2016 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript

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For the first time since the restrictions on team radio broadcasts were lifted at the German Grand Prix there was an appreciable increase in a number of messages being broadcast to fans during the Italian round.

In Hungary fans heard just 18% as much communication as they had at the same race 12 months previously, while in Italy that figure rose to 45%. This is still less than half as many messages as were played last year – over 100 fewer in real terms – but it’s a step in the right direction.

Some of that may be put down to the fact it was a very uneventful race and one which involved little variation in terms of strategy. However it’s clear from some of what was broadcast that teams were listening in on each other: Note Williams’ message to Valtteri Bottas telling him Daniel Ricciardo had been “told to do the opposite to us”.

Fernando Alonso’s trials at McLaren provided some of the most revealing moments. In particular, his amusement at how desperate their situation became following the traffic light failure which cost him time in the pits and his unusual decision to make a late-race bid for fastest lap.

Here’s what was broadcast by FOM during the Italian Grand Prix.

2016 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
6	To Lewis Hamilton	So look for debris this area, look for debris. Left-hand side. So remember Lewis the three cars ahead are on super-soft tyres, they’ll be quick for a few laps then degrade. So just keep an eye on debris, cars are losing bits all round the track.
6	From Kimi Raikkonen	I have quite a big vibration under braking.
7	From Felipe Nasr	The handling feels funny, like I have something broke.
7	To Felipe Nasr	Copy, we’re checking the data now.
7	From Felipe Nasr	Ah the car is undrivable. It’s like I have no rear support.
7	To Felipe Nasr	Stay calm, Felipe, we’re checking the data.
7	From Felipe Nasr	The car is undrivable, guys.
7	To Kimi Raikkonen	And we still need you to cool the engine, I’ll let you know when we’re OK.
7	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah but I can’t slow down, I’ll lose the tow.
7	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood Kimi, we just want you to do half a car that’s all, half a car width different.
8	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis you’re doing a good job managing these tyres. Just keep looking after and avoid the locks. Just need to be in good shape, five laps’ time.
9	To Jolyon Palmer	OK Jo we will retire the car, I’m afraid.
9	From Jolyon Palmer	Yes.
9	To Max Verstappen	Give an idea of the balance when you can.
9	From Max Verstappen	I’m starting to struggle a bit low-speed. Throughout the whole corner losing a little bit the rear.
10	To Marcus Ericsson	How’s it going with the tyres, Marcus?
10	From Marcus Ericsson	Still OK. I think it’s possible. I have understeer in Lesmos. Otherwise rear-limited.
10	To Marcus Ericsson	OK, very good.
10	To Lewis Hamilton	Just make sure you keep these tyres in good shape. We can still get you up behind Nico with strategy.
11	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel so pick up the pace if you can. Bottas is going to drop back, here, he’s going to lose position. See if you can close up on Bottas.
11	From Daniel Ricciardo	Yep, I’ll do what I can.
12	From Lewis Hamilton	Rears are pretty wasted already.
12	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK it’s not going to be long now Kimi. If we can just get a bit more pace we can get a better emerge.
13	From Lewis Hamilton	Don’t worry about the start, it was my fault.
14	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis so looks like other cars may be going for the two-stop. So we’re going to stick with plan A. Currently lap 14. And bite point six.
14	To Lewis Hamilton	Start picking up the pace as much as you can, three laps.
18	From Fernando Alonso	Yeah the traffic light didn’t work, man. The [censored by FOM] traffic light. [Censored by FOM] hell.
19	To Felipe Nasr	We will retire the car now. Remember switch-off procedure.
20	From Lewis Hamilton	Tyres are still good.
20	To Lewis Hamilton	OK, copy, good information. We’ll go target plus two, then.
20	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK so Hamilton is still out, he’s obviously very close to us on our emerge. He’s not emerging on us at the minute, so Hamilton is still out trying to get the emerge.
23	To Esteban Gutierrez	You are much quicker than Ocon in front of you, come on.
24	To Nico Rosberg	Two more laps after this one, just let us know.
24	From Nico Rosberg	I can do it, just check the lap times.
26	To Lewis Hamilton	Brake balance for turn one, 55. We’re going to come out behind the Ferraris, they’re on another super-soft tyre so they’re going to stop again. You just need to match their times.
26	From Lewis Hamilton	What tyre are they on?
26	To Lewis Hamilton	Both Ferraris have taken super-soft again, so they have to stop once more.
27	From Jenson Button	What sort of times is Fernando doing?
27	To Jenson Button	Fernando last lap 1’28.5.
27	To Sebastian Vettel	These are important laps, keep your head down.
27	To Max Verstappen	OK Max front wing update please mate.
27	From Max Verstappen	Balance of the car is not bad. I wouldn’t really change anything.
27	To Max Verstappen	Understood.
28	To Pascal Wehrlein	OK Pascal we need to stop the car please, stop the car where safe to do so, stop the car and switch off. We have a problem, we need to stop the car and switch off.
28	From Pascal Wehrlein	No! I need to stop immediately?
28	To Pascal Wehrlein	Stop immediately, stop the car and switch off, please.
29	To Nico Rosberg	So Nico just remember try and get through this traffic as well as you can, as quickly as you can.
29	From Nico Rosberg	Lewis is pushing quite hard at the moment.
32	From Esteban Ocon	Well you see how much I lose. I’m not losing too much time yet, we can keep going. But the rears are gone for sure.
33	To Valtteri Bottas	Ricciardo stayed out, he was told to do the opposite to us. So it’s going to be essential to get past Hulkenberg and then we’ve beaten Ricciardo.
34	To Fernando Alonso	Do you still prefer plan A?
34	From Fernando Alonso	Well I don’t know what you mean. We have blisters with these tyres, managing with the other one. The real question is to go to between plan B and plan C.
35	To Nico Rosberg	Gap to Lewis behind has stabilised to 10.5 seconds after traffic. Lewis running a couple of tenths slower than you at the moment.
36	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate we need good, clean laps now.
38	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel we’re going to go supers for the next stint, it’s going to be same length as stint one.
38	To Jenson Button	Jenson, cars on your pit window are about to be lapped by Rosberg and lose time. We need to stay out because they will lose time. Your pace is good. Keep going.
40	To Romain Grosjean	Very good laps. So next car behind is Rosberg, the leader, you’ll have him for blue in one or two laps.
40	From Nico Hulkenberg	Do you think I can push from now, all the way?
40	To Nico Hulkenberg	Yes, push from now, all the way.
41	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so you’re one second quicker than Bottas that lap. Good job. Let’s have him.
41	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis you are not in your Safety Car window.
42	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis you know but just be careful with the lock-ups.
42	To Max Verstappen	Really good pace at the minute, Max. Try and keep it up.
43	To Max Verstappen	Max, make sure you keep a car width away from the left-hand side track edge on the main straight. A lot of marbles on the left-hand side of the straight, mate.
44	To Valtteri Bottas	So Ricciardo is slowly catching us however he’s got double the deg that we have on his quali tyre so we’re looking good.
46	To Marcus Ericsson	Let’s push, Marcus, we’ve got eight laps to go. The position is safe so let’s push on the tyre.
47	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel so battery is full. Use it when you can. Let’s do him.
48	To Daniel Ricciardo	Nice job mate. Excellent job.
48	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando let’s keep the pace going strong until the end. Grosjean is still out there on 18-lap-old options, he may come towards us.
48	From Fernando Alonso	Ha, ha, ha!
49	To Max Verstappen	Nice job mate.
50	To Fernando Alonso	Fernando, three laps to go after this one. We’re happy to make the stop if you wish.
50	From Fernando Alonso	Box.
52	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so even with that traffic you’re still quicker than Bottas. Gap still 2.2 seconds and there’s three laps to go.
52	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK, understood.
VL	To Nico Rosberg	A little name confusion at Mercedes. Woo! Excellent job, good job on that first stint Nicola. Just area under the curve, brilliant job.
VL	From Nico Rosberg	Thank you very much, Thomas, thank you very much. Awesome guys thank you very much. Great to win here in Italy.
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	P3, Sebastian. Solid drive and enjoy the podium, well done.
VL	From Sebastian Vettel	In Italian: Thanks boys, thanks everyone. It was the maximum.
VL	To Daniel Ricciardo	I know you like coming from a long way back but that might be a new record.
VL	From Daniel Ricciardo	That was good fun. Cheers guys.
VL	From Sebastian Vettel	I couldn’t perform the optimum at the start because I had [cut off].

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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2016 Italian Grand Prix

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12 comments on “2016 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Sravan Krishnan (@sravan-pe)
13th September 2016, 12:13

“Ha, ha, ha!”

Gotta love Alonso!

ColdFly F1 (@)
13th September 2016, 13:35

Or
34 To Fernando Alonso: Do you still prefer plan A?
34 From Fernando Alonso : Well I don’t know what you mean.
and then opting for plan C (during race day I though he just made that one up.)

maarten.f1 (@)
13th September 2016, 12:15

So the real question here is, who’s Nicola??

Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
13th September 2016, 12:50

Well as I remember he didn’t like Webber calling him Britney. Hopefully he’s happier with Nicola ;)

AndrewW
13th September 2016, 13:55

Would have been useful to have the HAM exchange around his botched start…

Philip (@philipgb)
13th September 2016, 15:00

Talent or not I wouldn’t want to work with Alonso. I know we at home find his snipey comments amusing but could you imagine having a colleague that constantly made very public demoralising comments?

The McLaren radio comment about Grosjean coming towards them was highly optimistic, but things happen in races. Cars have reliability problems, back markers hold drivers up and tyres drop off a cliff. Laughing in the face of someone like that is obnoxious and unprofessional.

Again great tv and it brought a smile to my face, but this isn’t keeping up with the Cardassians or what ever and the man just lacks class.

Patrickl (@patrickl)
13th September 2016, 17:10

At least he stopped complaining about his “GP2 engine aaaaargh”.
Olivier
13th September 2016, 19:33

I’ve always thought that the comedian is actually his engineer and Alonso is just following his lead
milkboy
13th September 2016, 20:10

The thing is, he is a position where he can get away with it. Mclaren have always been seen as the most strict with regards to following the company line and not stepping out. They used to forbid their drivers to wear beards. Alonso is now in a position where he knows he is better than the car. He is going to retire soon anyway, so does not need to worry about burning bridges. And finally, if they want to get rid of him, they would have to pay him a tidy sum. So withing measures, he can get away with these comments. His engineer knows what is up and probably at times is as frustrated as him, but he is not in a position to voice it. I doubt he has any complaints.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th September 2016, 20:47

@philipgb Similar things get said from time to time about other drivers when they’v got a bit heated on the radio, I doubt the teams care in the slightest as long as they’re getting the job done at the wheel.