2016 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

16th June 2016, 9:3016th June 2016, 9:09 | Written by Keith Collantine

A radio message from Fernando Alonso at the end of the Canadian gave the impression he wanted to retire from the race.

Verstappen was told not to hold Ricciardo up

This was something Alonso had suggested doing during the final race of last season. However on this occasion Alonso was asking for a pit stop, rather than to stop the race.

Alonso said he asked “about the possibility of fitting fresh tyres for the last few laps, but I guess it was a little too much of a risk: at that point we were 11th and stood to score a point or two at the end if something were to have happened ahead of us.”

“Still, I’d done more than 50 laps on those tyres – and the two-stoppers were a lot faster than me. I guess we were a bit unlucky – we really needed some rain or a Safety Car to put us back in the fight.”

In the early stages of the race it seemed Red Bull were preparing to swap the other of their drivers. Max Verstappen was reminded at one point not to hold up team mate Daniel Ricciardo. At this point Ricciardo was within DRS range of Verstappen, but moments later the Virtual Safety Car period began and after that the gap between the pair opened up again.

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

2016 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
11	To Max Verstappen	OK Max, do not hold Daniel up please.
11	From Jenson Button	Down on power, guys, down on… engine’s gone.
21	To Kimi Raikkonen	Take it easy Kimi, take it easy.
21	From Kimi Raikkonen	I cannot take it easy and keep them behind at the same time.
21	From Sebastian Vettel	Get this traffic out of the way!
35	From Sebastian Vettel	Mamma mia, what the hell is going on?
37	From Nico Rosberg	You got to give me more information because of the warning and everything on the steering wheel.
37	To Nico Rosberg	Copy, the warnings are real.
40	From Romain Grosjean	Did I lose anything? Did I lose the front wing?
43	To Nico Rosberg	OK Nico you have a slow right-rear puncture. Box box.
59	From Sebastian Vettel	What the [censored by FOM] is this Manor doing?
60	From Fernando Alonso	Can I stop now?
60	To Fernando Alonso	No Fernando, keep going, we want to see if we can get a point if something happens to other cars.
60	From Fernando Alonso	Argh.
70	To Valtteri Bottas	Yes, brilliant, P3 Valtteri!
70	From Valtteri Bottas	Yeah!
70	To Valtteri Bottas	Slow in-lap. Brilliant job all weekend.

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.

Follow F1 Fanatic Live on Twitter for team radio highlights during all live F1 sessions.

Canadian Grand Prix data

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

Browse all 2016 Canadian Grand Prix articles

Team radio transcripts

Browse all team radio transcripts

Author information

Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Read more about Keith Collantine, find all their articles and get in touch with them

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

31 comments on “2016 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript”

William Jones
16th June 2016, 9:35

He confirmed this right after the race, when he told sky that he was wanting to pit for some fun tyres. Unfortunately the sky interviewer talked all over him, didn’t listen to what he was saying and pushed their own understanding of his words out.
1. Aapje (@aapje)
  16th June 2016, 20:39
  
  Both the Max and Alonso messages were misunderstood. It really makes you wonder about the understanding that the pundits have.
JC
16th June 2016, 9:43

I miss hearing more team radio. I hope FOM see sense and start playing more of it.
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  16th June 2016, 10:09
  
  I wonder if it’s going to make a return on some kind of heavily-restricted platform. In the UK Sky removed web browser access to the extra video feeds (e.g. the pit lane channel) a few years ago and made it iOS-only.
  1. lockup (@)
    16th June 2016, 11:55
    
    I reckon they use a spreadsheet to make these decisions @keithcollantine. Like “ooh all those £19.99’s from the live timing made us £666,000 bro, cool!” while Bernie blames Mercedes for the new low in viewing figures.
Tristan
16th June 2016, 10:28

From Nico Rosberg You got to give me more information because of the warning and everything on the steering wheel.
To Nico Rosberg Copy, the warnings are real.

There’s been hints and winks by the team principals, both Horner and Wolff at least, that with the radio restrictions they’d just find other ways of communicating with the driver.

I’m thinking even if the restrictions were lifted at this point, they’ve already figured that the steering wheel screen is a better way to communicate anyway because other teams can’t “listen in” to that.
1. William Jones
  16th June 2016, 11:38
  
  Most steering wheels have a camera pointing at them
  1. Matthijs (@matthijs)
    16th June 2016, 13:15
    
    Yes, but it’s fairly easy to add a filter that you can’t read the screen from above (where the camera is).
2. WH
  16th June 2016, 13:29
  
  The team can’t send any information to the cars except voice transmissions. The warnings on the dash have to be the result of software that runs onboard the cars. All Merc were confirming was that from the more detailed information available to them, the car was right to show that warning. None of the restrictions on team-to-driver assistance are specifically restricted to radio communication.
  1. Tristan
    16th June 2016, 14:16
    
    Yeah that sounds about right, don’t know what I was thinking. Cheers.
3. Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
  16th June 2016, 23:39
  
  If the warnings weren’t for race-stopping items (or certain very limited other things), then the team could not have spelt out what they meant to Nico; “the warning is real” is about the best they can do under the restrictive regulation (as that can be construed as confirmation of a signal being sent to the car). It was a way of indicating they can’t tell more about the warning without a regulation being broken.
  
  At least, I made that out to be the surface message. It’s entirely possible that word choice, for example, may be being used to convey a second message, or that it was a hint to look at the wheel for more clues… …or something.
Erix
16th June 2016, 10:55

FA: Can I quit F1 now?
F1: Who cares?
1. ColdFly F1 (@)
  16th June 2016, 11:25
  
  when is your next stand-up comedy show?
2. Ashwin (@redbullf1)
  16th June 2016, 19:37
  
  Lol
Xusen (@xusen)
16th June 2016, 11:41

These used to be my favourite post race articles, now they have become a joke, all the ban did was remove another insight into this very secretive sport. I don’t see any driver being worse or better due to lack of Radio.

I wish they reconsider!
1. Yoseph
  16th June 2016, 12:16
  
  Seconded.
  1. ColdFly F1 (@)
    16th June 2016, 12:54
    
    -1
    99.9% sure that it had nothing to do with the ban. @xusen
    Do you really believe that Verstappen didn’t respond to the ‘reminder’ he received on lap 11.
    
    But also, there was more radio contact which is not included.
    e.g. V.L. from Lewis “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”
    1. Matthijs (@matthijs)
      16th June 2016, 13:18
      
      @coldfly
      Make that a 100%. In interviews drivers often refer to discussions with the pit wall and not seldom we heard nothing from it.
2. drmouse (@drmouse)
  16th June 2016, 12:30
  
  all the ban did
  
  I think we are all pretty sure that there is much more radio traffic than is broadcast, and reasonably sure that much of it would be of interest to the public.
  
  Therefore, it is not the ban which has “remove[d] another insight into this very secretive sport”, but FOM’s broadcasting team deciding not to share it with us.
  1. Xusen (@xusen)
    16th June 2016, 13:35
    
    @drmouse @coldfly
    
    I agree there definitely more radio than broadcast, so why are they not sharing it anymore?
    
    Compare it to 2015 Canadian GP transcript –
    
    https://www.racefans.net/2015/06/10/2015-canadian-grand-prix-team-radio-transcript/
    
    212 Messages in 2015 vs 17 Messages in 2016, a drop of 91.4%
    
    What explanation have we received if any from FOM? the only change has been the ban on driver aids.
3. Ashwin (@redbullf1)
  16th June 2016, 19:43
  
  Yes it looks like all they want is to silence the critics who said “F1 drivers are being guided too much on track” or ” My grandma can drive an F1 car, it’s so easy “.
  
  But is the radio banned in true effect ? None of us know!
Muna
16th June 2016, 12:50

Keith I dont see the point of making these articles anymore. Previously all those messages would have been broadcasted during the warm up lap and the first 3 laps. They used to tell a story but now this is just garbage. I know FOM are trying to make driving and drivers the centre of attention but without a bit of context I’m just there guessing whats going to happen especially with the new tyre regs that place strategy at the top.
1. ColdFly F1 (@)
  16th June 2016, 12:56
  
  Maybe we should change this section into some kind of ‘caption competition’ – for each lap we can suggest what the radio communication could have been.
  1. Matthijs (@matthijs)
    16th June 2016, 13:19
    
    @coldfly: this is an easy one:
    11 To Max Verstappen OK Max, do not hold Daniel up please.
    11 From Max Verstappen NO!
    1. Aapje (@aapje)
      16th June 2016, 20:41
      
      From Alonso: Can I box?
      To Alonso: NO!
PeterG
16th June 2016, 13:15

There was a tweet posted on the pit lane channel early in the race from somebody in the crowd that had a radio scanner which was complaining about the lack of radio chatter they were picking up compared to previous years so it seems that the lack of it on TV isn’t simply down to FOM not playing them.

The tweeter said they had heard nothing in the 20 minutes before the start as cars went to the grid & had only heard 4-5 messages over the 1st 15-20 laps.
jayteeniftb
16th June 2016, 17:26

Eh good on F1 I say. For once they listened to fan opinion and helped themselves too. Who needs honesty if you can pretend positivity.
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
16th June 2016, 19:25

59 From Sebastian Vettel What the [censored by FOM] is this Manor doing?

I am pretty sure Kimi was the one who said this ? Or am I wrong ?
I don’t remember a manor holding up Vettel during the race.
1. Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
  16th June 2016, 23:52
  
  Rio Haryanto was doing a good job of inadvertently holding up lots of people. I could certainly believe that included both Ferrari drivers – which doesn’t help narrow down the speaker of the message…
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
16th June 2016, 19:30

Also ,

“69th lap Nico goes for it, overtakes Max and yikes he slipped, he has lost control and may crash”

Mclaren ” Yay ! ”

” Oh Nico recovers and keeps going , so lucky not to lose it”

“Boooo”
Night Fury (@toothless)
17th June 2016, 4:01

Is that all?? I talked to my cat during the race more than this

Disappointing really…