People are still improving. Mode seven to start your timed lap.
Q1	0:00	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Really wet, the second sector. Can’t improve.
Q1		Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK, understood.
Q1	0:00	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	Sutil has spun off. Can you continue, Adrian? Try to continue.
Q1		Adrian Sutil	Marco Schupbach	No! No… Stucked [sic].
Q1	0:00	Marcus Ericsson	Angel Baena	Ericsson also went off during Q1. I tried to give you my all on the slicks, but… Difficult. It was different wet at different parts of the track. Need to improve a bit but, yeah… that’s what it is.
Q1	0:00	Kimi Raikkonen	David Lloyd	It’s still wet, I almost lost it.
Q1	0:00	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	We’re P18, Felipe. We’re P18.
Q1	0:00	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	So, Valtteri. Unfortunately, P17. Massa P18, so we’re out. Both Ferraris got knocked-out as well. Not our day… So box straight back into the garage.
Q1		Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	Unbelievable…
Q2	15:00	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	We’re P7 and we’re currently in for Q2.
Q2	15:00	Francesco Nenci	Jules Bianchi	We should be in, Jules. We should be in, OK?
Q2	15:00	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	OK Max, we’ll be queueing again, so wait for the green.
Q2	14:51	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Remember the mediums are two-plus-three. Or all eight in a row.
Q2	14:25	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	OK Jev, track is clear. We can do three timed and two timed.
Q2	13:02	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, currently 13 cars on track. Everybody is on a new inter. Car in front in Perez, he’s got a reasonable gap ahead. You’ve got a ten second gap behind to Hulkenberg, who’s on an out-lap.
Q2	12:23	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Err.. Track is inter at the moment. Yeah, a little bit wet here also.
Q2		Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy.
Q2	11:56	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Jules’s first sector was .5 quicker. First sector, Jules, .5 quicker.
Q2	11:22	Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	Car’s loose, front-end.
Q2		Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Understood, Max. Understood. Go to diff-4. Diff-4.
Q2	9:51	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yeah, it’s drying up pretty quickly. It’s still more damp than it was before. But it’s drying up pretty quick. Tyres are OK for now.
Q2		Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK, so look after the tyres this lap. We’ll go for one more.
Q2	7:48	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis, confirm – do you want to go to slicks now, or do you want to leave it another couple of laps?
Q2		Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I think we should come in now.
Q2	6:20	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Sebastian, some cars are coming in for dries. Pit this lap, pit this lap. Your fastest lap has been deleted.
Q2		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Yeah… box.
Q2		Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Press ‘reverse’ if you can. Press ‘reverse’.
Q2	6:03	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	What do you think about the track?
Q2		Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yeah, it’s started to dry out again. Think we can have a crack on slicks.
Q2		Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah, understood. We will pit stop now for slicks.
Q2		Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Do you want me to push on this lap?
Q2		Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah, keep up the pace, please. Keep up the pace.
Q2	4:59	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, tyre switch purple R1, please. Tyre switch purple R1. OK Jenson, quick as you can please. Quick as you can.
Q2		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Yes Dave.
Q2	3:34	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	How are people finding the first lap?
Q2		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK so Nico’s finding time, but it’s not a lot. He’s found a tenth in sector one… and he’s gone purple sector two, so looks like sector two is improving a lot. Bianchi’s now gone purple sector one, a second quicker. So your diff is fully locked through turn one, you may want diff high speed four, have a think about that.
Q2	1:05	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Keep pushing, keep pushing.
Q2	0:55	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	So .1 slower than Jules, all middle sector, Max. You’re quicker in the last sector and quicker in the first sector, your delta to Jules is all in the middle sector.
Q2	0:00	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	So to confirm, pit this lap mate. The DRS has been disabled, so I don’t think you’ll improve. You’re currently P3.
Q2	0:00	Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	Gutierrez has crashed into the barriers at Luffield It was a double-waved [yellow]! I had to do more than a lift!
Q2		Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	Yep, understood Max. You did the right thing. The chequered is out, so in now. In now.
Q2		Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	It was a double-waved! You can’t be going quicker.
Q2	0:00	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	Maldonado stopped at Woodcote. He was later excluded from qualifying after his car was found to have too little fuel on board. What happened there? Losing power.
Q2		Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	We’ve lost fuel pressure, Pastor. We’ve lost fuel pressure. Stop the car please, Pastor. Stop the car please.
Q2	0:00	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	If you’re still there, Max – so we’re P13. Excellent job. And you did the right thing on the yellows, you did what you had to do. And in now, Max. In now. Jules did not go quicker – he’s 38.71.
Q2	0:00	Francesco Nenci	Jules Bianchi	OK, it’s confirmed, we are P12. P12 is confirmed.
Q2	0:00	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain. Sorry – P11. Good effort though, good effort. Good effort mate, we missed it by… err… three tenths.
Q2		Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah, I lost four by the yellow flag!
Q2		Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	I think our planning was right though and you did a good job.
Q2		Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah and the car is feeling better than ever, so that’s good direction.
Q3	10:27	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, so some advice – stay away from the limiter, third to fourth gear. We’re losing some performance, third to fourth gear upshifts, make sure you hit the lights.
Q3	10:16	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	Good work on tyres and brakes. Tyres and brakes. Don’t be too close to Jev. Jev is six seconds in front of you.
Q3	8:44	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Starting to drizzle in Stowe…
Q3		Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy.
Q3	7:39	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Heavy rain on the back straight. Heavy rain.
Q3		Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Understood, keep pushing. That could still be the best conditions.
Q3		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	No, I think inters is quicker. Honestly. But I’ll stay out for now.
Q3	7:10	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	It’s raining at Stowe. Let me know what other people do.
Q3	6:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, looks here like the rain has stopped. But we’re going to box this lap and we can sit in the garage and we’ll go at the end of the session.
Q3		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Roger.
Q3	3:35	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	So we’re P8 at the moment, Nico. This next set of tyres has to go back anyway, so we might as well run.
Q3	1:49	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Use your head, OK? Just have a look.
Q3	1:17	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	We can’t afford to back off too much as it will be very tight to get a timed lap. So keep up with the car in front and make a gap at the end.
Q3	0:36	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	It’s pretty slippery out here…
Q3		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis. If you don’t think you can do a lap, then let Nico go. Let Nico go. If you think you can complete the lap, then carry on as you are.
Q3	0:01	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Tell Lewis that he needs to speed up!
Q3		Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy!
Q3	0:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	OK Jenson, keep pushing. Keep pushing. There could be a lot of time to find in sector three.
Q3	0:00	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Perez had begun his final out-lap in front of the Mercedes drivers but they overtook him at the exit of Stowe. Checo… What happened, mate? We’re down to P7.
Q3		Sergio Perez	Gianpiero Lambiase	[sighs]
Q3		Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Checo, why did we let the cars through after Stowe? Why did we let the cars through after Stowe, mate?
Q3		Sergio Perez	Gianpiero Lambiase	Because I had very cold tyres. I went off into Copse. I had no temperature to do the lap.
Q3	0:00	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	And that’s pole position! Well done, Nico! Go strat one, box, box, box. Really good job, really good job.
Q3		Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	That’s damn awesome! Come on!
Q3	0:00	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	P2! Atta boy!
Q3		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	OK guys. Kept our heads cool. Good job. I tell you, this kind of rain… England is the only place in the world where you can see this! It’s not necessarily nice, but it’s unique.
Q3	0:00	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	The track’s… slower.
Q3		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So currently no one finding time, Lewis. So no one improving.
Q3		Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	No reply broadcast. OK Lewis, I’m afraid that last sector really picked up some pace. So we’ve been bumped mate to… so we’re now down in P6.
Q3	0:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	We are P3, JB. That’s a fantastic lap. Great job at the end there.
Q3		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Ha! I know it’s not pole, but, [unclear], so good job guys!
Q3		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	That’s a magnificent effort, JB. That last sector was pretty damn good. So Rosberg, then Vettel, then yourself in third, Hulkenberg, Kevin in fifth, Hamilton sixth, so, yeah, we’ve got a few good scalps there. Great job!
Q3	0:00	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Great job, Nico! P4 with that, P4!
Q3		Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Really? Jesus! Did everyone who run get out at the end, or not?
Q3		Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Most people did. Three cars didn’t. But that’s P4. P4. Great job mate.

Phase/time: Refers to point at which message was broadcast. There may be a delay between messages being said and being broadcast. PQ = pre-qualifying.
Message: Repetitive or irrelevant messages omitted. Notes in italics. Highlights in bold.

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17 comments on “2014 British GP qualifying team radio transcript”

foleyger (@foleyger)
5th July 2014, 20:38

nice to know why Perez slowed up. Rosberg just had enough time to get his lap in. Funny to hear the Hulk’s reaction to 4th
Jimmy Hearn (@alebelly74)
5th July 2014, 22:39

Watching that again, shocking how fast the last corners were, Vettel was down over 2 seconds 2/3 through the lap
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
5th July 2014, 22:46

Hamilton’s race engineer also feels that, the track is slow. But when did he say this?
1. Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
  5th July 2014, 23:58
  
  It does look like that feed bacj from his race engineer may have influenced him backing off.
  The way the transmissions are listed is not in cronalogical order but rather for each driver as the time goes to 0:00. At a guess this conversation was in that first sector when then let risberg past. His race engineer should have said keep pushing.
  1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    6th July 2014, 0:08
    
    @theoddkiwi
    
    The way the transmissions are listed is not in cronalogical order
    
    They are in chronological order as far as is possible based on how they were broadcast. But as the messages are not broadcast in real time (unlike, for example, in IndyCar), it’s not possible to be specific about the exact order and timing of messages. Indeed, some could have been simultaneous.
Nick (@npf1)
5th July 2014, 22:58

Great work as always!

Interesting to hear Perez went off at Copse, didn’t catch that one (maybe because there was so much going on at the time).
schooner (@schooner)
6th July 2014, 0:33

Interesting that Button’s engineer would see that time was being made up in sector 3, and urge his driver to keep pushing, while Hamilton’s man (at nearly the same moment, or possibly even afterwards?) told him that no one was improving. Obviously, Hamilton should have kept his foot down regardless, but maybe some bad info is partly to blame?
1. Jimmy Hearn (@alebelly74)
  6th July 2014, 2:14
  
  The transmissions are anachronistic, cant really make any judgements based on this
ShoponF (@shoponf)
6th July 2014, 7:31

PB-> LH: ‘OK Lewis. If you don’t think you can do a lap, then let Nico go. Let Nico go. If you think you can complete the lap, then carry on as you are.’
PB -> LH: ‘So currently no one finding time, Lewis. So no one improving.’
DR -> JB: ‘OK Jenson, keep pushing. Keep pushing. There could be a lot of time to find in sector three.’
GR-> SV: ‘Understood, keep pushing. That could still be the best conditions.’

Rosberg was up two tenth in S1 (according to TV commentator), so the team knew the track is getting faster. S3 was 3/4 seconds faster, and that info was never passed to Lewis. If he was still on the track, even after deciding to abort (I assume in this case abort means not trying to go fast), Lewis could have gained 3/4 seconds in S3, PB should have asked him to push.

Instead of Lewis saying he has made a mistake, his team must take the full responsibility for not acting in time IMHO.

Instructions to JB (P3) and SV (P2) were spot on. Also, in the transcript no mention about any instruction to Rosberg, perhaps there wasn’t any!!! He just knew S3 was 3/4 seconds faster…but JB and SV needed help.
1. OldIron
  6th July 2014, 9:23
  
  I was wondering about that at the time. I guess Merc’s strategist didn’t realise it was a possibility. Nico thought of it himself (and didn’t feel like sharing ;) ), some of the other teams did, some didn’t.
  
  Ham should still have shadowed what his team-mate did though, pointless risk not to.
2. Dave (@)
  6th July 2014, 10:18
  
  The very message you quoted shows the decision was left to Hamilton, and at the time no-one had finished S3, so no-one knew it’d be worth 3-4 seconds.
  1. ShoponF (@shoponf)
    6th July 2014, 11:22
    
    This is precisely my point, the fact that LH was left to make a decision (who had no knowledge of what’s happening to the rest of the track). Was NR asked to do the same? I doubt it! Other drivers (JB, SV), had no decision to make. They were told to push. Where LH made the mistake was to when PB said ‘…let Nico go. Let Nico go…’ (not once, but twice) he should have interpreted that as Mercedes is in danger of losing P1 and they wanted NR to get it. LH should have ignored the message and pushed harder.
    Even accepting the fact that no one knew about 3/4 secs gains, messages to JB and SV shows McLaren and RedBull were far more professional, in helping their drivers.
    
    To me, Mercedes couldn’t careless what position LH finished.
3. iAltair (@)
  6th July 2014, 11:08
  
  It was a different story for Vettel altogether.
  
  He had not previously set a time, so nothing was loss for completing the lap.
Baron (@baron)
6th July 2014, 9:42

The pit wall is beginning to influence outcomes way more than the driver is. I believe they have to find a way of limiting this effect, or else the driver will simply become a ‘minder.’
Paul2013
6th July 2014, 10:29

Pat Fry, Ferrari’s Strategy Chief is a genius! Wonderful Q1 for his cars!
Peter
6th July 2014, 12:07

If I was Lewis I would DEMAND my own strategist now. Without that he is dead already because now Rosberg is ahead Merc will always compromise his strategy for Rosberg!
Rafael
7th July 2014, 19:08

Got to love Formula 1.