2014 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript

30 comments on “2014 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript”

1. 

   Frasier (@frasier)
   8th October 2014, 14:56

   “No messages were broadcast relating to the serious accident which befell Jules Bianchi, and nothing involving his car was heard earlier in the race either.”

   Does this mean Bianchi may have been under the impression he was still defending from [a now absent] Sutil? Or are some messages not published? Did he have a radio fault?

   Bianchi’s pace was increasing whilst the rain was getting heavier from lap 39, probably because he was defending from Sutil. If the team didn’t feel they were allowed to tell him Sutil had crashed and he could slow down it puts whole new safety perspective on the team radio clampdown.
   1. 

      Kodongo (@kodongo)
      8th October 2014, 15:15

      I think that it means that none of Bianchi’s messages were played on the FIA Team Radio Channel. Every driver will have been receiving details from their pit wall, especially in those conditions.
      1. 

         Frasier (@frasier)
         8th October 2014, 15:53

         You would hope they were being well briefed.. but he didn’t slow down after Sutil disappeared, did he?

         Actually Bianchi’s radio must have been working because Marussia said they were alerted to his injury by a lack of radio response after the accident.
         1. 

            Sharon H (@sharoncom)
            8th October 2014, 17:07

            WRT Bianchi’s lack of a reply, I’d be staggered if the radio was still functioning given the state the car was in following the crash.
   2. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      8th October 2014, 16:12

      @frasier @kodongo I’ve altered the text above to try to make it even clearer that these are only the radio messages which were broadcast during the coverage. The fact that only some of the radio traffic between teams and their drivers gets broadcast is something I thought was a matter of common knowledge and common sense.

      Previously we’ve seen new team radio messages have appeared in FOM’s race highlights or season review videos.

      Furthermore I don’t understand why anyone would assume that every message to every driver gets broadcast in the coverage. That would mean there is never any overlap between the messages to 22 different drivers, even when something happens which affects them all, such as a Safety Car deployment. It would also mean some drivers regularly go through races with no radio communication whatsoever, which is obviously not the case. It strikes me as an extremely unrealistic assumption.

      There will likely have been a large number of messages involving all the cars which were not broadcast. For an idea of how many, see this earlier article:

      How F1 will sound with new team radio restrictions

      So to be clear, there is absolutely no reason to infer from the above that Bianchi (or anyone else whose name doesn’t appear) had no radio communication during the race.
      1. 

         Frasier (@frasier)
         8th October 2014, 17:20

         @keithcollantine & @petebaldwin thanks for the clarification Keith. No I didn’t believe all messages were transmitted over the air, but equally didn’t know how many of the messages the person who produces this transcript was privy to. So it’s ‘longhand’ from the TV and therefore a fine job, like the rest of the site.

         But I still don’t see why Jules didn’t slow down after Adrian Sutil crashed. On his last timed lap he was 4 seconds faster than his team mate and only 4 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton. He was going faster than on lap 39 when the rain started to get heavier. Where was the need for that level of ‘outperforming the car’ and taking chances with the ‘yellows’ if he knew his nearest competition was out of the race? Ericsson was 8 seconds behind and not an immediate threat and he was 13 seconds behind the cars in front [Maldo/Gros], so they were probably out of sight too.
         1. 

            @HoHum (@hohum)
            8th October 2014, 22:27

            @frasier, maybe he was attempting a fast inlap to change to full wets, maybe without having to defend against Sutil he was able to take faster lines, le’ts hope he can tell us, soon.
            1. 

               Frasier (@frasier)
               8th October 2014, 23:15

               @hohum yes I join everybody else in wishing Jules well.

               Regarding his pace, it was matched to that of Sutil for the seven laps where Jules was directly in front of the Sauber. The last four laps for both cars were within a few tenths of a second of each other and getting faster not slower. Adrian, on fresher tyres lost the Sauber on the lap before Jules.

               Surely the Marussia pitwall team must have..

               a) noticed that Jules and Adrian were two of the only three drivers going faster not slower in heavier rain, ie on the limit.
               b) noticed that Jules came past alone and unchallenged on the 8th occasion and surmised that the crash shown almost instantly after it happened was the Sauber of Sutil?

               They would have had about 30 seconds before Jules too crashed at Dunlop to tell him that Sutil wasn’t there any more and to take it a bit steadier.

               Crucially though, would they have hesitated thinking it might be regarded as telling their driver the whereabouts of other cars on the circuit, think this is one of the banned radio comms. They had a bare few seconds to make up their minds, no pressure then…

               Would Jules have seen the Sauber wasn’t there? Well, Mercedes told Lewis to take it carefully lapping backmarkers because they probably wouldn’t be aware of exactly where he was on account of the spray.

               The point I’m labouring a bit is that the radio restrictions may have claimed its first real victim. There’s been a lot of discussion about the aftermath and the dangers of the Cat recovery machine so close to track side, but relatively little about why Jules was still so far out on the limit when unchallenged on track.
      2. 

         Timothy Katz (@timothykatz)
         8th October 2014, 19:54

         So who is it who actually decides which messages are broadcast and which are not?
         I seem to remember that Ferrari have an agreed ‘restriction’ on their messages being broadcast, but who makes the editing decisions as the race goes on?
      3. 

         Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
         10th October 2014, 21:40

         Further to the above, here’s the FOM highlights video with some new radio messages including Vettel being told “Daniel has overtaken Massa”, Magnussen saying he’s “being overtaken by a Lotus”, Sutil being told “keep pushing, defend as much as possible”, Vettel saying “OK, there’s a lot of rain now” and Kvyat exclaiming “where the [censored by FOM] did Massa come from?”:

         http://www.formula1.com/video/race_edits/2014/japan/
   3. 

      petebaldwin (@)
      8th October 2014, 16:46

      The teams would have known what we did which was very little. Even when the red flag came out, it was unclear that Bianchi had even gone off!

      In terms of Bianchi slowing down – why would he? It was starting to rain and people were considering pitting. Slowing down could have cost him positions.
      1. 

         Sharon H (@sharoncom)
         8th October 2014, 17:08

         After Sutil crashed, he was relatively alone – about 10 seconds ahead and behind of the nearest cars.
         1. 

            petebaldwin (@)
            9th October 2014, 12:12

            @sharoncom – He was relatively alone but if his plan was to pit for full wets and others were going to stay out on inters, you have to go as fast as you can and hope for the best.

            Look at Hamilton vs Glock at Brazil when Hamilton pitted and Glock stayed out. If Hamilton had slowed down in order to be safe, he may have caught Glock too late…

            You never know what’s going to happen and with nothing to lose, why not put your foot down. Frankly, the last thing Bianchi would have been worried about was crashing into a JCB that he probably wasn’t even aware was on track.
2. 

   Marc Thielke (@motor)
   8th October 2014, 16:10

   Nico’s comments regarding brake warming were interesting to me. It seemed complicated enough that he had to consult someone about the system; all he wanted to do was lightly apply the brakes while accelerating to keep temp in the brakes. I suppose the regen system would have to be off so the rears would apply the mechanical brakes instead of use the energy harvesting. And enough bias would go towards the fronts to keep those warm as they do the most braking. But the system they have wouldn’t allow what Nico wanted.

   Why on earth had they not practiced this(built the procedure in) as it is a basic method used in rain and cool conditions? imho
   1. 

      DaveW (@dmw)
      9th October 2014, 1:12

      He wanted to do throttle/brake overlap. On these cars I imagine the software frowns on this, as you are subverting the whole logic of the recharge and discharge protocols, and could lead to some failure modes.
   2. 

      dragoll (@dragoll)
      9th October 2014, 9:31

      @motor I perhaps might have another theory on why Merc don’t allow it. Perhaps this is only relevant to the Mercedes car, and, in a way, they use the software harvesting to assist with braking in such a way that other teams haven’t worked out…
      This potentially could explain the massive brake failures we’ve seen on the Mercs this year. In a very round about way, I think this is almost an abs system, without being a full 100% guaranteed abs system.
      Maybe, just maybe, this is the big innovation that Merc have discovered….
      1. 

         Marc Thielke (@motor)
         9th October 2014, 11:01

         @dragoll Good thinking. That software innovation might be the advantage that Ron Dennis thought wasn’t included in being a ‘Merc customer’.
         Toto also seemed to imply that they were aware that McLaren were going to Honda and they wouldn’t want to give away all their secrets.
3. 

   perproieorio
   8th October 2014, 16:37

   I found Grosjeans comment about Ericsson really interesting.
   Could the aero on the Caterham be such a mess that it creates noticeably more dirty air?
   1. 

      dragoll (@dragoll)
      9th October 2014, 9:34

      possibly, however, the Lotus is a particularly bad car to begin with… I’ve read some articles, can’t remember where, probably in round-ups from here, that the Lotus front wing creates a lot of imbalance in the car under braking. So maybe a combination of the 2 bad aero packages led to Grosjean’s comment
4. 

   KeithR (@)
   8th October 2014, 16:51

   I wish FOM would release the entire lot of radio after the race. Why not?

   Some of the insights are so interesting, but as things are we don’t know if other drivers and engineers are doing the same things, or not.
   1. 

      dragoll (@dragoll)
      9th October 2014, 9:35

      The FIA haven’t embraced transparency yet. The whole world is moving in that direction.
5. 

   DaveW (@dmw)
   8th October 2014, 16:55

   A possibly important nugget buried in here is the information that Hamilton got a gurney flap change during the first stoppage. That could be one reason that he was better in these conditions than Rosberg. Obviously not every message is broadcast, and given what we know about how this team works, it would be strange if Hamilton got his flap switched out, an obvious and involved process, without someone on Rosberg’s side looking on with keen interest. But Rosberg got his front wing reduced at his stop, which suggests that he did not have a surfeit of rear wing at that point. Rosberg claims he had the same set up as Hamilton to start the race. But maybe not after the restart.

   I’m not shading Hamilton’s incredible performance, because you can only gain so much performance by adding DF to one end of the car. I think that speed comes as much from marginal improvement to balance as to total DF, at least when comparing similar cars. In these conditions, it has to be about confidence in the car as much as anything.
   1. 

      IJW
      8th October 2014, 18:05

      To be honest, when the race was originally red flagged after 3 laps, I thought to myself, now’s the time to do some changes to the cars to make them cope with the rain better. I wonder how many actually did.
   2. 

      Franz
      8th October 2014, 20:05

      The way I understand it, Nico initially complained of oversteer, & he requested a front wing adjustment to try & balance it… Lewis initially said his car felt understeery, & they went up on the Gurney flap @ the rear & compensated at the front (“half a hole” down was what Lewis suggested) to balance it. After that, Jock said both cars had pretty much the same amount of wing on the front. Maybe Nico already had his flap @ the rear adjusted, but I don’t know. What’s obvious is that Lewis definitely wanted a pointy car, while Nico wanted his less pointy, but either way, based on Nico’s own admission & the teams, it seems they had a similar setup in the end, but Ham liked it more.
      What’s telling for me is that Lewis was a lot more specific on what he wanted from the car, both in terms of aero (how much adjustment on the wing) & driveability (torque modes, diff settings, etc). He also seemed more on top of what was going on with the brakes. Are we starting to see the effects of the radio restrictions? Does Ros need more help/suggestions in how to tweak his car “on the fly” than Ham? We’ve always heard it said that Nico’s more “cerebral” (gleaning info from telemetry/data) while Lewis drives by the seat of his pants & is better at “feeling” what the car is doing. It seemed to ring true in Japan, at least.
      And once again, both drivers had braking issues: definitely Merc’s Achilles heel this season.
   3. 

      Woody (@woodyd91)
      8th October 2014, 20:12

      To be honest, both drivers reported over steer during and after the race however Nico is known for not liking that, he prefers the much safer understeer in the car to oversteer, However Lewis is the opposite, he prefers oversteer to understeer.
6. 

   Park
   8th October 2014, 18:06

   Lap23
   Brad Joyce -Nico Hulkenberg :When you catch Massa again, just choose your moments to follow him. So final sector’s the best place.
   Coached him about how to overtake?
7. 

   WilliamB (@william-brierty)
   8th October 2014, 19:56

   Although at times it has sounded a touch tetchy, at the Spanish Grand Prix especially, I am increasingly thinking that Hamilton has struck a positive and productive relationship with Peter Bonnington. In 2014 I think “Bonno” has realized that Lewis’ feel for the car is so sublime that he need not tell Lewis how to drive a Grand Prix, merely, as was the case in Monza, present a open-ended but strategically optimal option that in Italy Lewis promptly ignored. Jock Clear also must be given credit for the array of consistently excellent performances in 2014 from the 2008 champion, a driver formerly infamously prone to off colour weekends. With reference to Sepang, his most dominant Grand Prix weekend ever, I think Mercedes have realized the true value of Hamilton appeasement, and that Hamilton is invariably untouchable when the balance is to his quite specific requirements.
8. 

   BrawnGP
   9th October 2014, 8:10

   3 Lewis Hamilton Jock Clear And also please give me some feedback on the laps to the grid compared to Nico if you can.
   3 Jock Clear Lewis Hamilton I can give you that already. Very, very similar. There’s wasn’t really… I mean the setting you had, I’ll have a close look at his brake balance on his laps to the grid. But in terms…
   3 Lewis Hamilton Jock Clear I was referring to pace.
   3 Jock Clear Lewis Hamilton Yeah exactly in terms of pace very, very similar. You looked to be quicker in places like into 13 [Spoon] you were quicker. He was quicker through 8 [Degner 1]. You’re both very similar through the Esses.

   I thought this was exactly what the FIA wanted to stop?
   1. 

      Karthik Mohan
      9th October 2014, 9:01

      Doesn’t apply when the cars are not running.
9. 

   Casanova (@casanova)
   9th October 2014, 10:15

   Lap 26, the message “so much oversteer” was from Rosberg to his engineer, IIRC, not from his engineer as listed above.

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