2016 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

17th October 2016, 11:5918th October 2016, 9:58 | Written by Keith Collantine

All 22 drivers finished the Japanese Grand Prix but for some of them it had been a frustrating day at the wheel.

Carlos Sainz Jnr had a “horrible race” in his Toro Rosso, frustrated by his car’s lack of power with its 2015 Ferrari hardware. He has been out of the points for the last half-a-dozen races as other teams out-developed Toro Rosso.

Another driver facing disappointment when the chequered flag fell was gRomain Grosjean. Both Haas drivers started inside the top ten but neither of them finished there. Grosjean came close but Esteban Gutierrez finished well behind following a run-in with Sainz.

The other main theme of the race on the radios was the growing frustration drivers had with backmarkers. The Ferrari drivers were particularly vocal on the subject, although as always we only get to heard the messages chosen by Formula One Management.

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2016 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
PR	To Jolyon Palmer	OK Jo so behind you… Medium, Nasr is on hard, both Manor on softs and Button on hard. And in front of you… and Alonso on soft.
PR	From Jolyon Palmer	Copy that.
PR	From Sergio Perez	Rear brakes are really hot.
1	To Pascal Wehrlein	Ignore brake warning Pascal.
3	From Lewis Hamilton	Sorry guys.
3	To Lewis Hamilton	No stress, Lewis.
3	To Lewis Hamilton	So DRS is now enabled, Raikkonen 0.7 ahead. Vettel made it past Perez with ease so maybe Raikkonen will do the same with Hulkenberg.
4	To Daniil Kvyat	Update on tyres and balance when you can.
4	From Daniil Kvyat	All stable at the moment.
6	From Romain Grosjean	He completely pushed me off track braking for turn one.
6	To Romain Grosjean	OK understood we will report it.
7	From Pascal Wehrlein	I can go a lot faster.
7	To Pascal Wehrlein	OK Pascal you are racing Esteban in front, you are racing him.
7	From Jenson Button	At the moment I’m struggling to turn these tyres on.
8	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis this is looking up, some other cars are now struggling on their tyres, you’ve just seen Raikkonen. Remember need to keep these tyres alive as long as possible. Gap’s now 1.2.
8	From Max Verstappen	Starting to struggle a bit more with just general grip.
9	To Sergio Perez	Checo if we can keep with this soft of pace we are clearing Saubers and Renaults from our pit window.
10	From Max Verstappen	OK I’m really starting to struggle also with the left-rear.
10	To Max Verstappen	OK copy Max.
11	To Valtteri Bottas	Is there any more pace in the car? Or is this the max given strategy?
11	From Valtteri Bottas	There is more pace, the car in front is limiting me. Tyres still OK.
12	To Sebastian Vettel	We go to Plan B for prime, box Sebastian.
14	To Romain Grosjean	Excellent. Next is Magnussen. Good job.
14	To Daniil Kvyat	Back to scenario four, battery is low, no overtake Button. Come on, Danny.
15	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate nice job.
16	From Marcus Ericsson	I’ve got some rear deg and it’s helping me with the balance.
16	To Marcus Ericsson	Exactly, exactly. Pace is good like this, deg is flat, so let’s keep it like that.
16	To Nico Hulkenberg	Got Massa ahead holding the group up, he’s a second and a half slower than us.
17	To Daniil Kvyat	Keep looking after…
17	From Daniil Kvyat	Guys I don’t know what to do at the moment.
17	To Daniil Kvyat	Copy. Keep looking after the tyres.
18	From Daniil Kvyat	Guys, it’s getting quite hot here.
19	From Max Verstappen	Understeer a little bit, but also a little bit of oversteer.
20	To Jenson Button	Box this lap Jenson, we’re sure.
20	From Jenson Button	Box, box.
20	To Daniil Kvyat	Scenario four Danny, scenario four. The battery is full for scenario five.
20	From Daniil Kvyat	Yeah but I need to defend? [Censored by FOM] sake.
21	From Fernando Alonso	Aye, aye, aye. I’ve been preparing the overtake in three laps and now there is yellow flag and no DRS. Unbelievable.
21	From Esteban Gutierrez	What the hell was he doing?
21	To Esteban Gutierrez	What happened? We’ll report it.
21	From Esteban Gutierrez	He blocked me completely.
21	To Esteban Gutierrez	OK, understood.
21	From Nico Hulkenberg	Hulkenberg passed Bottas. See you later.
23	To Jolyon Palmer	OK Jo we need to be careful turn one, defending from Grosjean, only one change of position, please.
23	From Jolyon Palmer	OK.
23	From Romain Grosjean	Oh, happened again.
23	To Romain Grosjean	We’re shouting to him, dude, we’re shouting it.
24	From Jenson Button	Is Nasr holding the queue up?
24	To Jenson Button	Yes, at the moment Nasr is holding the queue up.
24	From Max Verstappen	Starting to lose the rear a little bit on traction.
24	To Max Verstappen	OK copy Max. Still a few laps left to go in this stint, mate. Keep it under controls. Just keep on top of your tools, Max.
26	From Felipe Nasr	I flat-spotted the hard
26	To Felipe Nasr	Understood.
26	To Kimi Raikkonen	Pit opposite Ricciardo.
26	From Kimi Raikkonen	Pit lane. I don’t know if you meant to come in.
26	To Kimi Raikkonen	Yep, good, good.
26	To Max Verstappen	For info Max, Massa has done a 24-lap stint on medium with relatively low deg.
27	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando we need to push now.
27	From Fernando Alonso	With which? With which tyres to push now?
27	To Nico Rosberg	And push hard now.
28	From Max Verstappen	Unbelievable mate, they’re just not moving.
28	To Max Verstappen	I know. I think they’ve been given it… Well, they will be given the instruction, so hopefully you get through both of them in one hit.
29	From Daniel Ricciardo	Wouldn’t go too much longer on these tyres, though, they’re starting to drop off quite a bit.
30	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag, honestly. It’s ridiculous, I mean, it’s ridiculous. Honestly. Lost a second. For nothing. For [censored by FOM] sake.
31	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag, make that Sauber go. Make him go! For pity’s sake make him go. I mean, what do you want to know? Suzuka is a quick track, it’s difficult to pass, you lose behind another car. I mean, it’s ridiculus.
31	To Sebastian Vettel	Copy that Sebastian. Keep your head down, it’s a long race.
31	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK they passed me this is [censored by FOM] horrible. [Censored by FOM].
33	To Lewis Hamilton	This is going to be tight with Raikkonen on exit and we’re racing Vettel so we’re just going to need all you got, mate.
33	To Romain Grosjean	OK good job dude. Our race with the two Williams ahead is at the end, will be at the end when their tyres are dropping off.
33	From Sergio Perez	So why did you give the lap to Nico? Why you box him?
33	To Sergio Perez	Checo because you were safe and we need the tyre life.
36	To Kimi Raikkonen	Update on compound: Everyone is on primes [hards] around you. The only person in front, Seb on quallies [softs]. The rest of the guys are racing on primes.
37	To Jenson Button	Nice work Jenson, great lap, nice work.
38	From Sebastian Vettel	Pulling away, he’s pulling away on the straights.
38	To Sebastian Vettel	Keep your head down, the race is not over.
38	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK Carlos which compound you think is the best for the next, hard or soft?
38	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Do we have to do a lot of overtaking?
38	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Confirm.
38	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	I don’t know, the hard is feeling good but it’s difficult to overtake with this tyre.
38	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood.
39	To Daniel Ricciardo	Hamilton and Vettel just ahead of him are in a tight battle, might get interesting later.
41	To Max Verstappen	We are working on this blue flag situation, mate.
41	From Max Verstappen	Yeah, it’s a joke.
41	To Max Verstappen	Yep.
41	To Esteban Gutierrez	OK now we can…
41	From Esteban Gutierrez	What a [censored by FOM].
41	To Esteban Gutierrez	Come on, get back into the rhythm, we need to try to do our best.
42	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag, I mean it can’t be true, can it?
42	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK so gap to Ricciardo now 11.6 seconds. His last lap in free air was…
42	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah fine but I’m losing so much lap time to [censored by FOM] lapped cars.
42	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood.
43	From Max Verstappen	When did they stop giving the blue flags? They are not listening.
43	To Sebastian Vettel	Verstappen’s lap times 7.1. Hamilton lap time 6.6…
43	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flags. I get them always up the hill. Can’t be true.
43	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag, come on, blue flag.
44	To Max Verstappen	Tyre temps are looking a little bit cold now Max having lost a bit of pace through the blue flags. So start to pick up your pace a bit, that will improve the grip.
44	From Max Verstappen	I’m trying.
44	To Nico Rosberg	So just be aware front tyres are now dropping to the bottom of the window,
46	From Kimi Raikkonen	Come on, move out of the way. They are seriously slowing me down, the lapped cars.
46	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood Kimi unfortunately there are four or five of them I’m afraid.
46	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah when the first one doesn’t pull out of the way it doesn’t help.
46	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood.
46	From Kimi Raikkonen	Come on I’ve been more than half a lap behind them.
46	To Kimi Raikkonen	We’re on it.
46	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK we’ve spoken to Charlie, he’s on the case.
46	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah I mean one lap it took [censored by FOM] one lap to let me past.
47	To Nico Rosberg	So gap to Verstappen still at five seconds. He’s pushing quite hard because he’s got Lewis close behind him, just be aware.
49	From Sebastian Vettel	Blue flag.
49	To Sebastian Vettel	Copy that, he has blue flag.
49	From Sebastian Vettel	Yeah but he doesn’t move. Make him move! [Censored by FOM] sake.
50	From Kimi Raikkonen	Come on ask him to move over. Everybody takes one lap, it’s ridiculous.
50	From Kimi Raikkonen	Come on give him a penalty then. It’s a joke now.
50	To Kimi Raikkonen	Charlie is on it. Charlie is on the case.
50	From Kimi Raikkonen	Come on it’s two laps now. If this is not a penalise [unclear].
50	To Fernando Alonso	We need to let Raikkonen past. Behind him close behind is Sainz and Jenson on 11-lap-old options.
50	From Kimi Raikkonen	Finally they let us past, it only took two laps.
50	To Kimi Raikkonen	Let’s get back in the rhythm. Hopefully Ericsson’s a bit easier. Remember Ricciardo’s got to go through all this as well.
50	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	What a [censored by FOM] nightmare. It’s incredible, we can do nothing.
52	To Romain Grosjean	Let’s go, last chance, blue flag Rosberg.
53	From Lewis Hamilton	Max moved under braking.
VL	To Pascal Wehrlein	OK Pascal not really what we wanted. But your pace on that last stint before the blue falgs particularly was very impressive indeed.
VL	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando that is the chequered flag, P16. It was a very tough race but you fought all the way to the end like a true amurai.
VL	To Jenson Button	So Jenson we finished 18th. It was always going to be tough starting where we did at this circuit. I think you drove well today. And we have a new engine in the car that will see us through the reat of the year. Well done.
VL	From Marcus Ericsson	I think did everything I could there. I think it was a good race. Magnussen undercut us.
VL	To Marcus Ericsson	Exactly. For me that first stop could have been brought a couple of laps earlier because if we’d lost traffic to Ocon…
VL	To Romain Grosjean	Good drive man, sorry you gave it a good go.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	[Censored by FOM] I never had a 11th place that hurt that much. What happened the start was [censored by FOM] but what happened? Honestly, we had the pace to do better. [Censored by FOM] we have bad luck today.
VL	To Romain Grosjean	Yeah man. Palmer made it difficult for us. You did a good drive. Frustrating stuff. You gave it a go at the end, thanks for giving it a go.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	Well that’s my job. Well done everyone. Sorry we couldn’t do better.
VL	To Esteban Gutierrez	Not the race that we wanted but keep chin up, the result will come.
VL	To Esteban Ocon	Good job Esteban. I know we struggled for pace but I think that’s a good race in the end.
VL	To Jolyon Palmer	OK Jo that’s the chequered flag. P12, good race mate, nice battle with Button. Good race mate. Nice battle with Button.
VL	From Jolyon Palmer	Cheers mate. Good race all round I think.
VL	To Jolyon Palmer	Yeah your pace was good.
VL	From Jolyon Palmer	I lost a lot of time with Button, though.
VL	To Jolyon Palmer	Yeah it was difficult but you did well with the battery management.
VL	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Yeah what a waste of a race. What a horrible race. All the time behind cars, incredible. Impossible to overtake. I don’t know.
VL	To Nico Rosberg	Woohoo! So won in the land of the rising sun. Really good job Nico.
VL	From Nico Rosberg	Thanks a lot guys, amazing weekend, and congrats to the win on the constructors’.
VL	From Jenson Button	Yeah, very tough day. Worse than expected, I must say. Didn’t actually feel that bad but obviously it is at moment around here. But Austin’ll be a big improvement. We know it’ll suit us a lot better. Had some fun at least, good overtaking, so that was fun.

Lap: Refers to lap message was broadcast on. There may be a delay between messages being said and being broadcast. PR = pre-race; FL = formation lap; VL = victory lap.
Message: Repetitive or irrelevant messages omitted. Notes in italics. Highlights in bold.

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Keith Collantine

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4 comments on “2016 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
17th October 2016, 14:23

Hulkenberg’s pass on Bottas and his radio comment thereafter is gradually making more sense now.
Three aspects to consider:
1. Force India is quicker than Williams on track and its not just race circumstances that has helped the former.
2. NH can pull off bold passes cleanly which is something perhaps Renault was looking for in their lead driver.
3. VB keeps on being passed now and then.
hollus
17th October 2016, 18:44

…And bolded highlights are back. That’s what I’m talking about!
(Thanks)
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  17th October 2016, 19:33
  
  You’re welcome!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
18th October 2016, 5:27

I’m so relieved that the FIA removed radio message restrictions, and FOM decided to increase the number of messages telecast. Although I’m still conscious that removing blue flag messages will reduce the number of messages by roughly a third! 😁

Comments are closed.