The Monaco Grand Prix was a frustrating affair for many drivers, as their radio messages revealed.
Many of them knew they were settling in for long races stuck behind cars they had little hope of passing. And, for some, even greater aggravation when they discovered their pit stop strategies had cost them positions.
For Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen, both fell victim to the fact that getting first priority on pit stop was, for once, not an advantage. They led the way for their teams in the opening phase of the race but making their pit stops first, which would ordinarily be an advantage, worked against them on this occasion.
Verstappen made his disappointment at losing a podium finish clear. But whatever Raikkonen’s reaction to losing a likely Monaco Grand Prix victory was, it wasn’t broadcast.
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Traffic was another major source of frustration. At one point Raikkonen complained Jenson Button ahead of him wasn’t being shown blue flags. Not for the first time for a driver in 2017, this turned out to be because Raikkonen wasn’t close enough to the backmarker to trigger them – the increased turbulence from the 2017 cars has made lapping considerably more difficult.
Before the race began Button received a special message from Fernando Alonso, whose seat he had taken for the race. After joking that he was going to “pee in your seat”, Button urged his former team mate to “stay safe” during the upcoming Indianapolis 500.
2017 Monaco Grand Prix team radio transcript
Lap* | Driver | Message |
---|---|---|
PR | From Lewis Hamilton | The rears are going to be overheating. I don’t know how long they’re supposed to last but they’ll definitely be overheated. |
PR | From Fernando Alonso | Jenson, Jenson my friend, I am sure you wanted to hear my voice before starting the race. Just wishing you the best of luck, we follow you here on television. You did amazing yesterday. |
PR | From Jenson Button | Ah thank you. |
PR | From Fernando Alonso | Take care of my car. |
PR | From Jenson Button | OK, I’m going to pee in your seat! |
PR | From Fernando Alonso | Oh, no please, have fun. You did amazing yesterday. |
PR | From Jenson Button | Cheers man, and you buddy, have a good one. |
PR | From Fernando Alonso | Alright, thank you, good luck. |
PR | From Jenson Button | Cheers buddy, and you, stay safe. |
5 | From Jenson Button | Is that not unsafe becaus I had to lift in the pit lane? Not unsafe release? |
6 | From Lewis Hamilton | It’s hard to get close to these guys. |
6 | To Lewis Hamilton | Yeah, copy that Lewis. Just look after the car, look after the tyres. Our race comes later |
6 | To Romain Grosjean | B C 10 when you can. |
8 | To Sergio Perez | Checo how is the aero balance? We think there is small end plate damage. |
9 | From Sergio Perez | Yes I feel a little damage. But it doesn’t change too much the balance. |
10 | From Jenson Button | Yeah bit of a pain having Wehrlein in front but can’t do much about it. Think he’s starting to get deg already. |
12 | To Nico Hulkenberg | OK Nico, are we being held up? |
12 | From Nico Hulkenberg | A little bit. For sure if he wasn’t there could go quicker. |
13 | To Max Verstappen | How’s our pace relative to Bottas, Max? |
13 | From Max Verstappen | Well, you can see. |
16 | From Daniil Kvyat | Think his back is losing some oil. |
16 | From Nico Hulkenberg | I have smoke out of the back of my car. |
16 | To Nico Hulkenberg | OK Nico we have a major gearbox problem. Retire the car somewhere safely on the lap please Nico. |
17 | From Esteban Ocon | Smell oil in the car. All OK? |
17 | To Esteban Ocon | Looks OK to use at the moment. Hulkemberg car in front with an engine problem. |
22 | From Max Verstappen | I think it’s alright. |
22 | From Daniil Kvyat | I have inconsistent engine braking somehow. |
24 | From Lewis Hamilton | Tyres seem OK. Grip’s poor. Car’s all over the place. |
25 | From Marcus Ericsson | Every time I push I almost go in the wall. So difficult to drive this car. No grip. |
26 | From Kimi Raikkonen | Come on, how close do I have to get? |
26 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Still flashing blue at the minute Kimi, still not solid blue for Button. |
29 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK let’s get back in the groove now, Kimi. |
30 | From Daniil Kvyat | I had a big snap of engine braking in turn six, big snap. |
32 | From Jenson Button | Oh, this is painful. |
33 | To Max Verstappen | Box opposite Bottas. |
33 | To Valtteri Bottas | Push hard now, Verstappen in the pits. |
35 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Lap mode box, Kimi, lap mode box. |
35 | To Sergio Perez | Checo, engine temperatures are now critical. We have to do something different. If you can’t overtake you need to drop back. |
35 | From Sergio Perez | Man, calm down. You boxed me because of safety. Who cares if the engine blows up now? |
35 | To Sergio Perez | Checo we understand but the front wing was broken. We had no more laps on that front wing. Race situation at the moment: The engine is critical. |
36 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK Daniel you’re doing a very good job, mate. Pace is excellent. |
39 | To Daniel Ricciardo | Box Daniel, box. |
39 | To Sebastian Vettel | Box, Sebastian, box. Mode box. |
40 | From Max Verstappen | Did Daniel stop? |
40 | To Max Verstappen | Yes Max. Daniel has jumped us both. |
40 | From Max Verstappen | What a [censored by FOM] [censored by FOM] disaster. |
40 | To Esteban Ocon | Watch rear-left, puncture. |
42 | From Daniel Ricciardo | The [censored by FOM] the Force India doing? |
42 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK Daniel let’s keep it cool, mate. We will get past them, keep it cool. |
43 | To Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis so box, box. |
47 | To Marcus Ericsson | OK Marcus you’re back in business. |
50 | To Romain Grosjean | Romain, Kevin and a Force India had a puncture from turn one on the left. |
53 | To Jenson Button | Gap to Wehrlein 12.2 now. |
53 | From Jenson Button | Yeah it’s more fun catching eighth to ninth. |
54 | To Valtteri Bottas | Possible raised manhole cover exit turn one. |
56 | From Lewis Hamilton | How’s my pace? |
56 | To Lewis Hamilton | Pace is very good, Lewis. You’re the fastest man out there at the moment. |
57 | From Jenson Button | Track breaking up in the exit of turn one. |
59 | From Sergio Perez | He’s just such an idiot. |
59 | To Sergio Perez | Understood, Wehrlein blocked you. |
62 | To Pascal Wehrlein | Are you OK. |
62 | From Pascal Wehrlein | Yes. It would be better if I could jump out. |
62 | To Pascal Wehrlein | OK be patient they will help you soon. |
62 | From Sebastian Vettel | Wehrlein OK? |
62 | To Sebastian Vettel | Yeah Wehrlein is OK. No problem. |
64 | To Lance Stroll | Just watch the brakes, be careful on the brakes. |
64 | From Lance Stroll | If I don’t brake I mean I have no temperature and I’m going to crash as soon as we restart. I don’t have brakes, I don’t have tyres and and I don’t know what to do. |
65 | To Marcus Ericsson | Marcus all OK? |
65 | From Marcus Ericsson | Agh! |
65 | To Marcus Ericsson | What happened? |
65 | From Marcus Ericsson | I’ve hit the wall. |
66 | To Max Verstappen | Right Max, let’s get stuck into Bottas. |
67 | From Stoffel Vandoorne | I’m in the wall at turn one. |
67 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | Copy. Turn the car fully off. |
68 | From Kevin Magnussen | Now is clear. You can push like an animal. |
71 | To Valtteri Bottas | If you’re comfortable, strat six. |
71 | From Valtteri Bottas | Does it look comfortable? |
72 | To Sergio Perez | Yellow seven drive position nine and green cal one. |
72 | From Sergio Perez | Guys you really want me to crash, eh? Stop [censored by FOM] around. I mean just leave me in one position. I just need to drive, man. I need a hundred percent focus. |
74 | To Lance Stroll | We have a temperature issue on the front-left. We need to retire the car so box this lap, straight into the garage. |
78 | From Lewis Hamilton | The battle’s not over, guys. Let’s take these points. |
VL | From Sebastian Vettel | Woohoo! Yes yes! Grazie ragazzi. Grande lavoro. La machinna estata molto buono. The two laps with the old tyres I was giving everything I had. |
VL | To Sebastian Vettel | Bravo Seb. |
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.
Only messages which were played during the television broadcasts of the race are included.
Follow F1 Fanatic Live on Twitter for team radio highlights during all live F1 sessions.
Monaco Grand Prix data
Team radio transcripts
- Transcript: What Alonso really meant by being “thrown to the lions” at Suzuka
- Why Ocon rejected Gasly’s furious complaints about Alpine’s “joke” team orders
- Norris accuses Perez of costing him “10 seconds” during VSC period
- “Shocking”: How Verstappen suffered another dire Singapore qualifying session
- “Don’t f*** it up”: How Verstappen persuaded Red Bull to allow fastest lap bid
skylien (@skylien)
2nd June 2017, 12:32
So it is not possible to see the total transscript anywhere?
erikje
2nd June 2017, 12:39
Missed the final words from stroll
erikje
2nd June 2017, 12:44
correction
nase
2nd June 2017, 20:15
He sounded so lost, I felt sorry for him. It’s becoming painfully obvious that he isn’t ready for F1. But I really can’t be mad at him after hearing his genuine desperation on the radio.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
2nd June 2017, 12:40
Why are we suggesting raikkonen reacted at all.
erikje
2nd June 2017, 12:47
looking at his podium reaction, it seems logical there were some harsh words before
Anatoli68 (@anatoli68)
2nd June 2017, 13:42
@peartree You can hear his reaction in this video (skip to 2:15) https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2017/5/Director's_Cut__Monaco_2017.html
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd June 2017, 15:46
@anatoli68 Thanks for that – still none the wiser but we can at least tell that, unsurprisingly, he wasn’t best pleased.
Michael
2nd June 2017, 14:14
Did you watch the race?
uan (@uan)
2nd June 2017, 14:12
“the increased turbulence from the 2017 cars has made lapping considerably more difficult.”
This is just not really applicable to lapping backmarkers. The driver behind needs to be within a second for blue flags to be shown. The two most well broadcast examples of blue flags not being showed this year have been with Kimi in Monaco and Verstappen in China.
Yet, ironically, both times the lead car said “where are the blue flags” and couldn’t get within a second, they had their teammates right behind within a second of them! And Kimi had no problems getting past Button and Wehrlein once he was on new SS.
airtone
2nd June 2017, 14:27
The more I think about it the more I have a feeling Fernando participating in Indy 500 as well as that radio chat was a great publicity scheme by Liberty Media for F1 in America.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing my favorite driver racing oval and discovering this great race.
I just feel there is more to it than merely Alonso desiring a new challenge.
BobW
2nd June 2017, 14:27
35 To Kimi Raikkonen Lap mode box, Kimi, lap mode box. That was before he asked if he should box or what. Lap mode tells me that they want the driver to put in a couple of fast laps before boxing. From that, it would appear that Kimi was not suddenly called in. In order words, business as usual and no dark conspiracy.
Scuderia-Racing-Or-Ping-Pong (@)
2nd June 2017, 17:32
What happened to Verstappen was a total [angry team radio] [angry team radio] disaster. And Ricciardo who got blocked by Ocon (if I recalled it correctly) went 100% like “get out of my way bleep”.
Albert
2nd June 2017, 21:32
@keithcollantine Where did you get that from? Was it transmitted in the British coverage? Because it does sound Kimi was told to push 6 laps before he pitted, and he still posted high 16’s. Which completely proves, once and for all, that Ferrari was right to pit him and it wasn’t an orchestrated move.
Stefanauss (@stefanauss)
21st June 2017, 18:40
I love how Vettel’s italian radio comments’ transcript includes his questionable pronunciation :-D
Is it intended? Do you do the italian ones yourself, Keith?