Nico Rosberg didn’t have any “scary pace” and Daniel Ricciardo “would have beaten him” had it not been for the Virtual Safety Car period, the Red Bull driver’s engineer reckoned at the end of the United States Grand Prix.
The VSC period, ironically triggered by Ricciardo’s own team mate, meant Rosberg emerged from the pits in second place instead of third. An unhappy Ricciardo said at the time he would “love to catch that mofo [motherfucker]” – a remark revealed in a later comment from his team principal Christian Horner. “It means he’s a really nice person, one of my best mates,” Ricciardo deadpanned.
Verstappen wasn’t the only driver who had trouble in the pits. Kimi Raikkonen’s race ended when his team failed to attach a wheel properly during his stop. They urged him to let his car roll back into the pits but Raikkonen was concerned about breaking the rules if he did so. As the rules only prohibit reversing in the pits under the car’s own power, he would have been fine, but by the time the team got the message through his car had got too hot and he had to retire.
Their problems allowed Fernando Alonso to grab fifth after barging past an unimpressed Felipe Massa. The pair were separated by Carlos Sainz Jnr who was thrilled with the outcome. Earlier in the race he had successfully urged Toro Rosso to impose team orders on Daniil Kvyat to get him out of the way.
Kvyat’s race was compromised by his first-lap contact with Sergio Perez. The Force India driver was unimpressed with the “idiot that ruined our race”.
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2016 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript
Lap* | Driver | Message |
---|---|---|
PR | To Daniel Ricciardo | For info tail wind is strongest turn two, three, four, five, also braking for eleven strong tail wind. |
1 | From Valtteri Bottas | Puncture, puncture. |
1 | To Valtteri Bottas | Copy, puncture. |
1 | From Nico Hulkenberg | I got big damage at the front. |
1 | To Nico Hulkenberg | The pressures look OK, is there any damage Nico? |
1 | From Nico Hulkenberg | I think it’s the steering or something. I got squeezed in the middle. Can’t turn left, basically. |
2 | From Daniil Kvyat | I had contact. |
2 | From Sebastian Vettel | Check the car, I made contact, somebody hit me, check the pressures. |
2 | To Sebastian Vettel | The car is fine. |
3 | From Felipe Nasr | Is something broke on the rear? Because I’m sliding everywhere. The rear is very loose. |
3 | To Felipe Nasr | Understood Felipe. At the moment looks OK on the data. |
3 | To Nico Hulkenberg | Copy that. Bring it back to the pits if you can. |
4 | From Jenson Button | I think I’ve hit some debris. |
4 | To Jenson Button | Copy. Tyre pressures are OK, Jenson. Aero data looks OK after the debris. Well done on Gutierrez. |
4 | From Sergio Perez | I got hit very hard from behind. |
5 | To Pascal Wehrlein | OK Pascal Esteban is under investigation for forcing another driver off the track. |
5 | From Sergio Perez | Yes from my side OK. |
5 | To Sergio Perez | OK. |
5 | From Sergio Perez | What an idiot, man. What a [censored by FOM] idiot. What he was doing? |
6 | To Max Verstappen | OK Max just an update. Things starting to stabilise in and around you as you can see I’m sure. That was the fastest lap of the race. Other people looking after their tyres but not a disaster at the moment. |
7 | To Fernando Alonso | Fernando for info there are no threats from behind currently but there are cars on the pit gap. |
7 | From Fernando Alonso | Yeah we will try to overtake the Toro Rosso. |
8 | From Valtteri Bottas | Is everything OK, the car? The rear end feels a bit poor. |
8 | To Valtteri Bottas | Yep we do see some very small damage to the rear. Aero balance is a little bit further forwards. But your pace is OK. |
8 | To Daniel Ricciardo | Box, Daniel, box. |
9 | From Daniil Kvyat | I got no brakes into turn 11. Brakes are generally really weak. There’s a lot of sliding everywhere. |
9 | To Jolyon Palmer | OK Jo you can use overtake to try to pass Kevin. |
9 | From Jolyon Palmer | Yep. I’m quicker. |
9 | To Nico Rosberg | OK so we’re going for the long game Nico so push hard now. Ricciardo and Raikkonen both in the pits. |
9 | From Nico Rosberg | Push hard is not the long game. |
10 | To Romain Grosjean | Good job. Allez mon Kiki! [Come on!] |
10 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis go strat mode five and box, box. |
10 | From Nico Rosberg | So box, box, box Nico. |
10 | To Max Verstappen | OK box and pit confirm Max. |
11 | To Sebastian Vettel | Pace is good, keep pushing. |
12 | From Kimi Raikkonen | The grip doesn’t feel very good on this tyre. |
12 | From Fernando Alonso | Behind Renaults, being lapped, what a disaster. |
14 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | Danny needs to let me by. |
14 | To Daniil Kvyat | Next car behind is Carlos, new softs, do not impede Carlos. |
14 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | Carlos, Danny will let you by. |
14 | To Daniil Kvyat | Danny please confirm. Carlos is on new softs, we are on different strategy. Thank you. |
14 | To Nico Rosberg | So situation is you are the only car on medium. So got the long game, it’s going to come back towards us. |
14 | To Sebastian Vettel | And box, Sebastian, box. |
15 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | OK Carlos there is debris on the exit kerb of turn one. Careful there. |
15 | From Max Verstappen | That’s how we do it! |
15 | To Max Verstappen | Nice job, mate. |
17 | To Daniil Kvyat | OK Danny we will have a ten second penalty on the next pit stop for the incident lap one. Keep the head down we need to go as long as possible now and we change the strategy. Keep the head down. |
18 | From Lewis Hamilton | Pace OK? |
18 | To Lewis Hamilton | Pace still good, Lewis. |
20 | To Max Verstappen | Max just make sure that we can complete the stint we need OK, mate. |
20 | From Max Verstappen | I’m not here to finish fourth. |
20 | To Jolyon Palmer | OK Jo you are much faster than Kevin, his pace in 45.5 at the moment, and you in 44.7… |
20 | From Jolyon Palmer | Yeah, I’ve know this the whole race. |
22 | To Jenson Button | Well done Jenson, well done. Just watch the locking on the front-left. |
22 | To Daniil Kvyat | Not much we can do with top speed, Danny. Just keep the head down, OK? |
22 | From Daniil Kvyat | OK. |
22 | To Kevin Magnussen | OK Kev, Jo’s now four-and-a-half seconds behind you, he’s just done a 45.4, we need to pick up the pace if we can. |
22 | From Kevin Magnussen | I’m just a little bit stuck behind the Sauber so take it easy guys. |
22 | To Kevin Magnussen | Understood Kev. |
23 | From Daniil Kvyat | Fourth gear wasn’t coming in. |
23 | To Daniil Kvyat | Understood. |
24 | To Sergio Perez | Checo how is the aero balance? We think there may be some losses at the rear from the damage. |
24 | From Sergio Perez | Yeah I agree. I have no traction at all. But at the same time I have a lot of understeer. |
24 | To Sergio Perez | Copy. |
25 | To Jolyon Palmer | OK Jo nice overtake on Nasr. Go and catch Kevin now he’s a second slower than you. |
26 | To Lewis Hamilton | Lewis you can afford to pick up the pace a little bit, it won’t be long now. |
27 | From Max Verstappen | I’m boxing, I’m boxing, I’m boxing. |
27 | To Max Verstappen | What happened, Max? |
27 | From Max Verstappen | I thought you boxed me, sorry. |
28 | To Sebastian Vettel | Because Verstappen had a [censored by FOM] up, a very long pit stop, so we can come ahead of him and go to the end. |
29 | To Jenson Button | Jenson we’re box this lap, box this lap, everything you’ve got. |
29 | To Sebastian Vettel | Box, Sebastian, box. |
30 | From Max Verstappen | I have an engine failure, I think, or something. |
30 | From Max Verstappen | There’s something hitting the engine. The faster I drive, the harder it hits. |
30 | To Max Verstappen | Can you try to get up the gears or not Max? |
30 | From Max Verstappen | Yeah but something is hitting hard inside the engine. |
31 | To Lewis Hamilton | VSC, keep the delta positive, you are boxing under VSC. |
32 | To Pascal Wehrlein | The car ahead is Nasr, he looks like he could be trying to one-stop and is lapping quite slowly at the moment. |
32 | From Daniel Ricciardo | So they got a free pit stop, basically? |
32 | To Daniel Ricciardo | Yes mate, that is correct. |
32 | From Daniel Ricciardo | That’s so [censored by FOM] up. |
33 | To Felipe Massa | OK so Verstappen’s car’s just being moved out of the way so restart soon. |
33 | From Felipe Massa | They’re just too slow, man. Cannot do that. |
33 | From Felipe Massa | Just lost four seconds! Four seconds! Unbelievable! Look where Alonso is and look where he was. So four seconds. |
34 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK mate you did a good job there. It wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been. You can see Rosberg ahead. Let’s get after him. |
35 | From Jolyon Palmer | Can you not help me out a little bit here? |
36 | From Sergio Perez | Is the wind picking up? |
36 | To Sergio Perez | Yes, Checo, yes. |
36 | To Sebastian Vettel | We have some rear wing drop-outs as you may notice. |
36 | From Sebastian Vettel | Yeah, some! Some is good, keep joking. |
39 | From Kimi Raikkonen | Why there was sparks at the rear? |
39 | To Kimi Raikkonen | K2 is available. |
39 | From Kimi Raikkonen | No, why was there… |
39 | To Kimi Raikkonen | There was a gun still attached as you left. |
39 | From Kimi Raikkonen | OK. |
39 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Stop, stop Kimi. Stop stop stop. |
40 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Sorry Kimi we think the rear’s not attached. |
40 | From Kimi Raikkonen | So what do I do? Switch off or go? |
40 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Can you come back to the pit lane? Roll back into the pit lane? |
40 | From Kimi Raikkonen | What you want that I reverse? I can just slide it down. It’s disallowed? |
40 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Don’t reverse. |
40 | From Kimi Raikkonen | If I let go the brakes it’s going to slide down. |
40 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Just let go of the brakes, Kimi. |
40 | From Kimi Raikkonen | So you want that I switch off? |
40 | To Kimi Raikkonen | You can reverse back. OK we need to switch off. Switch off, Kimi, we’re too hot, I’m sorry. So switch off Kimi, we’re too hot. |
41 | To Daniil Kvyat | We are catching Ericsson nicely. There is still some points on the table if something happens in front. |
44 | To Felipe Massa | We’re going to get him this time so we stay in go charge and use overtake. |
44 | From Daniel Ricciardo | Keep me posted on Rosberg’s times. I would love to catch that [censored by FOM]. |
45 | From Kevin Magnussen | How much better if super-soft at the end? Where would I finish theoretically? |
45 | To Kevin Magnussen | There’s a possibility to finish two positions in front of Ericsson who’s two cars ahead of you now. |
45 | From Kevin Magnussen | OK let’s do that. |
45 | To Kevin Magnussen | OK. |
48 | To Sergio Perez | The group of Sainz, Massa and Alonso are fighting ahead. |
49 | To Romain Grosjean | They have a system problem with the blue flag so when Ricciardo’s close enough let him through. That’s blue flag now, blue flag for Ricciardo. Perfect dude, thank you. |
50 | To Jenson Button | Jenson blue flags Rosberg is the car behind. |
50 | From Jenson Button | Yeah he just locked up and ran wide, so dropped back. |
53 | From Fernando Alonso | [Censored by FOM] Felipe closed me on the door. I was already alongside him. |
53 | To Fernando Alonso | Any car damage? |
53 | From Fernando Alonso | I don’t know but [censored by FOM] you cannot close the door there that easy with half a car in front of you. |
53 | To Fernando Alonso | Understood. Let’s go and get Sainz. |
54 | To Daniil Kvyat | Vettel exiting the pit lane now. If you can get in front Magnussen will get blue flag. |
54 | From Felipe Massa | He just pushed me out. |
54 | To Felipe Massa | We’re talking to the FIA. Let’s get right back on him. |
54 | To Felipe Massa | OK Felipe so they’re going to investigate Alonso at the end of the race so we need to stay within five seconds of him. |
55 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | Yeah my tyres are finished. |
55 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | Hold on, hold on. |
55 | To Felipe Massa | OK Felipe we’ve got a front-left puncture. |
55 | From Felipe Massa | Is it the last lap or not? |
55 | To Felipe Massa | No, box this lap. |
56 | From Fernando Alonso | Yee-ha! |
VL | To Fernando Alonso | OK Fernando that is the chequered flag. Fantastic drive. P5. Awesome. |
VL | From Fernando Alonso | Nice. Nice race, guys. Fight until the end like you saw. Good points. |
VL | To Fernando Alonso | Yep great work well done. Did Will shake your hand or not? I can’t remember. |
VL | From Fernando Alonso | Ah, yeah. Many times. So now we can get back to normal. Not shaking and shaking. Nice races now. |
VL | To Fernando Alonso | Great. Nice work. |
VL | To Jenson Button | Jenson that’s P9 well done you’ve made up ten places today, good result. |
VL | From Jenson Button | Good job guys looks like a good haul of points. Obviously didn’t have the outright pace but not too bad especially the first couple of laps. A lot of fun. |
VL | To Jenson Button | Yeah Jenson first couple of laps were mega. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | Chequered flag. 100th race back in the points, awesome dude. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | Well done Romain. Fantastic. We got a point. |
VL | To Lewis Hamilton | Get in there, mate! What a drive. Really well managed. Awesome result, Lewis. |
VL | To Lewis Hamilton | Perfect drive, Lewis. Really well controlled, fantastic. |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | Hard luck with the penalty. You’ve done a very good job today, anyway. |
VL | From Daniil Kvyat | Yeah sorry about the penalty. We review it of course but nothing can do. |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | The gap to Magnussen is 4.3 seconds, let’s see what happens after the race. |
VL | From Daniil Kvyat | Well he has to get a penalty, come on. Otherwise everyone can overtake off the track, Charlie, come on man. |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | Copy Danny. We will review it later. |
VL | To Kevin Magnussen | OK Kev so nice job. Currently P11 there’s an investigation possibly for the overtake with Kvyat. But nice job in the end and where we’re coming from qualifying yesterday. |
VL | From Kevin Magnussen | Well done everyone in the garage, really good job. |
VL | To Felipe Massa | Well we’ve been incredibly unlucky there. We were so much quicker than them. |
VL | From Felipe Massa | Unbelievable. |
VL | To Felipe Massa | It’s a real shame. |
VL | To Felipe Nasr | So Felipe P15 at the end. Good race from you, good job. |
VL | From Sergio Perez | Yeah sorry there with this idiot that ruined our race. I don’t know what he was trying to do and I think we had quite poor damage. It was very difficult, especially the last stint, the ride of the car was very poor. |
VL | From Daniel Ricciardo | Cheers guys. Not the most exciting but it’s a podium. Thank you. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | So we were obviously unfortunate with the VSC. It was due to Verstappen had a gearbox problem obviously and retired. So Rosberg basically would have been five seconds behind us at our pit stop but he got a free ten seconds, came out five seconds in front of us. I think you would have and should have beaten him. I don’t think he had any scary pace, you did a good job today mate. |
VL | From Daniel Ricciardo | Yeah I don’t doubt it. Frustrating but what do you do? It sucks. Alright. Thanks anyways, guys. Appreciate it. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | Well done Daniel it was a good drive. I think Rosberg on a normal strategy would probably have put the softs on as well because he run that [medium] in the middle [stint]. And they did play out your nice message on the live feed so commentators trying to work out what a ‘mofo’ is. |
VL | From Daniel Ricciardo | It means he’s a really nice person, one of my best mates. |
VL | To Nico Rosberg | Nice recovery there Nico, nice recovery. |
VL | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | Haha! P6 Carlos! P6! Well done, awesome race. I liked it. Good, really good job. Awesome last stint. |
VL | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | Thank you. Yeah I think that was the maximum guys. Good job everyone, we deserve to be back. |
VL | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | I think this was one of the best races you’ve done with us. Well done Carlos. |
VL | To Sebastian Vettel | P4, Sebastian. P4. Well done, good drive. |
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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United States Grand Prix data
2016 United States Grand Prix
- Alonso beats Sainz to Driver of the Weekend win
- Virtual Safety Car blamed for US GP anti-climax
- 2016 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 United States Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 United States Grand Prix
Team radio transcripts
- ‘You’re the effective leader’: Full radio from Piastri and Verstappen’s Jeddah tussle
- “Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues
- “What the hell have you done?” Leclerc shocked by his DRS opening at turn 12
- “Oh my God that was difficult”: Full radio from Verstappen’s luckless Bahrain GP
- “I’d really like info where I’m slow”: Hamilton’s struggles with his car at Suzuka
Tristan
26th October 2016, 16:27
-Daniil Kvyat
Gotta actually agree with Kvyat there. Really strange decisions by FIA to all of a sudden just allow everybody running off the track all over the place, including overtaking. If this is the rule, then make it the rule… If not, then follow the rules. Just makes F1 a joke of a competition, especially for those who are supposed to be the best in the world, and showing the rest of the world (especially those in junior formula’s) how it’s supposed to be done.
There’s no argument to be made that this regulation wasn’t breached an inordinate amount throughout the weekend. Where is the consistency? Furthermore where is the media pressure regarding this?
kpcart
26th October 2016, 17:06
Agreed
Thomas
26th October 2016, 19:11
Wasnt he referring to Magnussen passing him? Magnussen -was- subsequently penalized (even if, having only seen it once, I think Kyvat made defensive motions that made Magnussen take evasive manouver). But I’d agree that the rules are not always consistently enforced, and that this is a source of frustration about F1.
peejay
26th October 2016, 18:28
I generally agree. However penalizing Magnussen for driving in the same place as everybody else, is not right.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
26th October 2016, 18:43
Came for the Ferrari pit stop entertainment (pronounced shambles), was not disappointed.
Priceless! 😂
Boomerang
27th October 2016, 5:44
Ricci rocks! ;-)
AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
26th October 2016, 21:35
this “mofo” comment suits Danny’s redneck style lol.