2015 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

24th April 2015, 11:5624th April 2015, 11:58 | Written by Keith Collantine

Mercedes had a scare in the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix when race leader Lewis Hamilton reported a problem with his brakes.

Hamilton experienced the same brake-by-wire problem which had already cost Mercedes a one-two finish as Nico Rosberg ran wide and was passed by Kimi Raikkonen.

The other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel had a difficult race, slipping back to fifth place after going off on more than one occasion. The team found part of the front wing flap on his car had broken following a pit stop for a new wing.

It was also a race of contrasting fortunes for the Force India drivers. Sergio Perez discovered earlier in the race he could make his tyres last longer than expected, allowing the team to switch him to ‘plan B’ – i.e. making two pit stops. This moved him up into the points, a result which thrilled his race engineer who told Perez: “You blew them away”.

Nico Hulkenberg, however, was frustrated both by his car’s lack of grip and the driving of one of his rivals, whom he branded an “idiot”.

Here are the team radio messages which were broadcast on television during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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2015 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Felipe there’s no real change in conditions. As you’d expect track temperature contiues to drop one degree every now and again. So we’re about 30 degrees, same as yesterday in qualifying. Wind direction still the same and the strength is the same as the laps to the grid.
PR	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Do I need to do fuel saving in the first part of the first stint?
PR	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah there will be a level of lift-and-coast required
PR	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Dany, car ahead Maldonado starting on [medium].
FL	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Yeah mate just stay in the car and what we’ll try and do is restart you in the pit lane. If we can get you into the pit lane quickly and get you restarted, it sounds like an electrical problem and you haven’t got fuel pressure. OK?
FL	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Felipe driver default A28 OK, please
FL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	All other cars are on [softs], Pastor.
FL	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	OK, I see.
FL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Sainz was penalised for driving too slowly on his reconnaissance lap. OK Danny for info Sainz has been given a five-second time penalty.
2	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe nice job. So we can still get some points from here and we also have a bit of fun so let’s crack on through and get through this field as quickly as we can.
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	I have damage on the front wing
2	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	You say damage on the front wing?
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	No I’m not sure, I touched Maldonado.
3	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor don’t lose time with Massa.
3	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	OK I’ll try.
3	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So you have DRS. Bottas behind 1.3 seconds.
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Rosberg overtook Raikkonen for third place. So just need a little bit of brake management before you attack Vettel.
5	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	For information the car is understeer.
6	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	How are the tyres Daniel?
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Just struggling for overall grip at the moment. Both axles.
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	I’m not experiencing massive deg yet, just lack of grip.
6	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Vettel 40.2, gap at 1.9, probably afford to go two-tenths faster.
6	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Let’s have a balance update when you can, Danny.
6	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	So far holding on well but not able to pass the cars in front at the moment. We’d need a couple of laps more.
7	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Sainz is moving too much under braking.
7	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Understood: Sainz is moving too much on the braking. Checo, Sainz is hurting our race, how are the tyres?
7	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	I can lap much quicker than this. Tyres are OK.
7	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	This is my pace, it’s as fast as I can go. It is on the limit.
7	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Copy.
8	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Doing a great job, let’s keep pushing hard on this set. Next target is Nasr.
9	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	How are the tyres?
9	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	I have a rear problem.
9	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	That gap’s opening up nicely now.
9	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	You can save a bit less fuel.
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Understood.
9	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Rosberg overtook Vettel for second place. So Nico when you’re clear a little bit more tyre management, we’ll be going longer than target.
9	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	That gap’s now 4.5, Nico’s just overtaken so he’s P2.
10	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	Entry nine. Lap times are in line with others at the moment. Keep pushing.
10	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Raikkonen caught up to team mate Vettel. I think I can go a bit faster but I will try to overtake him.
10	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Understood.
10	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Force India began the race with the intention of making three pit stops but Perez got good enough life out of his first set of tyres to make a two-stop strategy possible. Checo if you can keep this pace for five or six laps then strategy B is looking good.
11	Marcus Ericsson	Erik Schuivens	I am losing too much time.
11	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	Box this lap, Marcus. Front wing minus one, correct?
11	Marcus Ericsson	Erik Schuivens	Yeah copy.
12	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo can you keep this pace for four or five laps? We need to know.
12	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Yes I can.
12	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Understood.
12	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	And let us know if you need a flap adjust at the stop…
12	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	No change.
12	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	And Nice let us know…
12	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Made a mistake.
12	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy.
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Left-rear is starting to go.
13	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando we’re looking at target plus two. Let’s start pushing the tyres.
14	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So push hard now, go strat five, box box.
14	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	This is the [medium]. We’ll be racing Sainz at the exit.
14	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK Carlos in front of you there is Maldonado, eight seconds, on [soft]. We need quite a decent stint on this. Now we need to fix our pace, focus on our pace.
14	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	The tyres are dying so I cannot do more.
15	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Rosberg in the pits now, push.
15	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Vettel jumped ahead of Raikkonen in the first round of pit stop. OK so attack him now on fresh tyres.
15	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis box, box. We’re going to new [soft], no flap adjust.
15	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Take half a hole out, please.
16	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So you have Nico, Vettel behind, they are racing.
18	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico stint is stint plus ten OK on this stint. Brakes are a concern.
18	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Hamilton came close to being jumped by Rosberg and Vettel, who pitted before him. That’s a little bit close for comfort, right?
18	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Affirm, Lewis, feels that way.
18	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	What happened to my gap?
18	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	It looks like a bit of a slow stop, Lewis, let’s just manage it now.
18	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Important to look after the tyres for stint plus ten.
18	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	OK Marcus stint is good, keep it up, you’re in line with Grosjean ahead. Target is seven.
19	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	How hard can I heat this tyre?
19	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	We will need to manage this set. We’re probably looking at 20 laps. You’ve done a really good job.
19	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	I have a lot of understeer medium and low speed, oversteer in high speed.
20	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	So Raikkonen in front is on [medium] tyres so I think we can get him.
20	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	This is hard to achieve with these tyres,
20	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico we’ll still need some fuel saving for brakes as you’re getting closer to Lewis.
21	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	How are the tyres?
21	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	Yeah it’s on the rear so I don’t know. I know that Pastor hit me on the back so I don’t know if something happened or broke on my car. [Unclear]
21	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK, understood Felipe. We did see some slightl damage on the pit stop but nothing too worrying.
21	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	OK.
21	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Let’s target zero on the fuel dash. We’ll be racing cars at the end of this race.
22	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Balance is just, yeah, low-speed understeer. I’m just sliding so much. We’re eating the tyres.
23	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Let us know if you can do this pace in strat six.
23	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	OK I’ll give it a go.
24	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	How is the pace of the people in front?
24	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	They are on older tyres. You are half a second quicker. Nico is holding them up.
24	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Pastor we have some front wing damage. Aero balance is forwards. How is the balance for you?
24	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	Yeah it is feeling a bit forward [unclear].
24	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	I think I would prefer to go on the [medium] next one.
24	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe we are looking at it.
25	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	I think hitting the target laps with this set of tyres will be quite difficult.
26	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Bottas ahead is struggling. You are catching him. Doing a good job, mate.
27	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	A group of three-stopping cars have pitted. They’re currently plus 12 behind you. We’re going to be racing them at the end.
28	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Information: Wind strength is dropping.
28	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	The three stoppers have caught Sainz. Maldonado is the first of them. We want to make life difficult for them, we’ll be racing them at the end. This strategy is working for us I think, let’s stick to plan A target lap.
30	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Kimi pace is very good. Suggest [state of charge] six just to give us some power at the end.
30	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Box this lap Carlos. New [soft]. Flap adjust, please.
30	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Plus one.
31	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	So obviously important to get past Alonso as soon as possible to stay with Massa.
31	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	You were four-tenths faster last lap. Nico struggling with front-left so just manage your tyres.
32	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Sainz retired shortly after a pit stop. Feeling something strange in the car
32	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Can you describe it?
32	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	I think wheel off.
32	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood.
32	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Ah no, it’s something different. I don’t know what it is but it feels like something from the rear.
32	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood, Carlos. We will investigate afterwards.
32	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	I cannot continue.
32	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood. Engine off. Quite a difficult race, sorry for that, mate.
32	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	No, I’m sorry.
32	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Don’t worry.
33	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Why do you think that the [soft] is better if I can go faster with the [medium] than the [soft]?
33	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	We believe the stint length will be the same but the initial laps will be quicker.
33	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	How many laps?
33	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Eight more.
33	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	How does the [medium] look?
33	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	The [medium] looks as expected.
33	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Box box, we’re going to go for the [medium] tyre, we’re going one turn down.
34	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Push hard now. One more lap.
35	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	The left-rear’s gone pretty bad now.
37	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK I think I have some damage on the front wing. Don’t know why but I got understeer. Keep an eye on the sensors, please.
37	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK, copy.
37	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Car is also pulling to the left on the straight line and I have a lot of understeer. OK I think nose change, box, box.
37	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Copy, copy.
37	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	How are the tyres? Can we still make plan A work?
37	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	Well the tyres is rear degradation. But is better than the [soft]. You need to speak louder as well.
37	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK understood. We are staying on plan A.
38	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	OK I’m losing power.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK Max box this lap.
38	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Wow.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK we abort the race, box now.
38	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	OK.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Max our car is not safe, you need to jump out.
38	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	OK.
38	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	We had damage to one endplate, one endplate was broken.
38	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Information: Kimi when he swaps to [soft] will obviously be quicker. We’re expecting him maybe to catch you at the end of the race so just think about that for tyres.
38	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Everything is on for P3 Kimi but we try to do our best for better.
39	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	I got no message because the radio stopped working all the time. So repeat me what is the plan for the tyre?
39	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	We go [soft]. Sebastian has stopped for a nose change. We are on for P3.
39	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	So Vettel behind seven seconds. We’ve got everything in the engine so we’ve got a fight on our hands with him.
39	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Which tyre?
39	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	He’s on the [medium], same as us.
40	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Blue flags.
40	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Blue flag for Hamilton.
40	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	How is the race looking? What do we think?
40	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	It’s looking good. We are trying to keep Maldonado and Grosjean in our window. We are looking good compared to three-stoppers.
41	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Racing Ericsson.
41	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	So Hulkenberg ahead left the pits on [medium] again, he’s our main target.
42	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	That idiot Ericsson almost running into the back of me every time.
42	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	In all this traffic my rears’ been damaged quite a bit.
43	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	I got the anti-stall, the anti-stall is in.
43	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Yeah, understood. You need to pull the clutch paddles, clear the anti-stall Pastor.
43	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	[Unclear] but it’s still in. Engine caught, engine’s done.
44	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Are they going to stop in front of me or not?
44	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	They’re lapped cars going to the end Nico, so call for blue flags.
44	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico you will need to get past them.
44	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Blue flags, blue flags.
44	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, blue flags. Just be aware they’re all racing together, Nico. Three cars a lap down.
44	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK Kimi we’re going to have quite a few blues coming up but we’ll be on it, don’t worry.
45	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So just try and get through traffic as quickly and efficiently as you can, Nico. So Nico do be aware we think Kimi is a threat, he is on [soft] tyre, forecast to catch you before the end of the race.
45	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	And fuel position ten. The leaders are in blues, let’s make hay.
46	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Massa ahead on 20 lap used mediums, he is deg’ing but we need the fuel saving. Fuel saving level three every corner. We think Massa will struggle to get to the end anyway.
47	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	We are doing really well, you are much quicker than Massa. Suggest torque nine and we need to look after this tyre.
47	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Staying at this pace we should hit Rosberg in five laps.
48	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So gap to Kimi is now 8.5.
48	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Please don’t tell me the gap any more.
49	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	You’re doing a solid job, mate. Increasing fuel saving where you can, it does seem to be working to maximise the straight-line speed. And pace similar to Ricciardo at this stage.
49	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Come on, the blue flags. They just don’t want to move, those people.
49	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Copy, copy. We’re on it.
49	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	This is great, threat from behind Vettel is minimal so we can fight for this place.
51	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So brakes under control just continues with some fuel saving for brakes now.
51	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK let’s get back into the rhythm now, there’s just track between us and Rosberg.
51	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Car behind now is Kvyat, he is 15-lap-old [medium] tyres. We are happy with our tyres, they’re all good to the end of the race.
53	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Six laps to go. Bottas is starting to do a lot of defending to Vettel. They are losing time ahead. It’s not over.
53	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Understood, I’m pushing.
54	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Battery full now.
54	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Yeah.
54	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Nico now under threat from Raikkonen.
54	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Danny we need to make a move pretty quickly there’s Rosberg and Raikkonen coming through as well behind.
56	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	P13 at the moment. Alonso and Nasr ahead are battling. Massa ahead of them is deg’ing off.
56	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Raikkonen now the car behind, gap six-and-a-half seconds.
57	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	BBW [brake-by-wire] fault.
57	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So just caution on the brakes, you’ve got one lap remaining, you’ve got plenty of gap. Gap to Raikkonen 6.2. So got plenty of space Lewis, plenty of space.
57	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	My temperatures’ dropping.
57	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah they’re coming down Lewis so not a problem. Just look after them, not long to go.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Great stuff Lewis, get in there mate. Well done, great race. Bit of a scare at the end there.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Great drive Lewis that was a very tough afternoon, good win.
VL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Thanks you Paddy. Great job guys all weekend. Very clean. Let’s keep pushing, we can beat these guys. Thanks man.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Well done Lewis, great yourself this weekend.
VL	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Fantastic job Kimi, really close in the end, good racing.
VL	Maurizio Arrivabene	Kimi Raikkonen	Hey Iceman you were great, I’m proud of you, grande Kimi.
VL	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Yeah thanks everybody, thanks. In the beginning we lost a little bit too much time but then we did the best that we could so thanks everybody.
VL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Sorry about the brakes, Nico. Happened at the worst time.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Excellent job Valtteri. Brilliant race. Finished P4.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Thanks guys I think we really maximise the result. Was nice to keep him behind. Hopefully we can keep them behind a bit more this season, thanks guys.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Yep we’ll do our best. With drives like that I’m sure we will.
VL	Rob Smedley	Valtteri Bottas	Well done Valtteri that was a really good race. Back to your best. Thank you very much. Great race.
VL	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK Seb P5.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK sorry guys was not a god race from my side. Made mistakes and tyres were short at the end, I think I shuold have backed off and tried again instead of following all the time.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Ricciardo’s engine failed as he came out of the last corner, but he crossed the finishing line without losing a place. Wow.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate, understood. You’re right next to our pit wall. You finished P6.
VL	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	That’s it mate, well done. Save fuel, track two. Well done mate, P7, good race, well done.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Good job guys. I wouldn’t have predicted that on Friday. Good job, well deserved.
VL	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Brilliant, brilliant job Checo. You blew them away on tyre deg there, well done.
VL	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Really good job mate. Very, very good job. That was a great management of the tyre, huh? Very good job, nice work. Well done to everybody in the team.
VL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	OK Danny that is P9.
VL	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	OK I did all I could. Cheers
VL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Yep, well done mate.
VL	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	OK guys, yeah, very bad race.
VL	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Yeah sorry about that Felipe. So obviously unfortunate at the start. We recovered, we got a point, that was a heck of a long stint at the end of the [medium] tyre. That was a nice job. Shame we lost a couple of places at the end but that was always going to be the risk.
VL	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Nice job, P11, it’s a good step forward. Can we have G2 and pick up debris.

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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Keith Collantine

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53 comments on “2015 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript”

ADD (@addimaf1)
24th April 2015, 12:13

I loved what Arrivabene said on the radio to Kimi at the end. People should call him iceman more often on the radio.
1. Lapov Onor
  24th April 2015, 12:54
  
  I have to say I think Arrivabene is a bit of a breath of fresh air. Very passionate about the result, totally non-corporate too and nothing like the other team heads.
2. iFelix (@ifelix)
  24th April 2015, 13:54
  
  Me too! And with Kimi’s standards he was really chatty in the end :)
  1. cdavman (@cdavman)
    24th April 2015, 14:18
    
    Yeah, funny how FOM only played the first line of that radio message out after the race. Almost as if they wanted to reinforce the image that Kimi doesn’t say much…
    1. Oletros (@oletros)
      24th April 2015, 17:57
      
      Keith transcribes what the FOM plays, isn’t?
    2. GT Racer (@gt-racer)
      25th April 2015, 12:15
      
      @cdavman @oletros I believe Kieth gets the radio transcript from the pit lane channel which features more radio broadcast’s compared to the world feed & longer radio transmissions than the world feed.
      
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpnl6r_2012-f1-malaysian-grand-prix-qualifying-pit-channel-team-radio-feature_auto
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14exjl_sebastian-vettel-extended-team-radio-2013-italian-grand-prix_auto
3. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  24th April 2015, 16:33
  
  I cringed a little when I read that line though. It sounds a bit condescending like he’s proud of his pupil
  and overly familiar like he’s pretending they have been friends since high school.
  1. Iosif (@afonic)
    24th April 2015, 17:14
    
    Me too. “I am proud of you”, he is a world champion just securing the 2nd place… Come on!
    1. iFelix (@ifelix)
      25th April 2015, 10:28
      
      Yes, but he had a very tough time last year and knowing a couple of Finns, they might look tough from outside but are soft inside and appreciate moral support, even if they don’t show or ask for it.
      1. Estesark (@estesark)
        26th April 2015, 23:41
        
        I can confirm this. Source: am Finn. :)
Tequesta (@tequesta)
24th April 2015, 12:28

Nico Hulkenberg: “That idiot Ericsson almost running into the back of me every time.”

As far as I know you are not in the same team, Nico. It’s called putting pressure on your opponent.
1. Nase (@)
  24th April 2015, 16:28
  
  As far as I know, running into the back of any other car is one of the least useful things a driver can do – both for his and the other driver’s race. What Nico’s implying here is that Ericsson kept missing his braking points (which he had already been doing last season, so not a big surprise here), so that, even though he was in no real shape to attack the Force India, there was a constant risk of a collision happening. Which is why Hülkenberg got angry.
  1. Erik (@toxbox)
    24th April 2015, 18:59
    
    To be honest we can’t tell if he was missing his breaking points by bad driving or on purpose. He might have been pressuring Nico to make him agitated and force a mistake. Clearly he succeeded with the former, wether on purpose or not.
Matt (@mattf1f)
24th April 2015, 12:34

Very good race but awful lot of management. Tire management, fuel management, gap management, brake management. However was nice to read when Lewis said that he could not go any faster, after he had been told that he could maybe find a couple of tenths.
1. AldoH
  24th April 2015, 17:27
  
  Exactly what I thought. Awful to see such good drivers just managing everything all the time.
  And constant inquiring the pits about others drivers’ tires, so they all need to manages their own tires AND control the other drivers’ management. Very annoying.
2. DaveW (@dmw)
  24th April 2015, 17:51
  
  This is the upshot of having the radios. You get to hear how the sausage is made, so to speak. If we were to hear the radio coms of fighter pilots in combat it would also be filled with a lot of annoying prosaic discussion of managing fuel, control settings, systems failures, the position and behavior of other aircraft, etc. It would not be a battle scene from Top Gun. I really don’t understand it when people are mad because the drivers are not going flat out for 58 laps. What benchmark racing series are you thinking of where this occurs? As long as tires wear and fuel has mass, drivers will “manage” to get to the distance in the least time. Only if the distance is very short do such things not come into play. Imagine if we got transcripts from Saturday night engineering debriefs, where the “management” programs are designed and put into place. Then F1 would really not look like it belonged among boxing and bullfighting.
  1. Matt (@mattf1f)
    24th April 2015, 18:59
    
    I understand your point. But I just remember the times when refuelling was allowed and when tires lasted the whole race. It was more racing and less management…for me atleast.
    1. Woody (@woodyd91)
      25th April 2015, 7:12
      
      Was the racing any better though? It seems no matter what happens in F1, whatever new rules come in or whatever the requirement of the sport at any given time there is something wrong with it. F1 has never had that sweet spot where everything is great and everybody loves it. I just don’t think thats possible, people will always want something different, for the good or the bad of the sport.
    2. GT Racer (@gt-racer)
      25th April 2015, 12:10
      
      @mattf1f There was just as much management going on when we had refueling, You just didn’t hear it because you didn’t hear team radio on the world feed & even of the f1 digital+ broadcast that did feature team radio teams used to encrypt a lot of it so we didn’t have access to broadcast it as freely as is done today.
      
      I recall hearing radio messages back in 2000-2002 with drivers been told to back off & drop back from the car in front & to save fuel/tyres so they could extend the fuel stint in order to run longer than the car ahead & try & get by them during the pit stops.
      
      You still see/hear the same thing in Indycar today with the fuel stops, Scott Dixon has become a master of managing fuel & its won him a lot of races & a few Indycar titles/Indy 500’s.
Charles King (@charleski)
24th April 2015, 13:01

I’ve probably been watching too much QI, but when Hamilton talked about BBW I thought of something else entirely…

Apparently the problems were related to setup changes that caused the brakes to overheat.
mi_chiamo_gino (@michiamogino)
24th April 2015, 14:07

Why Alonso was told to pick up debris? To reach the minimum weight?
1. Nase (@)
  24th April 2015, 16:31
  
  Yup. Basically the same for all teams. Normally, the cars should be heavy enough, but nobody wants to take a risk and get disqualified because the car lost a small part or whatever.
2. SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
  24th April 2015, 17:11
  
  @michiamogino Yep, it’s not uncommon.
TomMK (@tommk)
24th April 2015, 14:38

I said it in the rate-the-race article and I’ll say it again – Checo’s drive to P8 was awesome. That car is not a P8 car and Hulkenberg proved it. Well done Sergio. That’s the drive of the season so far for me.
1. Iosif (@afonic)
  24th April 2015, 15:06
  
  How did Hulkenberg prove it exactly? By getting into Q3 and placing his car at P8 he proved exactly the opposite, that Force India has the speed to get to P8.
  
  However in this era that tyre management is equally important that being fast, he couldn’t hold this place, while Perez managed to go for the 2 stop strategy.
2. George (@george)
  24th April 2015, 19:50
  
  It seems like one of his best circuits. Classic Perez counter-strategy too, good to see he can still do it :).
  1. Slava (@)
    25th April 2015, 2:12
    
    @george – Unfortunately, it is the only thing Perez can do. Twice or thrice a year, no more.
    1. George (@george)
      25th April 2015, 12:01
      
      @slava
      It’s a useful talent for a team like Force India or Sauber, two or three good results can make a big difference for them. You’re being a bit unfair I think though, he keeps Hulk honest at most races.
Daniel (@dstaplet13)
24th April 2015, 15:06

Interesting, drivers call for blue flags had no idea that was the process….

Also what does this flaps change refer to?
1. Iosif (@afonic)
  24th April 2015, 15:07
  
  Correct me if I am wrong, but I think they are just asking for their teams to inform the race officials that the blue flags will be needed in advance so that they lose as little time as possible.
  1. Nase (@)
    24th April 2015, 16:41
    
    @afonic
    You’re right. Whether or not a blue flag is shown isn’t the teams’ or drivers’ decision. That’s the race control’s job. The teams seem to believe that asking for a blue flag may speed things up. That may or may not be the case.
  2. Daniel (@dstaplet13)
    24th April 2015, 20:29
    
    @Iosif
    That would be the logic behind it, and also I imagine the other teams can hear it over the radio so they can inform their driver that Hamilton (or any other car lapping another car(s)) is coming and to get out of the way.
2. Andy (@andycz)
  24th April 2015, 16:48
  
  Flap change refer to changes on front wing during pit-stop. Different tyre needs different angle of it (balance between front and rear), so they changing it a bit.
  1. Daniel (@dstaplet13)
    24th April 2015, 20:29
    
    @andycz Thanks for the explanation
DaveW (@dmw)
24th April 2015, 16:09

It would appear that Vettel was too hasty in changing the wing. The car was behaving badly but was he going to lose, what, 35s as a result of a lost end-plate in those final laps? Didn’t seem a wise decision between him and the pit wall.
1. Nase (@)
  24th April 2015, 16:36
  
  I think they had sufficient data to see where Vettel’s race was heading with the damage. They had to take not only the pure loss of pace into account, but also the increased tyre degradation due to the loss of downforce and stability, which might’ve cost him a lot more time than an additional pit stop. Also, there was probably a risk of the wing coming loose and destroying his race altogether.
  It’s still possible that they misestimated the situation with Bottas and though that Vettel would pass him easily. But I think the damage didn’t leave them too much of a choice, so that they had to pit the car.
  1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
    24th April 2015, 16:50
    
    Yeah, seeing how Raikkonen was going 1.8s a lap faster than Bottas on average, I imagine Ferrari assumed an overtake on Bottas would have been doable.
2. Daniel (@dstaplet13)
  24th April 2015, 20:34
  
  How Vettel was describing the way the car was behaving (“Car is also pulling to the left on the straight line and I have a lot of understeer. OK I think nose change, box, box.”) was a good enough reason to come in.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
24th April 2015, 16:45

Lol, Williams telling Bottas he can take Raikkonen:

So Raikkonen in front is on [medium] tyres so I think we can get him.
1. David Pate (@tamedcowboy)
  24th April 2015, 19:06
  
  Haha, I know. Famous last words. Kimi was sensational.
lockup (@)
24th April 2015, 16:49

It’s weird how the Merc engineers were caught by surprise by the rear brake temperatures again. They can see them in degrees centigrade. They have like 50 people monitoring the telemetry. They can write alarms into the software. How can the temperatures get to a system cutout without anybody noticing?
1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  24th April 2015, 16:54
  
  I remember Mercedes warning Rosberg about his brake temperatures. Not sure why it isn’t in the transcript though. Or perhaps I’m just not looking right.
  
  The thing was that it went from “high” to “overheated” quite quickly when they were lapping a lot of cars. Pushing trying to stay ahead of Raikkonen wouldn’t have helped either.
  1. lockup (@)
    24th April 2015, 17:06
    
    Yeah @patrickl I can appreciate it might all happen quickly. Still, it cost a place quite likely. TBH I don’t understand how they use the display on the steering wheel, with it being an issue all the time. Why aren’t tyre and brake temps on there for the drivers to see?
    1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
      24th April 2015, 19:51
      
      They really try to run these machines as close to the limit as they can. I guess now and then they get it wrong and they go over the limit. Not just the drivers, but the engineers as well.
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
24th April 2015, 17:14

On lap 24, how could front wing damage cause the aero balance the shift forward? Wouldn’t a loss of downforce at the front cause the aero balance to shift rearward, where things are still working as intended?
1. lockup (@)
  24th April 2015, 17:25
  
  My guess @satchelcharge would be that it increased the angle of attack and spoiled the flow downstream.
2. JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
  24th April 2015, 18:26
  
  @satchelcharge it doesn’t specify what the damage was so it could move aero forwards or back. The front wing has elements which create front downforce, but also a number of areas which manage airflow over the car affecting the level of downforce generated at the rear wing and diffuser. Presumably the damage caused an airflow problem but not a loss of front downforce, hence a reduction in rear downforce (thereby shifting balance forwards) because the air isn’t arriving at the right speed/direction for the back end to work.
  1. SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
    24th April 2015, 19:40
    
    Makes sense thank you both.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
24th April 2015, 20:00

I very like these articles. :D
Gus (@jockey)
24th April 2015, 20:44

One of the things I miss the most is the very distinctive “Box Box Box, Torque Map 1 and Box”…. and “Ok Lewis, it’s Hammer time”

I can’t help but feel that the trend of reducing the number of messages broadcast is not only making the strategy less visible to viewers, it is reducing the insight into the relationships and characters within the sport.
1. MaxJr (@maxjr)
  25th April 2015, 14:55
  
  I’m very pleased that F1Fanatic puts the radio transcript on here after the race, but I agree that it would be fantastic to get more of these heard during the tv broadcast so I wouldn’t need the transcript. It would add so much to the experience, probably more than the chat from the commentators.
Slowhands (@slowhands)
25th April 2015, 19:16

Love hearing the radio traffic in-race, love reading it again afterwards, wish they would release more to air in real time. Thanks, Keith for publishing these as you do. And always eye-opening, educational, and passionate commentary from the best racing community I have found online. Wonderful site for a racing junkie like me! Thanks, everyone!!
iFelix (@ifelix)
27th April 2015, 15:46

These transcribe imply that Vettel realised how much he damaged the call and informed the engineering he’s pitting.