2017 Monaco Grand Prix team radio transcript

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.

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15 comments on “2017 Monaco Grand Prix team radio transcript”

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
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. [b] Please help me [/b]
1. erikje
  2nd June 2017, 12:44
  correction
  “I don’t have break temperature and I don’t have tyre temperature. I don’t know what to do. Can somebody help me?”
  1. 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.
1. erikje
  2nd June 2017, 12:47
  looking at his podium reaction, it seems logical there were some harsh words before
  A word from Kimi
  “It’s hard to say really [how it feels]. It’s still second place but it doesn’t feel awfully good.
2. 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
  1. 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.
3. 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
Lap 29 To Kimi Raikkonen OK let’s get back in the groove now, Kimi.
@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?