2014 United States GP team radio transcript

The third United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas was the most challenging so far for strategists as drivers made at least two visits to the pits – four in Sebastian Vettel’s case.

Vettel’s team radio messages shed light both on Red Bull’s daring strategy at the end of the race – making an extra pit stop with seven laps to go – and Vettel’s frustrations with his car’s balance, which he expressed after his recovery to seventh place.

As usual other expressions of frustration were vented on the radios. A doleful Adrian Sutil reported he’d been taken out by Sergio Perez – who suspected there had been something wrong with his car’s brakes – and Romain Grojean accused Jean-Eric Vergne of playing bumper cars.

Although the restrictions on team radio introduced four races ago have had little effect on the volume of messages being broadcast, teams have become more cautious about exactly what they tell their drivers. In some case, rather than give an instruction to do something, engineers point out a piece of information a driver might have overlooked and invite them to draw an obvious conclusion.

Examples of this include Bottas being told “think about what I’m saying” after he was told about his power unit’s temperature and state of charge. Similarly Hamilton was told he was running in a qualifying map but – perhaps significantly – not told whether he should change it.

Among the messages engineers are no longer allowed to give their drivers are “car set-up parameters for specific corners” and advice on gear selection, rate of braking and throttle application.

Here are all the team radio messages that were broadcast during the United States Grand Prix coverage.

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2014 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	The car seems quite a bit different from Friday. Obviously the wind changed a little bit in sector one, having more understeer in turn six, but turn seven I think being a little bit of a headwind I do have some oversteer. Turn 17, 18 it is quite on the oversteering side, it seems that the front is strong. But then once again when you come into turn 19 it is a little bit more of understeer.
PR	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	17 minutes to go, 17. Drivers should go slowly to the front of the grid.
PR	Unknown		On Grosjean’s radio. Driver procedure: The first start he did was fine. After that he went a little bit further on the throttle to try and lift the pre-start revs up. \|It’s better to have the pre-start revs a little bit lower. They’re not quite reaching the target but it’s better if they’re below the target, don’t go further on throttle. And his going on throttle at the end of the clutch phase was OK, he was just a little bit early the last time on the last time which caused the wheelspin. And switch settings will be toruqe three, clutch five.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Just so you know also I’m in EB… sorry I’m in bite point find six.
PR	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Nico just to confirm in terms of wind, still very gusty, same direction.
PR	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Where am I on the answer to use the engine brake magic?
PR	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Affirm Nico. Just a reminder your brakes are stone cold at the moment.
PR	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	If you can try to sync all gears before you get to turn two. We’ll get another opportunity after turn 12, similar method for that.
PR	Gianpiero Lambiase	Sergio Perez	Another weather update. Wind in two/three has increased up to levels of 20kph at this stage. Direction similar to the reconnassance laps. Tailwind into turn two, headwind through seventeen.
FL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Can you confirm that the camber on the start/finish is exactly the same as the pit exit? Seems to drop down to the left.
FL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	It drops ever so slightly to the left on the start/finish, Nico.
FL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Can we have some feedback on the start please Lewis?
FL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Didn’t feel like it engaged enough, the rpm’s too low.
FL	Bernadette Collins	Jenson Button	Brakes are good. We need you to learn eighth gear and purple C2 position nine.
FL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	And let’s turn the brake warming off, please. Get your brake balance where you want it for the first corner.
FL	Bernadette Collins	Jenson Button	Launch map on, bite point find and four long burn-outs on the start/finish straight.
2	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So there’s debris exit 16 so stay to the inside of the track through 15 and 16.
3	Marco Schupbach	Adrian Sutil	Perez crashed into Sutil at turn 15, putting both out of the race and bringing out the Safety Car. Can you continue Adrian?
3	Adrian Sutil	Marco Schupbach	No. [Censored by FOM] Perez just kicked me off the track. OK.
3	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Did you see any debris on the car? I ran over some of the debris. I didn’t get a chance to tell you.
3	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	We didn’t see anything with the car in the pit stop. Nothing obvious. So that’s good.
4	Sergio Perez	Gianpiero Lambiase	[Unclear] on the whole lap. I don’t know if there was an issue with the brakes. And then I tried to overtake Sutil. I went on the inside and then the car just… I couldn’t stop it.
4	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	Priority now is good warm-up on the front tyres.
4	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson Vettel has pitted twice. He pitted once to put the [soft] on and pitted again to put the [medium] on. He’s in the same race as us.
5	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Ricciardo passed Alonso at the restart, moving him up to fifth behind the two Williams drivers. OK nice job mate. Let’s get up to those Willies.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	You are safe on fuel.
7	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	Magnussen behind currently on new [medium]. Grosjean in front new [soft].
9	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	OK Rocky what’s the pace?
9	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	The leaders on [softs] are in md-44s. And the train you’re in, Kvyat in the lead, 46.3.
9	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	How are the tyres? Any deg?
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yeah rears started weak and stayed like that. Front left didn’t start great but it’s getting a little bit worse.
10	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	How is the balance now, Nico? How’s the balance?
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Reasonable. Quite low grip overall but a lot of high-speed understeer, really.
11	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	OK the car’s really struggling, sliding a lot, I have very little grip. I’m struggling a lot with the wind.
11	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	Not so much a ‘coded’ message but definitely a ‘read between the lines’ message. Try to get some air in the right-hand sidepod for temps. State of charge is good. Think about what I’m saying.
11	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	Tyres are OK, just a small deg lap by lap. I feel like I have a little bit more pace than the car in front. It’s a little bit difficult to follow in the high speed.
12	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	Fernando the pace is still good on the traffic, so we are doing well, carry on like this.
12	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	We are losing the rear tyre now.
12	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Understood.
13	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Front left is finished.
13	Andrea Stella	Fernando Alonso	OK pace is still good we are not far away to get Vettel at the stop. Maybe a couple of laps.
13	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	I feel liek I’m overheating the rears with the brake bias.
15	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	You’re doing a great job here Lewis, just keep the pressure on. Give us a balance check, balance check when you can.
15	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	So the leaders are coming in, Massa and Ricciardo, they willl come out in front of you.
15	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	I think we need to stop soon.
16	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Blue B5. [Soft] runners have started pitting.
16	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Ricciardo jumped ahead of Bottas when they made their first pit stops. Massa ahead is on [soft] tyres. Bottas behind also [soft] tyres.
17	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Hamilton decides to go with his pre-planned front wing adjustment when switching from the soft to medium tyres, despite feeling his car’s balance is towards oversteer. OK Lewis standard adjust will be down two turns, Let us know if you want two more. Box, box.
17	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Car’s a little bit oversteery. But I’ll take the two turns.
17	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Six from now so push now, push.
18	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Double yellow ahead. Entry to turn 11 and exit turn 11. The car is stopped off-track.
19	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel you’re doing a good job. The more you hold up Bottas the better for our race.
20	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	We’re fuel zero to the end.
20	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	OK I mean we are dog slow. The whole weekend we are doing 45s, blind 44s, and now I am struggling to do 46s.
21	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	The main straight is under yellow flags as Hulkenberg’s car has stopped. Why we don’t have the DRS on the main straight, that’s stupid?
21	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	OK Jev still yellow flag, the DRS problem is bcause of the yellow flag.
21	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	No power, loss of power.
21	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Stop the car. Pull the car up and stop the car. And watch how you jump out of the car, assume a problem.
21	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Copy. Smell oil.
23	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	White H7 position five, that’s more power.
25	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Car behind now Vettel, same age tyre as you.
26	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Green F2, look after the rear tyres.
26	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Tyre feedback OK Sebastian. We need a few more laps if you can.
27	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Daniel how are the tyres and how is the balance?
27	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Tyres are pretty up and down. Some laps feels like there’s deg, then they come back a bit. Think I could live with a bit more frotn wing. So a bit of understeer through six in particular.
27	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Button was initially told to pit, then told to stay out. Magnussen came in on the lap Button would originally have pitted on. We’re box this lap, push now, yellow G4.
27	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Are you happy with the front wing angle?
27	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yes.
28	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson stay out. Stay out this lap, stay out. Stay out, confirm. Jenson stay out this lap, please confirm.
29	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Nice call guys, nice call.
29	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson we are box this lap, we will box this lap.
29	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Are you sure on that one, are you sure? Anyone else [unclear]?
29	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Button in, should be ahead.
30	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddollls	I think I can still do this and maybe next lap with reasonable pace, then the tyres start to drop.
31	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	All these cars are fitting [medium] tyres. Opportunities will come at the end of the race if we can make this set last.
32	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe box, box this lap.
32	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Box Daniel, box this lap.
32	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	Last lap nine-tenths faster than Alonso, let’s keep this pace going.
32	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Did you go down minus four with the front wing?
32	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Negative, we kept the front wing where it was.
33	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	Alonso’s picked up his pace, last lap he was four-tenths faster than us. He’s still just outside the pit gap.
33	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Hamilton says his tyres are strong enough for him to be able to stay out longer, but with Ricciardo just having pitted and gained on him and Rosberg by nine-tenths of a second, Mercedes decide to bring both their drivers in, starting with Hamilton. Push on now, it’s Hammertime.
33	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Tyres are still good.
33	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK so box, box. We’re covering the field.
34	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So one more lap, push hard.
34	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	We are catching the guys ahead. We will need good tyres for the end of the race.
34	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Massa behind is on [medium] tyres. The leaders behind are just stopping, Rosberg will be about three seconds ahead of you when he stops.
35	Craig Gardiner	Esteban Gutierrez	Pace is good, keep it up, and ignition five.
35	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Another ‘read between the lines’ message. So information Lewis we are in diff init six and that’s the quali map.
36	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So 21 laps remaining at the end of this lap. Gap to Lewis four seconds, gap to Ricciardo is four seconds. Everybody will be vulnerable at the end of the race with tyre wear.
36	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Have I got damage in the rear? In the diffuser?
36	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson all aero loads look good.
36	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Keep me up-to-date with pace.
36	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, gap is at 2.7, Nico pushing hard.
38	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	I think I hit the front-left on a kerb, check the load.
38	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy that, we’ll do that Nico. Gap to Lewis is now 2.6. As we say tyre wear does look good at the moment, better than expected.
38	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	What do you think of the chance of a Safety Car at the end? There is the carpet exit of the turn before the last corner which is going away a lot.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	Understood: Yes, we are aware.
39	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So fuel is completely OK to the end, Nico.
40	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Just so you know, Sebastian, Magnussen ahead is in the same position as you. He stopped just one lap later than you.
41	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Mercedes are quicker than us at the moment. But they did have worse deg before. They might start racing, so it might get messy.
42	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	Maldonado behind has got a penalty.
42	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	What penalty?
42	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	It’s for Maldonado, not for you.
42	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	I understood but what is it?
42	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	It’s five seconds.
43	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson we are in the window, in the window.
43	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Good job Sebastian. The objective is to pull a bit of a gap so we can take the undercut if we need it. But after that try to make it to the end.
44	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Alonso in the pits. He’ll come out close to you and he’ll have fresh tyres. Possibly [softs]. Don’t fight him.
44	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Am I overheating the rears or are they too cold?
44	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson they are too cold.
45	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	Kevin for info behind you have Jenson, Grosjean and Vergne, they’re all on similar age tyres to you. There are cars behind them on newer tyres, I’ll let you know if they become a threat.
46	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Really struggling, really struggling on the rears. I tried what you said before but doesn’t seem to help.
46	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Understood.
46	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson recommend try again to increase bulk temperature. Increase bulk temperature if possible.
46	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So just be careful with the Astroturf, exit turn 19.
47	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain last two laps you were five-tenths quicker than the car in front.
48	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Every downshift, yeah, is locking the rears.
48	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson we’re looking at that now.
48	Antonio Spagnolo	Kimi Raikkonen	Button in front is [unclear] grip he will slow the other people up. It’s still nine laps after this one so we can do something.
49	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Red Bull decided to pit Vettel with seven laps to go for soft tyres. I get quite a lot of vibrations now. I think the rears are pretty worn.
49	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Box, torque map one and box.
49	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	I mean it depends in which shape the McLarens are in. If they are the ones that we are fighting.
49	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Exactly the same as us. Pitted one lap and two laps later respectively.
50	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe try and close the gap to Ricciardo, he may have an issue.
51	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	Vergne passed Grosjean at turn one, making contact with the Lotus. Good job there, keep your head down.
51	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	What was that?
52	Daniil Kvyat	Marco Matassa	I cannot see and I cannot steer.
52	Marco Matassa	Daniil Kvyat	OK we box this lap. OK Dany, stay cool, you have done a very good race at the moment.
53	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain Charlie is looking at the incident.
53	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah [unclear].
54	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Why is there no DRS?
54	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	We’ll look into it mate, we’ll look into it. You were not within range at the time.
55	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	OK behind Maldonado now we’ve got Vettel on fresh tyres, Vettel coming very fast. Big push now, three laps to go.
55	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Hamilton caught a train of cars including the McLaren, Lotuses, Vergne and Vettel. Blue flags.
55	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah roger that Lewis we’re on it. These guys are all battling so just be careful with them.
55	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	There is a problem on the brake system I don’t know what’s going on.
55	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK understood we’re looking.
56	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor once Vettel’s passed Vergne, that’s your chance to get Vergne.
56	Mark Temple	Kevin Magnussen	Kevin, Vettel is now the car behind, he’s on seven-lap-old [softs]. He’s two seconds faster than us last lap. We are racing him.
56	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Good job, Sebastian. Alonso next.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Get in there Lewis, get in there mate. Epic drive.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis so most successful British racing driver.
VL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Thanks guys! All the hard work, you all back at the factory, I couldn’t have done it without you. I’m so grateful for all the efforts you put in, thank you.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Well done yourself, Lewis, fantastic drive, very very good.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Sorry guys, didn’t work out.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Cheers boys, good day.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Great job.
VL	Christian Horner	Daniel Ricciardo	Good job, well done.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Thanks for helping me out with the strategy.
VL	Christian Horner	Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah, it was fantastic. Really well done. Be good to see that moustache on the podium.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yee-ha!
VL	Christian Horner	Sebastian Vettel	Good job Seb, good recovery. Really good overtaking at the end there, well done.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Yeah first stint was an absolute joke which to me I don’t understand. Towards the end I was getting a bit better, but still all race very, very nervous.
VL	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	P10 now. We’ll see what happens with the penalty. So at the moment P10, if Maldonado gets a penalty, then P9.
VL	Jean-Eric Vergne	Xevi Pujolar	What do you mean ‘if’ Maldonado gets a penalty? You told me he had the penalty.
VL	Xevi Pujolar	Jean-Eric Vergne	Yes, he has got it, we need to see on our side what happens. Anyway Jev that was a good drive, bit difficult the last stint with the tyres.
VL	Andrew Murdoch	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe good job, good job from your side. Shame we lost out against Ricciardo in the pit stop.
VL	Felipe Massa	Andrew Murdoch	Thanks guys, good points. Yeah I’m sorry to lose [unclear] in the pit stop, really really sorry for that because the podium was [unclear]. But anyway good points for the team.
VL	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	P5, good jpb. The start cost us today, sorry about that.
VL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor. Good job, mate. So we finish P9 on the road but I’m afraid we got a five-second penalty for speeding coming in the pit lane on that last stop. And unfortunately that’s going to drop us out of the points. Sorry mate. Sorry mate, it’s going to be P10, sorry Pastor P10, so one point. OK additional news apparently Vergne is under investigation so despite all that we might still end up with P9!
VL	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	OK. Tough race at the beginning.
VL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Yeah it was a tough race but it was good to actually be competing. So that’s a good thing, Pastor, well done mate.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain we finished P11.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah but come on that Vergne thing that was stunt, it’s not bumping cars.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	We saw on TV and that’s investigated after the race.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Yeah but I lost a place.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Sure.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	And I couldn’t go back.. It won’t change anything to me, it’s just a shame.
VL	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Yeah it’s a shame, yeah.
VL	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Sorry about that, that got pretty tough. So we finished P12.
VL	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yeah I think we should have maybe followed Vettel in. They seemed to be pretty good at getting it right.
VL	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Yeah he was certainly pretty quick on that [soft] at the end. We’ll have a look at that afterwards.
VL	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	From the word go we felt really weak at the rear. Massive understeer in the car. But still ver yweak at the rear. I did get a tap in turn one so I don’t know if that is it but you said it’s not so obivously it isn’t.

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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United States Grand Prix data

2014 United States Grand Prix

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13 comments on “2014 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript”

CountryGent (@countrygent)
5th November 2014, 12:44

I can’t say I’ve been looking at the same Jenson I’ve known for fourteen years these pasts few races, his head has definitely been down, and the sarcasm in this transcript is so uncharacteristic. I don’t think we can be particularly surprised though, because of the three McLaren candidates: Magnussen, Alonso and Button, Jenson is probably the least likely to be driving next year. Don’t believe the weird and wonderful rumours you hear about Fernando, his career is a litany of protracted contractual negotiations, and his one year preference is an obvious sticking point.
1. Sven (@crammond)
  5th November 2014, 13:21
  
  There is literally no reason other than age to chose Magnussen over Button. Magnussen really didn´t look any better than Perez last year when compared to JB, finishing ahead in only 3 out of 17 races.
  1. John Damgaard
    5th November 2014, 14:24
    
    @Sven. I think you are a bit off regarding K. Magnussens performance compared to S. Perez last year:
    First, Perez was not a rookie last year, but an experienced driver with 50+ grand prix’es under his belt. As a rookie, Magnussen sees (many of) the tracks he is racing outside Europe for the first time.
    Second, Perez only scored 49 points last year (in 19 races) while Magnussen has scored 54 so far this season with two races remaining.
    Third, Perez have had many accidents and unfortunate incidents and he don’t seam to learn from them. Kevin Magnussen have also made a couple of mistakes but not so serious and I bet he will never make the same mistake twice.
    
    Besides all this, I would prefer McLaren to sign both Button and Magnussen for next year. It is like their co-corporation and mutual respect is groving.
  2. beneboy (@beneboy)
    5th November 2014, 14:56
    
    I’d bet that Jenson’s salary is several times more than Kevin’s, and that Jenson is far less likely to accept being number two to Alonso.
    If I were running a team and had the opportunity to sign Alonso I’d much rather keep the younger and cheaper driver to pair him with.
  3. CountryGent (@countrygent)
    5th November 2014, 15:26
    
    @crammond – Boullier has made it clear on several occasions that they are looking for longevity in their line up as of next year. And whilst KMag has scarcely been an improvement on Perez, they are apples and oranges, a third-year driver with his big break and a rookie parachuted in from FR3.5 are hardly comparable. And yet, Magnussen’s race showing against Button have been nearly as good as Checo’s, and his qualifying performances have been better.
    
    He has certainly earned a second season, and surely McLaren would want to maximize the investment they made in Kevin through his junior career (A DAMS FR3.5 seat is a significant investment, and so is Fernando Alonso, so by keeping KMag over Button, as @beneboy says, McLaren should cut the loss they’ll make on the Spaniard’s salary) by giving him a proper chance. Yes, he perhaps doesn’t have a Ricciardo-grade future ahead of him, but I doubt that is of concern to McLaren when they have De Vries and particularly Stoffel Vandoorne on their books.
    1. Kroon (@kroonracing)
      5th November 2014, 15:56
      
      Ricciardo didn’t have a “Ricciardo-grade future” ahead of him until this year, so I think it’s a bit too early to rule out Magnussens future.
      As a rookie he has been mighty impressive against a 15-year-veteran with a WDC on his resume. Only Hamilton was more impresssive in his rookie year. There isn’t many other who has posted a podium in their rookie race against 5 world champions.
      1. CountryGent (@countrygent)
        5th November 2014, 17:33
        
        @kroonracing – You are certainly right about Ricciardo, that I can’t deny, but I would perhaps say that the MP4-29 that Kevin has had has been a better platform for his talent than the Toro Rossos and HRTs were for Daniel. What I am trying to say is talent tends only to be fully realized if it occurs higher up the grid with a headline name to cross-reference with, because a terrible car can mask the efforts of even the most fabulous racing driver. That is why unpicking the performances of a midfield driver in search of promise is such a minefield, albeit it is less so if Hulkenberg puts a Williams on pole or Vettel wins in a Toro Rosso!
        
        I am not at all ruling out a long career for Kevin, in fact quite the opposite since I am arguing that he deserves a second year, but merely pointing out that he must remain on his toes to deny the advances of a driver as excellent as Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne, seemingly destined to remain in GP2 for 2015 (although links between him and Marussia were hinted at), will be an obvious replacement if KMag fails to develop adequately in 2015. Personally, since McLaren’s test team tend to take about a week to stop raving about him after he’s left the cockpit, I do feel there is an air of inevitability surrounding Vandoorne and a McLaren race role, although that is just a gut feeling I have.
L. Martins (@xusso)
5th November 2014, 13:53

This is my favorite part after the F1 weekend. Thank you for your hard work you put into this!
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  5th November 2014, 16:49
  
  @xusso You’re welcome!
  1. Fred
    5th November 2014, 21:03
    
    @keithcollantine – Do you consider Jenson message on lap 23 and Lewis message on lap 35 driver coaching?
DaveW (@dmw)
5th November 2014, 18:17

I know this takes a long time to compile but worth the wait.

I note here that Rosberg wanted some brake magic, just as Hamilton got in Sochi. I’m dying to know what that is. Do the sporting regs ban sorcery?
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
5th November 2014, 22:39

In Adrian Sutil’s comment there is a very dirty term: Censored by FOM. :D
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th November 2014, 22:44

So good to read that finally Pirelli have the tyres right and they are not hampering the drivers efforts to race.

Not.