Lewis Hamilton’s Spanish Grand Prix victory owed a lot to the strategic calls which played out on the radio as well as a well-timed pit stop during a Virtual Safety Car period.
Here’s what the drivers and their teams had to say during the Spanish Grand Prix.
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2017 Spanish Grand Prix team radio transcript
Lap* | Driver | Message |
---|---|---|
PR | To Daniil Kvyat | All OK for temperatures, Danny. |
PR | From Lewis Hamilton | Ricky I need some info on wind direction because it’s in different places. |
PR | To Lewis Hamilton | Confirm it’s quite strong, looks tailwind into nine most of the time. |
2 | From Felipe Massa | I touched my corner, I don’t know if I have a problem. I think I have a problem. Puncture. |
2 | To Felipe Massa | OK, copy that, box. |
2 | To Max Verstappen | Checking the tyres mate at the moment. I will keep you posted. |
2 | From Max Verstappen | It’s the suspension. |
2 | To Max Verstappen | OK if you have suspension damage then… Can you bring it home Max? |
2 | From Max Verstappen | Yep. |
4 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | Pace is good Stoff you’re matching Magnussen, he’s P8. |
4 | From Nico Hulkenberg | I think I could go faster but the dirty air is crazy. |
6 | From Kimi Raikkonen | OK somebody hit me from the rear and I broke steering. |
7 | From Lewis Hamilton | It’s not easy to keep up with him. |
7 | From Lewis Hamilton | Tag two right now. |
7 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK, copy. |
7 | From Lewis Hamilton | It’s not easy to keep up with him, though. |
8 | To Fernando Alonso | Fernando, how much do you think you are being held up? |
8 | From Fernando Alonso | Yeah, a lot. |
9 | To Valtteri Bottas | So Valtteri, the most important thing at the moment is if we can pick the pace up. |
10 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis you are target minus five. Current lap: nine. |
10 | To Jolyon Palmer | Try to pick up the pace a bit Jo if you can. |
10 | From Jolyon Palmer | I’m pushing. |
12 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis this is a critical time of the race, give it everything you’ve got. I know you’re pushing hard. |
12 | From Lewis Hamilton | Leave me to it, Bono. |
12 | To Sebastian Vettel | Hamilton has been told to push at the limit. |
13 | To Kevin Magnussen | Come on you’re doing a very good job so far. |
13 | To Lewis Hamilton | Give us a balance check when you can. |
13 | From Lewis Hamilton | OK. |
14 | From Lewis Hamilton | What’s going on guys? |
14 | To Lewis Hamilton | We’re just keeping an eye on our pit wondow. Just keep doing what you’re doing, need that gap as small as possible, you’re doing a great job. |
15 | To Fernando Alonso | And 100% pace. |
15 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | He pushed me off. |
15 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | We have seen it. He pushed you. |
16 | To Sebastian Vettel | Very good lap, keep your head down. |
16 | To Lewis Hamilton | This is the opportunity Lewis, give it everything you’ve got. |
17 | To Kevin Magnussen | We saw what happened in the garage. We have reported to the stewards. Give us more details Kevin. |
17 | From Kevin Magnussen | He just went on the grass. He’s crazy. He could have taken us both out. |
17 | To Kevin Magnussen | Yeah understood calm down, calm down, please calm down. We are reporting to the stewards. We saw everything. It’s pretty clear. |
18 | From Nico Hulkenberg | What kind of strategy are we on now? A? |
18 | To Nico Hulkenberg | Plan A, still plan A. |
19 | From Lewis Hamilton | Can give it more if you need, but… |
19 | To | Surely this is not a good time. |
19 | To Lewis Hamilton | We are creating opportunities later in the race, Lewis. |
20 | From Lewis Hamilton | The rears are loose, for sure. Possibly coming back a little bit but rears are the weak point, fronts are OK. |
20 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK, copy, thanks for the info. |
21 | To Valtteri Bottas | So currently thinking target plus eight. |
21 | From Valtteri Bottas | Yeah I can do plus eight but it’s going to be really slow. Front-left is going. |
21 | To Valtteri Bottas | Copy the message. |
21 | To Sebastian Vettel | Hamilton lap time 26.4. Reporting his rear tyres are going off a little bit. |
22 | To Daniel Ricciardo | Let’s get stuck into this set. |
23 | From Lewis Hamilton | How far ahead is Vettel? |
23 | To Lewis Hamilton | Vettel currently seven-and-a-half seconds ahead. We’re on the medium tyre, we’re going to have opportunities at the end. |
24 | From Lewis Hamilton | Is this a longish or short stint? Let me know. |
24 | To Lewis Hamilton | This is a long stint, we’re going to be target plus 15. Valtteri has stayed out, Vettel tucked up behind him at the minute. |
27 | To Sebastian Vettel | Very good lap, keep it there, keep your head down. |
27 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | Good lap, Stoff, good lap. |
27 | From Lewis Hamilton | What time did he do, Vettel last. |
27 | From Lewis Hamilton | Do I need to hold on to him? |
27 | To Lewis Hamilton | Yep you should be able to match his pace and then tyre deg will help you close in. |
27 | From Lewis Hamilton | Understood. |
28 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | How is the tyre? Is this pace sustainable? |
28 | From Stoffel Vandoorne | It’s OK. The rears are going away but we have tyo see. I’ll try my best. |
30 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK for info starting to get more tailwind now now heading into turn four. |
30 | From Daniel Ricciardo | Thanks for the heads-up on the wind. |
31 | From Nico Hulkenberg | The Sauber will be a problem. |
31 | To Nico Hulkenberg | Yep we need to pass that car. |
31 | To Lewis Hamilton | So need to be matching Vettel’s time and then we need to be closing the gap. |
31 | From Lewis Hamilton | How am I going to close the gap with this tyre, guys? |
32 | To Lewis Hamilton | Vettel will be on the medium at the end of the race so you’ll be inverted on tyres. Just do what you can. |
32 | From Lewis Hamilton | I’m trying, man. |
33 | To Lewis Hamilton | 25.5, he’s coming up on five backmarkers. |
34 | From Lewis Hamilton | Hey man these guys need to be careful. Guys let me past in a safe place. |
34 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK copy. |
34 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis if you cancel the RS magic we’ll use it later in the race. |
35 | From Felipe Massa | Well unbelievable he pulled the car over on me man. That’s crazy. |
35 | To Felipe Massa | Yep understood. Everything OK with the car? |
35 | From Felipe Massa | I don’t know. Felt a bit strange. |
35 | From Stoffel Vandoorne | I crashed with Massa. Sorry. |
35 | From Daniil Kvyat | Yeah it’s way too slow the Safety Car. |
38 | To Nico Hulkenberg | OK you pulled one second on the cars behind, there, good job. |
38 | From Lewis Hamilton | That was dangerous. |
38 | From Lewis Hamilton | I was more than half alongside him, he pushed me wide. |
39 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK Daniel it’s yellow turn five and six, Bottas has stopped on track. He is on the track sideways. Caution turn six. |
40 | To Fernando Alonso | Nice lap, keep the pace up. |
41 | From Valtteri Bottas | I’m out of power. |
41 | To Valtteri Bottas | So stop, stop, stop. |
42 | To Sergio Perez | Last lap Esteban three-tenths quicker. He’s eight second behind, in free air. |
42 | To Lewis Hamilton | Still good for overtake. |
42 | From Lewis Hamilton | Leave me to it, Bono, please. |
42 | To Lewis Hamilton | Copy. |
43 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | OK Carlos try your best to overtake Wehrlein. |
43 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | OK leave me along now. |
44 | From Sebastian Vettel | No chance. Like a train. |
44 | To Sebastian Vettel | Don’t give up. He will struggle with the tyres. |
44 | To Lewis Hamilton | Nice work, Lewis. Get in there. |
46 | From Lewis Hamilton | I’ve got to get a certain distance away from him because he’s going to be quicker at the end. |
46 | To Lewis Hamilton | Go up on the diff, just think about looking after… |
46 | From Lewis Hamilton | It’s a long way to go on this tyre guys. I need some advice, do I pull the gap or do I cool down. The rear’s already oveheating. |
47 | To Sebastian Vettel | His rear tyres are overheating, |
47 | From Sebastian Vettel | That could have happened a few laps ago when he was behind me. |
47 | To Sebastian Vettel | Understood. Keep your head down, Sebastian. |
47 | To Fernando Alonso | This is good pace, let’s keep closing up on Ericsson. |
48 | From Lewis Hamilton | It’s not easy to pull away from him. |
50 | To Fernando Alonso | Option and prime are closer in pace than expected. So we think Plan A still. |
50 | From Fernando Alonso | If I have blue flags soon maybe we can take benefit. |
50 | To Pascal Wehrlein | Pascal we got a five second penalty. The gap 3.7 seconds so we have to push to stay ahead of Magnussen. |
50 | To Kevin Magnussen | Tell us about car balance. What can we do to go quicker? |
50 | From Kevin Magnussen | Just let me drive. |
51 | To Sebastian Vettel | How about switching to Plan C? |
51 | From Sebastian Vettel | Well, I don’t know. His tyres, doesn’t look like he’s pushing all out. But I guess there’s nothing more to do. |
53 | From Jolyon Palmer | Yeah rear tyre overheating. Stuck behing Perez. |
53 | From Lewis Hamilton | Which sectors look weak for me? |
53 | To Lewis Hamilton | It’s middle sector, a tenth off. |
54 | To Lewis Hamilton | Good job, keep building that gap. OK that’s a good target lap time. Gap now 2.7. |
54 | From Lewis Hamilton | What’s your thinking? |
54 | To Lewis Hamilton | Two backmarkers ahead, we need to get through the quickly. We think Vettel might go for a three-stop so we need the gap to protect against it. |
55 | To Daniil Kvyat | OK Wehrlein still have five seconds penalty. Now they have opened the gap, we are above. We need to close the gap. |
55 | From Daniil Kvyat | OK, leave me alone now. |
55 | To Romain Grosjean | You’re half second quicker than him first sector, we’re still struggling in the third sector. |
55 | From Romain Grosjean | OK mate at the moment it’s the best I can do. |
55 | To Romain Grosjean | OK dude understood. |
57 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis we need to keep this gap. This prevents Vettel from converting to three-stop, we can get to the end. |
59 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | Yeah as soon as I push one lap the tyres go away. |
59 | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | I have less power now. |
59 | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | Carlos we are on it. |
61 | From Sebastian Vettel | Why does it have to be Massa all the time? |
61 | From Felipe Massa | I think he must be afraid of me, man. |
61 | To Fernando Alonso | Nice work, let’s keep the pace up until the end |
63 | To Nico Hulkenberg | Scenario two please Nico. |
63 | From Nico Hulkenberg | Really? It’s not the right time now. |
65 | To Daniil Kvyat | Potential puncture for Magnussen. |
65 | From Daniil Kvyat | Yes. |
65 | To Daniil Kvyat | OK, bring it home. |
VL | To Lewis Hamilton | Get in there, Lewis. What a race mate. That was an awesome drive. |
VL | From Lewis Hamilton | Guys, what can I say, fantastic job this weekend. Thanks you so much. Strategy was on point, pit stops, just all weekend. Really appreciate all the hard work, and back at the factory. |
VL | To Lewis Hamilton | Thanks Lewis, awesome drive today mate, really good moves. |
VL | To Sebastian Vettel | And P2 Sebastian. Strong race. |
VL | From Sebastian Vettel | Grazie a tutti. Thanks. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | Nice job mate that’s P3. Good driving today. |
VL | From Daniel Ricciardo | Thanks guys. Honey badger will take what he can get. Cheers. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | Well done mate. Looked a bit lonely out there. Hopefully we’ll see more of the opposition in the coming races. Well done. |
VL | To Sergio Perez | Well doen Checo great job. P4 and P5, well done. Take the pick-up. |
VL | From Sergio Perez | Good job guys. It’s been a hard weekend but good job, awesome job. |
VL | To Esteban Ocon | Well done guys. Awesome. Really good job for us. Congrats. |
VL | From Esteban Ocon | Well done Esteban. P5. Good job mate. |
VL | To Nico Hulkenberg | Well done Nico, excellent job, well done mate. |
VL | To Carlos Sainz Jnr | Good job Carlos, P7. |
VL | From Carlos Sainz Jnr | Yeah we took our chances there. Good job. Great job on the second one so congratulations for the mechanics. I have a surprise for you: [Speaks in Italian]. |
VL | To Pascal Wehrlein | P8 at the end Pascal. Great race. Super. |
VL | From Pascal Wehrlein | Good job. This was [unclear] with the car. Thank you very much. Perect strategy. Woohoo! |
VL | To Pascal Wehrlein | Only talk to us when it’s important! Great race. |
VL | From Pascal Wehrlein | Just a shame about the pit stop but I was too late. I expected already something. |
VL | To Pascal Wehrlein | Yep no problem. Was a good job to beat Magnussen and the group behind. |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | Very good job, I’m very happy about that point. |
VL | From Daniil Kvyat | It’s two points, no? |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | Yeah it is. |
VL | From Daniil Kvyat | Thanks man, I am proud of you. |
VL | To Daniil Kvyat | Yep very good. I’m really happy. So the gap unfortunately was a bit too at the end. Wehrlein pushed at the end and opened the gap up. Never mind. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | So P10, good job getting to the end. |
VL | From Romain Grosjean | Good job everyone, good point. Difficult on the last set. Keep working, good job. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | Good job. |
VL | To Marcus Ericsson | P11. The brake issue we’ll have to investigate. |
VL | From Marcus Ericsson | Well done. Congratulations for the point. |
VL | To Marcus Ericsson | Thank you. Good team result. |
VL | From Felipe Massa | Yeah OK. Very unfortunate, guys. So not so much to say. Again we lost a lot of points. |
VL | To Felipe Massa | Yeah we did. Given what happened to the cars in front, absoutely no reason why we couldn’t have finished fourth today. But on to Monaco. A whole different challenge. |
VL | To Jolyon Palmer | That’s the chequered flag. You finished in P15. Difficult race. |
VL | From Jolyon Palmer | Yeah. I don’t get it. |
VL | To Lance Stroll | OK so another finish. A tough race, unfortunate at the end there. But another finish. Well done. |
VL | From Lance Stroll | The medium was not working I just couldn’t push. I don’t know why. The whole race I had no grip. |
VL | To Lance Stroll | There was a group of five or six cars, Wehrlein, Kvyat, Grosjean ahead. During that stint on the medium we were gaining on them three or four tenths, then levelled out. It was pretty even |
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.
NB. Only messages heard during the race broadcast are included. Due to a technical problem some messages may have been omitted.
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Spanish Grand Prix data
2017 Spanish Grand Prix
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Wehrlein
- Tense Spanish Grand Prix gets solid rating
- 2017 Spanish GP team radio transcript
- 2017 Spanish Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- 2017 Spanish Grand Prix team radio highlights: Race
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- “If you can pass Max safely, take it”: Unheard radio from title rivals’ latest fight
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sato113 (@sato113)
19th May 2017, 12:59
I never got the whole ‘lewis had a perfectly timed pitstop during the VSC’. On TV the VSC ended as he got to the end of the pit lane entrance. So the effect must have been negligible.
IJW (@)
19th May 2017, 13:18
@sato113 Actually the message on the screen stated that the VSC was ending as Hamilton was entering his pit box. There is a random (up to 15 seconds?) delay from when the message says “VSC ending” to when it actually ends. I suspect that the VSC actually came to an end just when Hamilton was out of the pit box and running towards the pit lane exit.
Vishy
19th May 2017, 23:42
If you look at the TV when the VSC is on there is a yellow indicator. You will notice that it does indeed end just before he reaches his pit box. So he did not gain much advantage.
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
19th May 2017, 14:34
He was 7.5 seconds behind Vettel during the VSC. When Vettel came out of the pits 1 lap after VSC ended, they were side by side. I wouldn’t call that “negligible”.
Oversteer (@oversteer)
19th May 2017, 15:39
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/19387487/spanish-gp-fight-triumph-formula-one-2017-rule-change
I think that the VSC had an effect, maybe 3-4 secs (still not negligible but not enough to decide the race), but the rest was down to a incredible out lap, one which I think was crucial in Hamilton winning the race.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
19th May 2017, 13:01
Leave me to it, Bono.
I loved how Lewis replied to Bono, priceless.
What can we say about Jolyon really, it feels like he is driving an F2 car in an F1 field, this guy should really improve if he is to stay in F1.
lucifer (@lucifer)
19th May 2017, 18:48
and he still says please
Fran
19th May 2017, 13:59
I think it’s time to get rid of radio communication and let the drivers use their own abilities.
Martin
19th May 2017, 16:53
Oh god not this again.
Fran
20th May 2017, 16:41
Yes Martin
Excuse me :D (@square-route)
23rd May 2017, 7:33
No Fran
Oxnard (@montalvo)
19th May 2017, 14:15
I’m missing Stroll’s transcript; “gasp, puff, gasp”
Gabriel (@rethla)
19th May 2017, 17:23
Thats Hamilton
Oxnard (@montalvo)
19th May 2017, 19:09
Nah, thats: “huh, waz, wha? This visor is really dark, fell asleep on the straight”.
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
19th May 2017, 15:11
Does that mean that Mercedes were intending to pit Hamilton just once without the virtual safety car? The fastest 2-stop strategy would have consisted of two longer stints on soft and a short stint on mediums. A long stint on mediums would only make sense if he’d gone for a 1-stop strategy.
Willie (@willienjg)
19th May 2017, 16:24
What is ‘ rs magic’ ??
Heard it Durk f the race, brundle sounded intrigued but then then vandoorne side swiped massa and its like they forgot to discuss it.
Could be nothing but I was curious.
Lap 34
Willie (@willienjg)
19th May 2017, 16:26
**during the race
Re
21st May 2017, 1:50
IIRC, it’s a code for race start mode that gives extra boost.