2015 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Nico Rosberg’s race ending throttle failure was the moment his team mate’s championship chances began to look like a near-certainty. The drama unfolded in a series of radio messages which revealed the difficulty he was having with his car in the braking zones which swiftly led him to park up.

It wasn’t a trouble-free day for Lewis Hamilton either – but Rosberg would have surely swapped his team mate’s minor problems with tyre temperature and the W06’s rear wing for his terminal defect.

Carlos Sainz Jnr, Toro Rosso, Sochi Autodrom, 2015 — Button made sure the stewards were on to Sainz

As in Japan the McLaren drivers were struggling with an uncompetitive car. Fernando Alonso found humour in the idea he was able to race with the likes of Felipe Massa, and Jenson Button was under no illusions about the car’s shortcomings at Sochi.

Button had other things on his mind as well. He made sure the stewards were aware Carlos Sainz Jnr had broken a rule and even asked why his rival hadn’t been penalised at one stage. Button’s team mate, meanwhile, was on the receiving end of FIA justice having been warned about corner-cutting early in the race and voiced doubt over whether the call was correct.

Perhaps the most surprised driver on the radio in Russia was Sebastian Vettel. No driver expects to see someone standing on the track in front of them, but it’s now happened to Vettel twice in the last three races. At least the marshal who was collecting a piece of debris last Sunday had a reason to be there, unlike the Singapore track invader.

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2015 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo just a reminder: In the last minute we’re not allowed to speak to you. It’s just gone three minutes to go so once the car’s fired up we won’t be able to speak to you any more.
PR	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Message was cut. Felipe just a reminder about that revision of turn two. So the marker and the bollard and the line have gone and it’s just a…
FL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Wind very low but it is a bit of a tail wind turn two, now.
FL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Big under-engagement.
2	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Front wing!
2	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	OK, copy that.
2	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Check on the data what’s happening.
2	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	OK we’re checking, keep pushing. What happened, Romain, what happened?
2	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Hulkenberg turned in to me in the turn one I think he clipped my front wing.
2	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	OK.
2	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Perez, I don’t know. Perez, I think.
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Front tyre’s flat.
2	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Are you OK to continue?
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Yeah it’s the tyre. I couldn’t do anything about it the car just came spinning to me.
2	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	What is the damage on the car, Max?
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Left-rear, the tyre.
2	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK, what about bodywork?
2	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	I can’t see any damage. Maybe a little bit the left-rear, the floor, but I can’t see it.
2	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	It was quite messy into turn two. I had to avoid the accident of the Force India.
2	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Hulkenberg and Ericsson collided at turn two at the start. I think that’s it.
2	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	OK. Can you get back? Are you sure you can’t get it going?
2	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	No, we’re really stuck into each other.
3	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Reminder on debris turn two and three. Anything now in terms of tyre warming will be helpful. If the debris is gone, Nico, it’ll probably go this lap, so it’ll be worth just getting some temperature into everything.
3	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson the Safety Car is in this lap. You’re doing the right thing to start warming the brakes.
3	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Remember overtaking from the Safety Car line.
4	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	For the restart you should go to Yellow G6. When you do that you will automatically get the Red Button mode.
4	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Correction: You won’t get the Red Button mode automatically. You need to push the Red Button for Red Button mode. And Yellow G6.
4	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson Red Button again, Red Button please.
4	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yeah it’s still cutting off.
4	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Bottas passed Raikkonen at the restart. Excellent move, nice one.
5	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	My throttle pedal is broken. Advise. If it sticks, what do I do?
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Nico it will kill on brake pressure.
5	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Am I able to go to zero percent pedal on braking?
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	It’s not going there at the moment, Nico.
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	It did the last event.
5	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So for turn ten it didn’t, for turn nine it did.
6	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Pace is good, both one second faster than group ahead.
7	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Well done Carlos, P13, keep pushing. 1.91, focus on that, please.
7	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Rosberg’s throttle problem forced him to retire. Have a think, have a think, what can go wrong now. Am I charging enough, is there anything I need to do?
7	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy, copy, battery’s good. So Nico just need to adapt to the situation, we’ll try and let you know if there’s anything else that we can think of. There’s quite a lot of brake/throttle overlap there, better then.
8	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	It’s pushing whilst I’m completely off the pedal so I’m boxing.
8	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	OK. Bite point for please Nico.
8	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So gents we’ve switched off at the moment. I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do to sort the problem out.
8	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	So the pedal has popped back completely towards me but it’s riding the throttle even when I’m not pushing the throttle.
9	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis good job let’s settle into a rhythm, set a pace.
10	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Who’s the car behind?
10	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis last lap Bottas 42.9. Gap is at two seconds now so you can cut some of the fuel saving, you’re doing too good a job. We can start to use a bit of that fuel, build the gap.
10	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis your team mate has retired so let’s refocus, get one with this race.
11	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	OK Romain so lap time is competitive with the other [soft] runners. So we are P13, it is a long race, everything can happen.
11	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo the Red Bulls do not have any pressure on them at the moment. Cars behind Red Bulls are also slower than you.
12	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK Carlos well done. Now focus on pace.
12	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Box this lap, box box, pit confirm.
13	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	Grosjean crashed heavily at turn three. No response broadcast. Romain, all OK?
13	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Is he OK?
13	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Yeah he is OK, he jumped out. Was a big shunt.
13	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Button saw Sainz cutting the pit lane entry line. The car in front just crossed the entrance line, he crossed the line at pit entry.
13	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Pastor confirming Romain’s absolutely fine, he walked away from the car no problem.
14	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	For info Kimi one of the reasons why we think Grosjean might have gone off is he lost it on the marbles in turn three. Just for info.
15	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando so situation is we’ve fitted a set of [super-softs]. If we can we’ll try and go to the end on it but obviously we don’t want to have to back off to do that so drive for best pace. If we have to make an extra stop, we will.
15	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson so eight cars have not pitted. Top six are all on [super-soft] but Massa and Maldonado on the [soft] have also not pitted.
15	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	I felt that tyre was wearing relatively quickly.
15	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson we’re checking the tyres now.
15	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I think this is the slowest the Safety Car has ever gone, can’t keep the temperature in the tyres.
15	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK copy that Lewis we are talking to them. Just do what you can do.
15	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo behind you is Ricciardo, he’s stopped, he’s on the same tyre, same age as you. Then Verstappen behind him is on the same tyre but plus 11 laps.
16	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe this is good. We’re currently P7, obviously the lead [soft] runner. Key now is Nasr ahead. Get past him and we are quicker than the Red Bulls.
16	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	So for info Hamilton in front is complaining a lot about tyre temperatures with the pace of this Safety Car so he may struggle at the restart. Race update: The key in the second half of the stint is to gain as much of a gap on the Ferraris as possible so we’ve got track position and we can react to anything that they do.
17	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Raikkonen went off at turn two while trying to keep Vettel behind. Do I have to let him past or not?
17	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Just finding out. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.
17	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	OK I’ll let him past. I have no speed in a straight line on those restarts, they just drive past me every time.
18	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK you’re good there, keep pushing, well done.
18	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor watch your pedal stiffness, watch the brake pedal stiffness.
19	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	Stevens had to make an extra pit stop after flat-spotting his tyres. OK Will let’s get our head back into the game, a lot can happen in this time. We’re back on the [super-soft] tyre. Let’s consider diff switches to help with that.
19	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Keep pushing, you’re doing an awesome job.
19	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	I feel a strange vibration.
19	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Copy that, we’ll have a look.
20	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	And Lewis you are in your Safety Car Window, not VSC.
21	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	The tyres have no grip any more.
21	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Copy that Max. We need to keep going with these tyres.
21	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	OK Will from what we’ve seen going to the end on this set seems to be possible. Other cars are trying the same.
22	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	So for info car behind is now Vettel, he is starting to close the gap. He’s a little bit quicker than us at the moment. Give me feedback on the tyres.
22	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Tyres consistent. Could be some deg soon, that’s my feeling.
22	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel so Maldonado ahead is on the [softs] he started the race on. He does have to fit [super-softs] at some point but he might go a long way yet.
23	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	The cars behind having deg?
23	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’re not seeing much on lap time profile, Lewis, just an offset, so you’re doing a good job.
24	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Is the car looking OK?
24	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Everything looks OK to us at the moment.
24	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	How many laps left on this tyre?
24	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	There is quite a lot left but every lap is going to be slower.
24	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	It’s a very good lap again, keep pushing like this, you’re doing well, very good lap.
25	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Alonso later received a five second penalty for cutting turn 16. OK Fernando we’ve been given a warning about cutting the apex of turn 16.
25	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	Are they sure? With four tyres? I don’t think so.
25	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando FIA have warned us so we must be careful there.
26	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Sainz was given a five-second penalty for cutting the pit lane entrance line. Why is Sainz not getting a penalty? Is Sainz getting a penalty for crossing the white line on entrance?
26	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Stand by Jenson, I’ll investigate.
27	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Just keep doing what you’re doing, this is good, very good.
27	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Presumably ‘Bangkok’ – if that is what is being said – is a code word. Guys the tyres are dying.
27	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Bangkok, do you need a front wing adjust? Bangkok,
27	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Negative.
27	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy.
27	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Just keep an eye on my front tyre temperatures. It’s the fronts that are looking to go off, I feel.
27	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	OK Will the tyres from the first stint suggest that we can go to the end on this tyre. Come on, we can make this work.
27	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Fernando if we have to pit again what’s your preference? [Soft] or [super-soft]?
27	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	Leave the same whatever.
28	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK Bottas is having traffic so it’s good, keep pushing like this, keep your head down, crucial phase of the race.
29	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK Bottas is in traffic so keep pushing Kimi, a podium’s still possible.
29	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK so Sainz behind is getting the DRS, suggest closing up the gap a little bit to help you defend.
30	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	OK I’m losing my tyres.
30	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	We don’t quite have the emerge on Bottas yet but he is still in traffic. Keep going as we are, Kimi.
30	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	How are the tyres, and do you have a preference on compound?
30	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	I would say this tyre. But the tyre’s still good.
30	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	And Fernando this is lap 29. How do you think the tyres are? Will they make it until the end?
30	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	Yeah I guess so. We try, no?
31	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK Seb is in this lap, we’ll be in the lap after, just hold on to it as much as you can, Kimi.
31	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	I think we’re plan B at the moment.
31	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood.
31	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Vettel in the pits now. We expect another two laps, let us know you’re happy to do that.
31	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	OK.
31	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Good man.
31	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	That’s it, I start losing a bit of front bite.
31	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Copy Dany, thank you.
32	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Bottas lost a place to Vettel in the pits but stayed in front of Raikkonen. Raikkonen’s in so we’ll be racing him, he’s going to be much closer.
32	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	How is the wear looking now?
32	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson still looks OK.
33	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	OK box and confirm Dany. Let’s have a clean stop, we’ll be racing Button.
33	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	And Fernando we are going to be caught soon by cars who have made an extra stop. If we can get to the end on this set we are racing them to the end.
33	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK well done mate, well done.
34	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	The shifts are very bad.
34	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Understood Jenson, we’re looking at it.
34	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	It’s not every shift.
34	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	And Fernando we are racing Massa behind to the end.
34	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	I love your sense of humour.
34	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Well maybe we can have some fun trying, anyway.
35	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	Watch the white line pit exit, fight everyone.
36	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo you’re currently looking P3 on track. Ricciardo is keeping Bottas and Ricciardo behind.
36	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor we need to pick up the pace, we need to target 42.3.
37	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, bit of scrapping going on behind you. If you can catch up to Perez and get DRS it’ll help us out.
37	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Race update: Ricciardo and Perez in front are on 24-lap-old [softs], they’re likely to go to the end.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	How is the balance now?
38	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Getting a bit better again.
38	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Copy.
38	Will Stevens	Josh Peckett	These fronts are starting to go by the way/ You can see front graining on both tyres.
38	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	OK mate understood let’s try to manage it as best we can.
39	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	OK Will there are 15 laps to go. Do you think you can make it to the end on this set?
39	Will Stevens	Josh Peckett	Well it’s worth a go, isn’t it?
39	Josh Peckett	Will Stevens	It’s the fastest thing to do. Let’s stay out, let’s keep going.
39	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Remember to look after your front brakes.
39	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	We are still critical, more under control. You need to look after your brakes.
40	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel you’re doing a very good job, mate. So we are P4 at the moment. Nobody around that needs to stop again.
40	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	So to confirm Ricciardo and Perez in front are going to the end, they’re on very old [softs].
40	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We’ll just up the pace a little bit. 41.0 is the target lap time.
40	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I’m in traffic.
40	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah sure thing, just steady pace, 41.0, free air.
42	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo you’re still P3 but to make it work we’ve got to have maximum management on the front.
42	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Yes, it’s what I’m doing man, I cannot do any more.
42	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Which is the worst tyre, man? I cannot do more.
42	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo, right-front.
43	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Management this lap was good.
43	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Nine laps to go, you are the fastest out there. Hamilton lap time 1.1.
43	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So gap to Vettel 12.2 now, Vettel picking up the pace a little.
44	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor good job, let’s see if we can get after the Sauber in front.
44	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Ten laps to go. Perez is starting to struggle badly. We can still get this podium.
45	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	This is good. Tyres are good so we can push to the end. There are a lot of cars ahead on old [soft] tyres and we can have them.
45	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	There may be still opportunities ahead if you can catch up with Bottas and Perez.
46	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Bottas passed Ricciardo. Brilliant stuff. So let’s get Perez who’s starting to struggle with his front tyres.
46	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Bottas is through on Ricciardo, it took him 17 laps to get past.
47	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Feels like the car is sliding through braking for turn one. Turn two, sorry.
48	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Sainz retired. OK, brake finished. I will box. The engine is doing something strange also.
48	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Box, box. Slow the car down, box. Pit confirm.
48	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Yeah, now brakes are gone. Lost in turn 13.
48	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Come in very, very slowly the rear wing is damaged. Stay offline.
48	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	OK, OK.
48	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Park the car now, park off-line, yes, park the car.
48	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Engine off, engine off now.
49	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	A marshal ran onto the track to retrieve part of Carlo Sainz’s car. OK now it’s clear but we’ve got a very brave Russian running across the track. Track is clear now.
50	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK Max let’s try to push.
50	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	I’m already pushing the whole race.
50	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Ricciardo retired Are the brakes OK?
50	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Yes, all looks OK. What is the problem with the brakes?
50	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Just got [unclear] something. Definitely something strange at the front.
50	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood. Temperature are OK.
50	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Something’s broken. Suspension or something.
50	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK park on the right-hand side of the track. Park on the inside of the track.
51	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	OK Lewis three laps remaining. Still seeing some suspect performance from the rear wing so just be mindful…
51	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah I can feel it.
51	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So we suggest if you get DRS not to use it.
51	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson three laps to go. Fuel down to the last lap minus one, well done mate.
52	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Mode one, we’ve got one lap only.
52	Nicholas Perrinn	Roberto Merhi	So Roberto there are two laps remaining. This has been a long stint on these tyres. Let’s be extra-careful on them.
53	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Forget it, my tyres are completely dead.
53	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Yes we can see that Max. {Unclear] 12, just bring it home.
53	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Excellent we’ve got one more lap, stay in this mode. One more lap.
53	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Last lap Kimi, last lap, all or nothing.
53	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Raikkonen collided with Bottas. So no puncture, Kimi, bring it home.
53	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	What the [censored by FOM] did he do?
53	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy. Kill the engine.
53	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe, Raikkonen ahead has a problem, Raikkonen has a problem, let’s go get him, let’s go get him. Come on, Felipe. Raikkonen has a puncture, let’s get him.
53	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	Fernando we’re in the points, Bottas has crashed. Let’s focus now, we’re in the points.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Well done, Lewis. Great job mate. Another great, fantastic, managed drive there.
VL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Guys thank you so much for everything you do. The car was really, my car was really special to drive today. I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this team. Thank you.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We appreciate it, Lewis. Thanks for your comments, mate.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Lewis Hamilton	Yeah great job Lewis, fantastic drive, well done.
VL	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Well done Sebastian, well done.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Grazie ragazzi, grande gara. Que bella machina.
VL	Maurizio Arrivabene	Sebastian Vettel	Grazie Seb, grande gara. Fantastico.
VL	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Was some action behind you so Perez got the podium, Massa P4, Kimi had a crash with Bottas in the last lap for position and he finished P5, Kimi. Then Kvyat is sixth, Nasr P7.
VL	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Grande l’amoro, grande. Thank you guys all weekend. Obviously Friday was not a lot we could do. But then very focused from Saturday onwards. The feeling of the car was good and in the race it just kept getting better so great job.
VL	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	P3 Checo well done you deserve it mate. Well done, take the pick-up.
VL	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Woo! Well done guys. Wow that was very hard man. I had no rubber left at all. Very good job guys. OK guys let’s enjoy the moment, well done guys.
VL	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Well done Checo, good job mate, we’ll come and see you at the podium.
VL	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Did you guys get the constructors’?
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Not just yet, mate.
VL	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe finished P4, that’s a great recovery.
VL	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	OK guys, sorry for Valtteri but I’m happy for the result,. Yeah, thank you very much.
VL	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK Kimi you gave it your best job, mate.
VL	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Yeah I mean, we tried…
VL	Maurizio Arrivabene	Kimi Raikkonen	Kimi good, drive.
VL	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	I thought that he’s seen me when I went there but obviously not, so…
VL	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	Understood mate, understood, we know you were racing.
VL	Kimi Raikkonen	David Greenwood	Yeah.
VL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	So that’s sixth in the end, Dany.
VL	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	Well cheers, of course, but the car was a bit different the last stint, we will analyse that for sure. But thank you guys for a nice day. I think it’s good to grab some points at home and keep working. Yeah I would like to look through the strategy a bit as well I think. I think we could learn something from there. But nevertheless you learn something new every day.
VL	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	You’re P7.
VL	Felipe Nasr	Craig Gardiner	Woah great, thank you guys. Great job.
VL	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	Really good race, Keep it slow. Save fuel.
VL	Felipe Nasr	Craig Gardiner	Thanks Paul! Not bad for a first one, eh?
VL	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	[State of Charge] 2. Keep SOC 2. Well done Felipe that was a great race, I’m really stoked about that, it’s really good. Well done.
VL	Felipe Nasr	Craig Gardiner	Thank you. The super-soft tyres were going really good.
VL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	OK Pastor, there you go, P8. Better reward than we expected at the end. It’s been difficult weekend. Good job there.
VL	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	Yeah not bad guys, thank you.
VL	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	JB that is P9, Bottas crashed with just over a lap to go. No, the final lap. That puts you up to P9. Well done, mate. Great job at a circuit we didn’t think would suit us.
VL	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yeah, well, it didn’t! (Laughs) But I think we did a good job there managing everything. Yeah, quite fun with Fernando as well. Yeah, good job guys, I know that we expected a double points finish today so it’s positive. We did everything right and that’s all we can ask for. So good job, guys.
VL	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando nice job, P10. That’s much better than we expected. Kvyat… Sorry, Bottas retired, Raikkonen was able to just keep going so we got tenth, well done.
VL	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK that’s it Max. Nearly. Was good job from you, very compromised with the damage.
VL	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Yeah was not the best race but anyway, we tried.
VL	Roberto Merhi	Nicholas Perrinn	OK thank you guys, good job.
VL	Nicholas Perrinn	Roberto Merhi	Yeah well done mate that is P13. Really great drive, well done.

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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17 comments on “2015 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript”

ColdFly F1 (@)
14th October 2015, 12:45

If I could I would nominate Alonso for COTD:

34 Mark Temple Fernando Alonso And Fernando we are racing Massa behind to the end.
34 Fernando Alonso Mark Temple I love your sense of humour.
34 Mark Temple Fernando Alonso Well maybe we can have some fun trying, anyway.
1. Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
  14th October 2015, 13:15
  
  I agree, that was pretty good for Fernando. I’d expect that kind of comment from Jenson.
  
  Also, this one
  
  Last lap Kimi, last lap, all or nothing.
  
  Think Kimi took that a bit too literally.
2. Arrows98 (@arrows98)
  14th October 2015, 16:21
  
  I actually LOLed at this… =)
  
  and Jenson’s radio was actually pretty good also [‘Great job at a circuit we didn’t think would suit us.’ ‘Yeah, well, it didn’t! (Laughs)’]… signs of clearer skies at McLaren???
lubhz (@lubhz)
14th October 2015, 13:09

I presume on VL Vettel said “grande lavoro“, meaning great job.
1. Beyond (@lello4ever)
  14th October 2015, 15:37
  
  “Che bella macchina” as well
  1. nil
    14th October 2015, 17:48
    
    I suspect the person who wrote the transcripts knows a bit French/Spanish, but not Italian :P
BRIAN MAKDADDY
14th October 2015, 15:23

interesting comment from lewis. “Did you guys get the constructors”

lets discuss, 25 marks
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  14th October 2015, 15:36
  
  It seems like the sort of perfectly innocuous comment some people will choose to read far too much into.
  1. harry
    14th October 2015, 17:50
    
    :D Now I remember Claire Williams talking about “helping their engine supplier to win the constructors” before the race. It’s on CNN.
2. EF1
  15th October 2015, 1:08
  
  Yeah Freudian slip there, no surprise at all really. It is quite amusing though, especially after all the gushing praise going both ways only moments earlier. This isn’t a criticism, F1 drivers are supposed to be selfish. Still, interesting. Go TEAM Mercedes and also TEAM Hamilton :-)
TeeJay
14th October 2015, 15:51

Roberto Merhi’s race engineer is not Nick Perrin, by the way
sumedh
14th October 2015, 19:13

The McLaren drivers seem to enjoying their part-steward, part-driver, part-comedian roles.. Don’t they?

Some wisecracks, some fault finding of others and good driving.. What a sea change compared to the radio we heard in Japan.
To the Max !
14th October 2015, 19:45

Now I understand Sainz needs some attention too, but calling him Max isn’t the right kind of attention (lap 21).
1. ColdFly F1 (@)
  14th October 2015, 20:26
  
  Both are very good IMO – thus easy to confuse.
  
  The message was actually Pujular->Max, I recall it from the race (was surprised that his primes had gone after only 20 laps – now understand that his car was damaged causing the extra tyre wear)
Evans
14th October 2015, 20:02

Are they now allowed to give information on fuel management? I remember more than a couple of times on radio when fuel levels were discussed.
1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  15th October 2015, 9:10
  
  I think the ban was only on asking about other car’s fuel levels
uan (@uan)
15th October 2015, 17:20

So was Kimi told to let Vettel pass? Did he just think they wanted him to let Vettel pass on the restart as Vettel attacked really strongly?

It’s all rather confusing in the transcripts. From what Vettel said, he thought they were just racing.