Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2015

2015 Mexican Grand Prix team radio transcript

2015 Mexican Grand Prix

4th November 2015, 11:5515th December 2015, 20:20 | Written by Keith Collantine

Sebastian Vettel gave a blunt assessment of his own performance after crashing out of the Mexican Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver’s race was compromised from the very first corner when he tangled with Daniel Ricciardo – “he deserved that”, noted his rival. Vettel later spun, almost got in trouble for holding up Lewis Hamilton while being lapped, and finally crashed out.

Vettel’s crash came just two laps after Hamilton had been persuaded by some forceful Mercedes radio messages to come in for his second pit stop. Hamilton suspected, with some justification, that he could make it to the end without taking another set of tyres.

He wasn’t the only driver questioning his team’s decisions. Ricciardo was eager to try a different tyre for the final stint instead of the soft, which other drivers were also not happy with.

His team mate, meanwhile, could not hide his frustration at missing out on what would have been his second career podium finish.

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2015 Mexican Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	From	To	Message
PR	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo there are some people crossing the pit lane.
PR	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Did see some understeer, balance-wise.
PR	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico, wind has been moving around, it now looks pretty much as forecasted, so tail into four head wind out of six. there is some clouds starting to build up, but track temperature is still high.
PR	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Checo just to remind you, track temperature has gone up from the other sessions, so track is in much better conditions and hotter. But engine cooling is absolutely the priority.
1	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK, check I might have a puncture. Yeah puncture positive, Ricciardo.
1	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	Same problem, so loss of power. I guess I come in.
1	Mark Temple	Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando retire the car, come in into the pits slowly.
2	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Nice job.
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Yep. Seb deserved that, he gave me no room at all.
2	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah mate understood. He has got a puncture.
3	Fernando Alonso	Mark Temple	Vettel is cutting all over the circuit, all the circuit. Very dangerous maneouver, just arrived to the pit lane. Vettel very dangerous maneouver.
4	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK brakes are starting to get hot already, if there is anything you can do, I know you are battling, but brakes are getting hot.
4	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	How far is the next car ahead?
5	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	25 seconds.
6	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Where the hell was he supposed to go? He just put the front wing to my rear tyre. He had no chance to get me anyways. Just gave us a puncture.
7	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	So good pace at the moment Danil, just keep it up.
7	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Rear graining isn’t getting any worse, it is stable.
7	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Fab one. And plus one on front wing.
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	I am struggling with the rear grip at the moment.
8	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood, you are doing a good job.
9	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Pace is good, how is the tyre?
10	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	I am struggling with the rears, mainly the rears, other than that all under control, man.
11	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Just struggling with the rear, I think I can hang on.
11	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah mate.
12	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	How many more laps Checo, how many more laps can you keep going?
12	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	How many do you need?
12	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	How many can you do? Can you do five?
12	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Yes, at this pace, yes.
13	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Some people are two-stopping but we’re going to stick to our plan.
15	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	That’s a solid lap Dani, keep it up, doing a solid job at the moment.
16	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	OK Kimi, we can reduce the brake saving slightly. If I could have two or three tenths of lap time, that would help us on Kvyat. Kvyat is currently P3, if he stops he’ll be very close to us.
17	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yeah just very low grip, front and rear.
18	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK well done mate and now focus on brakes, Perez 25.2.
20	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	And JB the two Lotuses are behind you. Grosjean is the lead one, they are both on [medium] from lap 10 and lap 11.
20	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK, I spun.
21	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Racing Ericsson behind. Is the car OK?
22	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	I think I have flat-spotted the tyres. I try to continue, at least one lap and see. OK the flat spot is pretty bad I can continue but it’s not great.
22	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Box and confirm Dani.
23	David Greenwood	Kimi Raikkonen	I think the rear right’s damaged is it, Kimi? Yep rear right’s broken I believe Kimi.
23	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	All OK with the car?
23	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Feels like.
23	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Copy that. Pressures look good. He just cut you up, gave you no space.
23	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Copy that, there was no space inside.
24	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Yeah you had the line, copy that.
25	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So Nico it’s not going to be long so start pushing hard now just a small amount of brake management.
26	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Box box, push hard now. Brakes are in reasonable condition.
28	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, so box box. Nico faster on the [medium].
28	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK, tyres are really not in great shape now.
28	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Copy tyre phase.
29	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	So Button ahead is still on a start set.
29	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So just information Lewis at the end of that stint where he did two extra laps, he dropped off quite a lot, so his tyres were very worn like yours.
30	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	So we are thinking about converting to strategy X, strategy X. It’s 44 laps.
30	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	It’s difficult to say at this point, it’s a long way that is for sure.
30	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Nico just information on tyres they were worn down to ten percent so managing the tyres you’ve got good position.
31	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson let’s push let’s push, keep Ericsson behind, we are going to push.
31	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	So I think a bit of front missing at this stage and traction, status eight-and-a-half.
32	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Race update you’re P4 looks like all cars around have stopped and will go to the end.
33	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	Carlos cut the track.
33	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Understood we saw it we saw him cut the track.
34	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis, so box box, box box, Nico faster on the [medium].
35	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Try don’t gain any advantage. Try to put yourself where you were before more or less. At sector one Perez was 0.3 behind. Let him by now, Charlie said to let him by. OK well done son, well done.
36	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, based on the previous set of tyres, tyre wear will be tight till the end, but it will be possible, rears will be the limit.
37	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Confirm the box, start to switch done and [medium] minus half a degree.
37	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Are you sure with [medium]?
37	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Yes we are sure.
37	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Why do you not wait for [softs]?
37	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Because we think the [mediums] are stronger, box now.
38	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	So how are we doing man? How it look in the race?
38	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo, it is looking good you are racing the car ahead Verstappen your tyres are looking good.
38	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	And Vettel ahead, he is a lapped car.
39	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK Carlos, this was a good lap.
39	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Give us some tyre comments when you can.
39	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Still all consistent.
40	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Debris, entrance of turn ten, I don’t know what it is but looks quite solid.
40	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	May be debris turn ten.
40	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Just a bit of a sitting duck in the pack at the moment.
40	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag to Hamilton behind you, let him by.
41	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	I am quicker than him.
41	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Let him by now please. Let him by now or we get a penalty, let him by now and then stay behind him.
42	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	But I am opening the gap to him.
43	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	No you are not, from race direction, so let him by.
43	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	OK, OK copy.
43	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	I don’t understand how we still have oversteer. Engine braking as I try and turn in.
45	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So gap to lewis is..
46	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson the best we have got is A switch, use the A switch. Jenson how is this tyre and which tyre do you prefer?
46	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	That is a good quesiton, I don’t know at the moment.
47	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson recommend one step forwards on HBB one step forwards on HBB.
48	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Problem is we have massive understeer apexes. Because we’re trying to solve this issue the whole time with entry oversteer we have massive understeer and we have no aero on the car.
47	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Don’t tell me any more.
48	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We are going to convert to Plan B, converting to Plan B, let us know if you need a flap adjust.
49	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Can I ask why?
49	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	We are worried about wear, we are worried about wear on these tyres, we are down to the canvas, so box this lap, box this lap.
49	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Bono these tyres are still good.
49	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	This was presumably broadcast as Hamilton went past the pit entrance So this is for safety reasons Lewis, so box this lap. So Lewis you will be boxing next lap, box next lap.
49	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Bono you need to check his tyres, my tyres feel good.
49	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis we were down to zero on the first set. If we go longer on this set, we will be down to zero if not worse. So this is boxing end of this lap, instruction.
49	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	I think that’s the wrong call, but I am coming in.
49	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK we will debate that later, so boxing at the end of this lap.
49	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	Tyre phase three, still, going to four soon.
49	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood Torque six. Box box Carlos box, pit confirm and box.
49	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So gap to Lewis is…
50	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Interrupts Don’t tell me any more.
50	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Copy copy.
50	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Scenario plus.
51	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Make sure those Manors go out of the way as quick as they can.
51	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Copy that.
51	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	They have to go out of the way now.
52	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Please check those tyres and let me know.
53	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	I crashed, again, T7, yeah.
53	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	Are you OK?
53	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	I’m OK. sorry. Sorry guys.
53	Riccardo Adami	Sebastian Vettel	OK, no problem.
53	Sebastian Vettel	Riccardo Adami	Ah, it is a problem. I did a [censored by FOM] job today.
53	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	For the moment, Bottas has stayed out but he has completed 44 laps on that set.
54	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	What if we pit now? Do we lose any places?
54	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo we would lose to Verstappen and maybe Grosjean.
55	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	As mentioned, Kvyat in front is on [soft] tyres, I’m sure he’s going to struggle on the restart, You’ve got the [medium], it’s going to work well on the low temps.
55	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	OK Nico, go strat 12, Lewis has stayed out, current safe by three seconds, just keep you informed on the gap.
55	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	So focus on maintaining tyre temperature Dani, temps at this stage are reasonable, pressures are no concern.
55	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Please check those tyres and let me know, I want some feedback on them.
56	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Jenson, Stevens ahead of you has blue flags and we still have blue flags for Grosjean behind.
56	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	What’s going on? There is no blue flags.
56	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	They have blue flags, both Button and Stevens.
56	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	OK for reliability, use third gear turn 13, third turn 13 for engine reliability.
57	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Use the ten car lengths, use the 10 car lengths to keep the car cool, Get more braking temp.
57	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Nasr is struggling to get temperature he keeps locking up.
57	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	Understood Jenson, obviously you can not overtake Nasr until the restart.
57	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Yeah I know that.
57	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Nasr has got a brake fire.
57	Felipe Nasr	Craig Gardiner	My brakes are finished.
57	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	Understood Felipe.
57	Felipe Nasr	Craig Gardiner	Yeah guys, this situation is no good, it could have been end of straight.
57	Craig Gardiner	Felipe Nasr	Let’s speak later about that Felipe, alright? OK, see you soon.
58	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	So Felipe both these Red Bulls are vulnerable.
59	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Yeah for info Dani, so Daniel was able to pass Massa on the same compound, although Massa was starting to struggle down into turn one so it is going to be possible mate, especially with this tire grip delta. I think if Bottas does stick with it and stay out, then you will have to try and make a move nice and early.
59	Sergio Perez	Tim Wright	What if we pit now, do we lose any places?
59	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	Checo we would lose to Verstappen and maybe to Grosjean.
60	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	Make sure we have a very good energy the five meters out of the last corner on the restart.
61	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Yeah understood Dani. So what we will be after is trying to generate the DRS gap as soon as possible, obviously no concerns on tyres on this stage.
61	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So lapped cars can overtake, so no weaving.
61	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	So Jensen, Perez is in P8, he’s on 41-lap-old [mediums] and is holding everyone up, there could yet be action here.
63	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe, eight more laps to go, eight more laps to go, let’s start creeping up on those Red Bulls.
63	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	So focus on maintaing the tyre temperatures Dani, temperatures at this stage are reasonable, just keep working on them. Pressures are no concern.
66	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, I know it’s difficult, we need to try keep up with Kvyat if we can, it’ll help our DRS, we need to try to get DRS.
66	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	So Felipe both of these Red Bulls are vunerable.
66	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Let us keep on Bottas’s tail, I am sure the Mercs will break his DRS.
66	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	Ricciardo is starting to really struggle with his rear tyres, let’s start to close up on him.
67	Alexander Rossi	Nicholas Perrinn	Guys I am being held up now.
67	Nicholas Perrinn	Alexander Rossi	Stand by Alex, let us stay with Will for a couple of laps.
68	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Are you sure the [unclear] has used tyres?
68	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Affirmative.
68	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	I have really low grip on these tyres, much lower than the other tyres.
69	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Yes Carlos, yes. At the front we have super-high level of vibration, it is due to that.
69	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	No but also coming from the rear.
69	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood Carlos, it is a used set.
69	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe, eight more laps to go eight more laps to go, let us keep creeping up on those Red Bulls.
70	Lewis Hamilton	Peter Bonnington	Hamilton went off the track chasing Rosberg. So hard to follow here.
71	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Rear tyres are nowhere.
71	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK, mate understood, just keep it smooth. The rear tyres may improve.
71	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel, so I know that it’s difficult, we need to keep up with Kvyat if you can, it will help our DRS, need to try to get DRS.
71	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	OK Felipe, so Ricciardo is starting to struggle with his rear tyres, let us really close up on him.
71	Marcus Ericsson	Erik Schuivens	These [soft] tyres doesn’t work, no grip at all no grip at all, [medium] was a lot better.
71	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	We see that Marcus, we see that. Everybody seems to struggle with the [softs].
71	Nicholas Perrinn	Alexander Rossi	When they catch you, you have the two Mercedes together, they are fighting for the lead, do not hold them up.
71	Will Stevens	Josh Peckett	[Unclear] aren’t they, guys?
VL	Nicholas Perrinn	Alexander Rossi	That’s P15. Really great drive, mate, well done.
VL	Alexander Rossi	Nicholas Perrinn	Sorry about the first stint, I just couldn’t get the tyres warm.
VL	Tom Stallard	Jenson Button	OK Jenson that is P14.
VL	Jenson Button	Tom Stallard	Oh that was a good show of where we are, really, in terms of pace. I mean, yeah, so far away.
VL	Marco Matassa	Carlos Sainz Jnr	P13, very difficult race for us. But you did a good job in managing everything.
VL	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Marco Matassa	We had the pace to score points today. We just didn’t do anything really right, I think.
VL	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	Well driven, Marcus, not an easy race to manage, but well done. P12.
VL	Marcus Ericsson	Erik Schuivens	Yeah thanks guys. Was not easy but I think we did the maximum.
VL	Erik Schuivens	Marcus Ericsson	Yeah copy that.
VL	Mark Slade	Pastor Maldonado	Tough race not to get a point but that’s the way it is, I’m afraid. Good drive, Pastor. Well done mate.
VL	Pastor Maldonado	Mark Slade	Yeah, thank you.
VL	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	That’s it Romain, P10, well done.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Wooh…
VL	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	Well earned point.
VL	Romain Grosjean	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Good job, guys.
VL	Julien Simon-Chautemps	Romain Grosjean	It’s good, one point is good. You drove very well.
VL	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	OK Max P9. Difficult one. Very well managed, good job.
VL	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	At the end I think this is the best we could do. So thankyou.
VL	Xevi Pujolar	Max Verstappen	Yes, that is correct, we couldn’t go our pace.
VL	Max Verstappen	Xevi Pujolar	Yeah, I mean, on the middle of the straight no power any more, all the time, but P9 is not that bad.
VL	Tim Wright	Sergio Perez	OK Checo well done, P8.
VL	Dave Robson	Felipe Massa	And P6.
VL	Felipe Massa	Dave Robson	OK guys, yeah, sorry was not very good on the tyres so just lost that position. So anyway well done for the podium.
VL	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Thanks Felipe. Nice job. Well done mate that was a good race anyway. We gained a position and we gained a point on Red Bull as well.
VL	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Chequered flag. Good job Nico, good job. Nice drive mate.
VL	Nico Hulkenberg	Brad Joyce	Thank you guys. Good call on the strategy, obviously the Safety Car was a nice bonus in the end.
VL	Brad Joyce	Nico Hulkenberg	Yeah it came out just right for us. Pace throughout looked strong, Nico, pace looked good.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	Bit of a down race for us. Looked like the pace came back for a bit at the end of that last stint. We struggled a little bit with the rear tyres early on. But by the end of it pace was back to normal.
VL	Daniel Ricciardo	Simon Rennie	Why didn’t we split the cars? Don’t understand why we didn’t put a [medium] on at the end.
VL	Simon Rennie	Daniel Ricciardo	We were not too bad on the [soft] at the start relative to everyone else. We thought the [soft] was the better tyre for the short stint.
VL	Christian Horner	Daniel Ricciardo	Well done Danny that was a good drive. Unfortunately the Safety Car didn’t work in our favour at the end there, you were looking in good shape up to that point.
VL	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	Aargh [censored by FOM] we lost the [censored by FOM] podium.
VL	Gianpiero Lambiase	Daniil Kvyat	Yeah bad luck Dani. I’m sure there wasn’t anything you could have done without that.
VL	Daniil Kvyat	Gianpiero Lambiase	Thanks guys, solid points.
VL	Christian Horner	Daniil Kvyat	Well done Dani that was probably your bets run of the season and you deserve a podium today. It was just, you know, you were a sitting duck unfortuntely at the restart. You did everything you could. So well done.
VL	Daniil Kvyat	Christian Horner	Thanks Christian, thankyou. Yeah it was a confident drive, confident in the car. Thankyou guys, thanks to everyone.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Fantastic job, fantastic, P3. Excellent, you smashed it the whole weekend. Brilliant drive.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Yes! Thanks guys, mega race. Good strategy and everything, thankyou. Feels so good after so much bad luck. Let’s enjoy it.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Remember we’re going to stop at turn 13.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	See you there.
VL	Jonathan Eddolls	Valtteri Bottas	Yep, everything worked well today. Power unit was strong, wasn’t it? That helped.
VL	Valtteri Bottas	Jonathan Eddolls	Yeah, big thanks to HPP [Mercedes-Benz High-Performance Powertrains], the power unit was mega.
VL	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	OK well done Lewis, P2 I’m afraid, but we had the pace today. Good job mate, good job.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Tony Ross	Woo! Yeah!
VL	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Excellent job Nico, excellent job. Ideally we let the whole of the rest of the field go through and we are stopping at turn 13 for the podium.
VL	Paddy Lowe	Nico Rosberg	Nico it’s Paddy, fantastic drive today. Great racecraft.
VL	Nico Rosberg	Paddy Lowe	Thankyou Paddy. Thanks everybody for this win. Really special, really awesome. I’m expecting a good podium performance, guys.

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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42 comments on “2015 Mexican Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Traverse
4th November 2015, 12:07
Has any solid evidence emerged to back up Bonnington’s “we are (the tyres) down to the canvas” claim?
1. Frans
  4th November 2015, 13:08
  Fwiw, Ros inlap was 1:26.4, Ham was 1:28.2. Either he make a huge mistake on the inlap or the tyres just fell of the cliff.
2. BasCB (@bascb)
  4th November 2015, 14:08
  Sigh. I am pretty sure that we heard Rosberg being told that his tyres from the first stint were down to 10%. Lewis Hamilton did an extra 2 laps on his set, and as Frans mentions his times clearly went off the cliff by the end of that second lap.
  Therefore I see no good reason to doubt that that set was indeed completely used. The second set of both drivers (the one they had on when pitting for the second time) was later reported to have been still 60% good after 20 or so laps, and might have been fine to the finish. Then again, the team didn’t know that for sure and they had enough time in hand to be on the safe side with this extra pitstop.
  1. ColdFly F1 (@)
    4th November 2015, 23:21
    30 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Nico just information on tyres they were worn down to ten percent so managing the tyres you’ve got good position.
    29 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg So just information Lewis at the end of that stint where he did two extra laps, he dropped off quite a lot, so his tyres were very worn like yours.
3. Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
  4th November 2015, 14:41
  No, and i don’t think we will have any because tires would have been good to the end, without the safety car.
  Mercedes just wanted to be super sure, they had enough of a gap to do a free stop; they couldn’t stop just one of them because whoever remained on the track had an advantage (like in Monaco). So the difficult part was to convince Lewis to pit and not take advantage of Rosberg making an unnecessary stop. It took 2-3 laps on the radio but he complied. Not the racy thing to do, but good for the team.
  1. uan (@uan)
    5th November 2015, 3:52
    @ianbond001
    Ironically, Lewis would flip a switch if the positions were reversed? Imagine, since he’s usually ahead in the race if Mercedes decided to give the driver behind a contra strategy for a shot at the win? And than Lewis loses a race because of that. Or Lewis wants to go extra lap so they pit Rosberg instead. For instance, in Spa, Lewis said he wanted to keep going, so the team said if you don’t pit, we’ll pit Rosberg, at which point Lewis complied. Imagine they don’t tell Lewis, they just say “affirm” and they then pit Nico and with fresher tires jumps Lewis and wins the race. I can hear it all day “you should’ve pitted me man, you should’ve pitted me.” “Ah, sorry Lewis, but you want to call your strategy, so we let you.”
    Kind of like Monaco (“I thought Rosberg and Vettel pitted under the VSC” – when his unspoken thought was – “I thought the team would just do me wrong so Nico would win and not me, so I whined until they pitted me, but I didn’t want to just asks the team if they pitted Rosberg because then I’d look paranoid and weak…”)
    1. JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
      5th November 2015, 13:14
      @uan I think so many people are missing the point here. As @ianbond001 mentions Mercedes had to pit to be “super sure” and in doing so they removed the one chance (albeit slim) Lewis had of winning the race which was that Nico suffered less than him. Nico had everything to gain by this strategy – both cars on safe easy tyres to the end and guaranteeing his lead. Lewis had nothing to gain by this strategy and something to lose and therefore was irritated.
      The mistake was made by Mercedes – they should have discussed the two stop with Lewis before pitting Nico rather than pitting Nico and then forcing Lewis into a poor strategy disguised as a safety call (and then having everyone say it was only fair since Nico had already stopped). Lewis was right to argue and be annoyed, the call might as well have been a team order to not challenge for the race win and we expect drivers to be unhappy about that.
      1. pH (@ph)
        5th November 2015, 17:58
        @jerseyf1 I do not think the previous post missed any point, as yours does not make sense. To quote:
        “the one chance (albeit slim) Lewis had of winning the race which was that Nico suffered less than him”
        If Nico suffered less than Lewis, then Lewis’s lap times would get worse than Nico’s. So where is that small chance you are speaking of? If indeed Lewis’s tyres would suffer more (and I am not sure that is the case), that putting both on fresh rubber actually helped Lewis.
      2. JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
        5th November 2015, 18:39
        @ph *more than him
        Apologies for the error, I’m sureyou could have worked it out if you were looking for the logic rather than avoiding it!
      3. pH (@ph)
        5th November 2015, 22:46
        @jerseyf1 Well that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Was really Nico suffering more than Lewis? I have yet to see any information in this direction.
        Sure, it is possible that Nico might have suffered more, but it makes no sense to speak of “depriving someone of opportunity” when there is no indication of such an opportunity existing, just on a basis that it might have happened.
  2. Patrick
    6th November 2015, 22:37
    It was definitely Mercedes taking advantage of the gap to add a factor of safety but not necessarily because it was marginal. There was nothing to gain by anyone except statistics. Mercedes would be assured a 1-2 if they didn’t take any risk. Hamilton conversely had to take a risk to assure a win, but if he failed, Merc would miss out on a one-two but Hamilton would loose nothing. As for alternate strategy: last year they used it a lot to give Rosberg a chance, but not an advantage. But if you remember Bahrain, Hamilton was on the primes and the safety car came out and gave Rosberg a huge unfair advantage. This year Merc scrapped the practice. It would have been devasting to Rosberg if they allowed Hamilton to continue and he won the race.
AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
4th November 2015, 12:13
Very interesting reading. :)
Few good comments, but this one is a little shocker to me:
“Yep. Seb deserved that…”
Ricciardo seems to be very serious with Seb. Comments like this, “He got lucky…” from Singapore.
Looks like he’s kinda obsessed with Vettel.
Can’t wait for ROC lol
1. Mahesh (@m47e57)
  4th November 2015, 12:58
  Interesting indeed. I did not realise there was any animosity between them above the competition aspect..Or maybe we are extrapolating?….
  1. AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
    4th November 2015, 13:26
    I think it’s all about competition, but Ric is taking it very seriously. Strange for such a “cool” guy
    “One of the main things I’m looking forward to when I return to London in November is beating Seb. I shouldn’t start this rivalry to be honest, but I want to win!”
2. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  4th November 2015, 20:02
  Well Vettel nearly took him out, so it makes sense he feels that Vettel deserved that bit of karma.
  They always feel the need to claim it wasn’t their fault that an incident occurred. Just so the stewards know it was the other guy’s fault.
  In the case of Bottas vs Kimi they even use 3 messages to blame Raikkonen. Would you say they are obsessed? Or just trying to sway the stewards decision in their favor?
Excuse me :D (@square-route)
4th November 2015, 12:15
Vettel – DoTW
Kappa :D
Park
4th November 2015, 14:36
Jonathan Eddolls is very clever.
“He just cut you up, gave you no space”
“Yeah you had the line, copy that.”
He said those to stewards actually.
Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
4th November 2015, 14:45
Well, looks more and more like Seb is gonna win against Kimi even in the “coolest, no BS-ty guy on the radio” category.
Ed
4th November 2015, 15:47
Kvyat sure likes to curse on the radio..
1. zimkazimka (@zimkazimka)
  5th November 2015, 4:18
  Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s very amusing how he doesn’t have any second thoughts about his choice of words that are broadcasted live. Maybe they forgot to tell him that FOM airs the radio, or he just doesn’t give a damn whatsoever.
Neil (@neilosjames)
4th November 2015, 15:56
30 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg So we are thinking about converting to strategy X, strategy X. It’s 44 laps.
There’s a small part of me holding out the hope that they’d considered 23 other strategies before going with that one…
George (@george)
4th November 2015, 17:39
No Rosberg radio about the second tyre stop as expected, sigh.
1. Fudge Ahmed (@)
  4th November 2015, 19:03
  Probably went something like;
  Rosberg: ‘Am I going to win? What do I need to press on the steering wheel? Did you tell Lewis the same? Can we put more tyres on in case something happens? Can you please make Lewis do the same please? ‘
  Im kidding. Uncharacteristically great drive from Merc’s number 2, semi fair and square (corner cut to break DRS notwithstanding but I think the result would have been the same regardless.’
  1. EF1
    5th November 2015, 1:09
    @offdutyrockstar – :-) he (Rosberg) actually lifted after he rejoined the track there, to make sure the gap to Lewis was less than before he had run wide, you can clearly hear it on the onboard + saw it on the timing screens at that point.
2. Dave (@)
  4th November 2015, 19:15
  No Rosberg radio about the second tyre stop as expected, sigh.
  No radio broadcast; not all messages are available for the transcript.
  1. SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
    4th November 2015, 19:54
    Well yes that’s what he meant; we want to know what all was said when Nico got called in. I think George is smart enough to know that Merc didn’t telepathically beckon Nico to the pits.
    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      4th November 2015, 23:24
      We still might get something from the onboard compilation Canal+ tends to do.
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th November 2015, 0:22
Tyres, tyres, bloody tyres, I’m sick and tired of hearing about these lousy tyres.
1. EF1
  5th November 2015, 1:19
  + infinity. Also, know its not related in terms of product quality as Pirelli road tyres are actually good, but purely out of protest of what they have done to F1 I haven’t bought a Pirelli tyre since they re entered the sport. So 2 cars at roughly 15-20000km each year for 5 years. Bet I’m not the only one to think like this when they consider tyres on their roadcar. How on earth is this good business practice/advertising for their company, and on that note, why not just tell Bernie, ‘no’ its not in our interests to make your silly degrading pencil eraser tyres that are unable to be pushed and cop flak for it anymore?
  1. Dave (@)
    6th November 2015, 19:16
    You say
    Pirelli road tyres are actually good
    but then say
    purely out of protest of what they have done to F1 I haven’t bought a Pirelli tyre since they re entered the sport
    with zero consideration to the fact that those in charge of F1 want tyres that are designed to degrade.
    And this is why I am totally sick of hearing about the tyres.
Stubborn Swiss (@stubbornswiss)
5th November 2015, 1:00
My PERSONAL take on the tyre saga….. Mercedes decided to play it safe with Rosberg by pitting him a second time. To be fair to Rosberg, they thought it necessary to also pit Hamilton a second time. Unfortunately, in being fair to Rosberg, they were not being exactly fair to Hamilton. Again, just my OWN opinion.
1. uan (@uan)
  5th November 2015, 4:02
  @stubbornswiss
  But both drivers know this, and over the course of the season, it will benefit Lewis more than Rosberg, since Lewis is usually ahead, and Mercedes won’t do a contra strategy for the second driver (unless they have lost positions and need help getting back up – like Lewis in Spain).
  Not sure why Lewis whines about it.
  And Mercedes always pits their drivers whether they need to or not to make they win (and they have way more than a pitstop in hand over the 3rd place driver).
  It’s interesting no one thinks Merc can’t give the choice to Rosberg – “Okay Nico, we want to pit you to be 100 percent on your tires, but Lewis is going to jump you and stay out until the end of the race and will probably hold on. Are you okay with that?”
  Now if Nico wants to pit anyway and ends up losing the tire management battle, fair enough. But if the team decides for one driver, than both drivers will get the same decision.
  1. lockup (@)
    6th November 2015, 0:41
    Not sure why Lewis whines about it.
    It’s not obscure @uan. You just suggest an agenda by calling it ‘whining’. Lewis wanted a tyre usage battle, because in that lay his only chance of beating Rosberg. Chance. Not certainty but chance, as opposed to No chance with a second stop. Seems pretty simple to me I gotta say.
    To start with he didn’t know why Rosberg had pitted, because Bono didn’t really explain on the radio. It could have been a puncture or a flatspot for Nico then it would have been legitimate for Lewis to stay out and win with a one-stopper. “Worried about wear” didn’t really stack up because there was no threat from behind so from his point of view he could have waited to see how the wear developed.
    It’s a result of the drivers not having their own strategists more than anything, but Hamilton was quite reasonable arguing his corner.
    1. uan (@uan)
      6th November 2015, 1:22
      @lockup
      It is whining because not once in 3 seasons, and especially in the last two seasons (close to 40 races now) have Mercedes allowed the drivers to do this – allowed tire usage to dictate strategy or to allow one driver to possibly beat the other driver. Merc is never going to risk a certain 1, 2 finish so that one of the drivers can beat the other. You know that, I know that, Hamilton and Rosberg knows that.
      And just imagine, they don’t pit and the SC comes out at the wrong time and they lose track position to RB or the Williams?
      So yes, Hamilton is whining. Yes, it sucks for both drivers at various times as all they can is follow the leader and hope he makes a mistake or isn’t quite as fast (which usually works in Hamilton’s favor). So with two evenly matched cars being forced to run the same strategy and the two of you are really the only competition for the other — well, so be it.
      Or you end up with a situations similar to Monaco where Hamilton was so certain they put Nico on an alternate strategy and pitted him, that he practically demanded to be pitted (“these tires, they’re going off, I’m losing temp, blah blah blah). Now that was extreme, but imagine Nico does stop first while running behind, and Hamilton’s tires do go off and LH loses a victory. He’d flip over that too.
      So the team decided to pit both drivers a second time to ensure a 1-2. Nothing to see here. And Lewis knows that. (Don’t forget Lewis was the same guy who thought he would be able to win Singapore if he doesn’t DNF. After the first SC, Vettel is going slow and the announcers are saying “he’s going slow to preserve his tires”, Ricciardo said later “I knew he going slow as he was saving his tires”, Vettel said later “I was saving my tires” and then we had Lewis going “man, I’m going the same pace as these guys on the Prime, I’m faster than them…”
      1. lockup (@)
        6th November 2015, 9:42
        There were valid reasons why the team called the stops @uan, and also valid reasons why Hamilton queried it and asked for data. Other drivers showed he was correct about stint length options. Calling it ‘whining’ is about you rather than him, along with dredging up and misrepresenting Monaco and Singapore which have nothing to do with it.
      2. Jayd
        7th November 2015, 1:29
        Your knowledge of events in f1 is shocking to say the least. :)
      3. Jayd
        7th November 2015, 1:38
        Also just because you mentioned it. In Singapore vet was fastest but Mercedes were a lot closer in the race than qualifying (still slower) there is no way to know for sure but what Hamilton was referring too was that usually you use the soft tire to pull away knowing you have the slow one to come and then a guy on a different strategy would close the gap when he is on options so the point was if vettel had continued to tire save for much longer Hamilton would have been not far behind at the pit stops and on the faster tire which may or may not have matched Ferrari pace. I doubt it personally but it’s a valid opinion of hamiltions.
2. pH (@ph)
  5th November 2015, 18:01
  @stubbornswiss I do not understand your reasoning. How can you claim that it was unfair to Hamilton given that after those pits, the situation between drivers has been exactly the same as before piting, that is, they both had tires of similar age and the same position on track?
  1. Stubborn Swiss (@stubbornswiss)
    5th November 2015, 19:21
    @ph Exactly my point! Rosberg was okay with switching to plan B, as he did not challenge the call, and came out in the same position, but with fresh rubber. Pretty fair and favorable to him. Hamilton on the other hand was NOT okay with switching strategies, and he said so, and actually requested to stay out. Although we have been told numerous times how their drivers are allowed to freely race each other, the Mercedes pit wall ordered Hamilton to pit and agree with the strategy change. I DO NOT THINK THIS WAS FAIR TO HIM. As the race has been decided, any thoughts or theorizing about what the outcome might have been is exactly that – thoughts and theorizing. (By the way, I said ‘it was not fair’ to Hamilton, I never used the word ‘unfair’ in my original post).
    1. Dave (@)
      6th November 2015, 19:17
      Did Toto drive the car into the pits remotely from the pitlane?
      1. Stubborn Swiss (@stubbornswiss)
        7th November 2015, 22:20
        I’m sure he would if he could!
Kaiser
6th November 2015, 7:09
Carlos Sainz talking to himself in third person on lap 35 looks ridiculosly funny… :P (Edition mistake but funny if you think about it that way)