2017 Singapore Grand Prix team radio transcript

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

25th September 2017, 11:4026th September 2017, 8:35 | Written by Keith Collantine

The slowly drying Singapore track demanded utmost concentration from the drivers, several of which were not happy at the distractions coming at them over the radio from their engineers.

Carlos Sainz Jnr told race engineer Marco Matassa more than once to keep quiet but the pair were ecstatic when he delivered a career-best fourth place at the chequered flag. This came on the same weekend Renault had confirmed Sainz would leave Toro Rosso to join them in 2018.

Singapore Grand Prix in pictures

Sainz’s team mate Daniil Kvyat also hushed up his engineer at one point. Mere moments later his STR12 was in the wall.

However the driver-to-team conversations took on pivotal importance in the middle of the race as drivers began to ditch the intermediate tyres for slicks. Red Bull were eager to switch Daniel Ricciardo in the hope of closing the gap to race leader Lewis Hamilton but were concerned about dropping him back into traffic.

Hamilton could afford to let others take the risk before committing to a tyre change himself. He was more concerned early in the race when Ricciardo took the opportunity to pit during a Safety Car period, though his team reassured him they had done the right thing by staying out.

The defining moment of the race was of course the first-lap collision. Out of the four drivers involved the only one who was heard apologising to his team was Sebastian Vettel, an indication he realised his tactics at the start had been too risky given how much was at stake in the championship.

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2017 Singapore Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
PR	To Daniil Kvyat	See you on the grid, Danny, please confirm.
PR	From Daniil Kvyat	Yeah confirm.
PR	To Daniil Kvyat	Copy that. Cool the car and see you on the grid.
PR	To Kevin Magnussen	We need to reduce as much as possible pulling forward with the clutch.
PR	To Lewis Hamilton	Cool the car. Go to the back of the grid.
PR	From Kimi Raikkonen	I think it’s raining already now.
PR	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood Kimi. We saw the wet track coming at eight and nine. Maybe also 15, 16, 17 Kimi.
PR	To Lance Stroll	OK looks like the exit kerb at turn 14 is wet, just be careful going through there.
PR	To Kevin Magnussen	We have also a report in corner 14 that you are approaching now. And then…
PR	From Kevin Magnussen	From the drivers or from the stewards?
PR	To Kevin Magnussen	Again from the stewards until the exit of…
PR	From Kevin Magnussen	Can we say from the stewards?
PR	To Kevin Magnussen	OK absolutely I will do it.
PR	From Max Verstappen	Yeah it’s raining a bit down here in the last corner.
PR	To Max Verstappen	OK.
PR	To Marcus Ericsson	The rain we see now will last for the next half an hour or longer.
PR	To Marcus Ericsson	This message came several minutes later. Less than ten minutes. Safety Car lights are not on so we expect a conventional start for now.
PR	To Marcus Ericsson	This message came several minutes later and involved two different members of Ericsson’s crew. Can you confirm that the track condition is everywhere on the grid, the rain?
PR	To Marcus Ericsson	Yes, and it’s getting stronger the next couple of minutes.
PR	To Kimi Raikkonen	Kimi we’re going to go for inters. If they cancel the start to go behind the Safety Car it’ll be [full wets] but for now I think if we just get a normal start we have to do inters.
PR	From Kimi Raikkonen	Do we expect that it’s going to rain like this? Cause it’s not going to take long before it’s full wets.
PR	To Kimi Raikkonen	It’s not going to rain like this for very long.
PR	To Lewis Hamilton	All cars ahead on the inter.
PR	From Kimi Raikkonen	Do we think it’s definitely inters? Here’s is always going to be more drier-looking because it’s very rough but around some places the water stays on top of the asphalt. We’ll be careful it could go either way.
FL	From Kimi Raikkonen	A lot of spray, very difficult to see, even at this speed.
FL	From Romain Grosjean	Mate the visibility is terrible back there.
FL	To Romain Grosjean	OK understood we will report it.
1	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Safety Car Stoffel you can take the launch map off, yellow G10. Stoffel did you hit any debris? Any debris or damage?
1	From Stoffel Vandoorne	I think I ran over some debris in turn one but I think everything is OK. No major concern for me. But it’s worth checking, I’ll try to go close to the pit wall.
1	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Copy.
1	From Max Verstappen	I got damage, got damage, argh. I’m out, I’m out.
1	From Kimi Raikkonen	The [censored by FOM] did they do?
1	To Kimi Raikkonen	No idea. You OK mate?
1	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah I’m OK but it’s just ridiculous.
2	From Fernando Alonso	I have been hit massively, I don’t know the car condition.
2	To Fernando Alonso	Yeah OK we’ll try and get what info we can. What damage can you see?
2	From Fernando Alonso	From here, not much from my position and the car feels OK but it was a huge hit. What a start, why they start like this, so crazy.
2	From Sebastian Vettel	I spun, lost the car, I think I have damage on the front left.
2	To Sebastian Vettel	Yeah big damage on the sidepods. Stop the car.
2	From Sebastian Vettel	You sure?
2	To Sebastian Vettel	Yes. We know, we are looking at water pressure.
2	From Sebastian Vettel	OK confirm I stop the car, correct?
2	To Sebastian Vettel	Yes, stop the car now.
2	From Sebastian Vettel	OK Sorry guys. P0. Sorry. I’m really sorry.
2	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood.
3	From Fernando Alonso	Two cars in front of us is a Haas and they don’t have the rear light flashing. It’s a little bit dangerous with the visibility.
3	To Fernando Alonso	OK understood we’ll pass that on.
3	From Daniel Ricciardo	Is the rain still falling? Can’t see.
3	To Daniel Ricciardo	Yes, but it’s reducing in intensity. So still falling but it is raining less.
4	To Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis just remember this race is all going to be about getting the car home in one piece.
4	From Lewis Hamilton	I realise that, Bono. I realise that. I’m doing my best.
4	To Sergio Perez	Checo try and use the brakes more from high speed to bring up tyres temperatures and brake temperatures. We do need more.
4	To Daniil Kvyat	You’re doing a good job on the front tyre Danny, very good job, keep going.
4	From Fernando Alonso	We’ll see. What a shame. I don’t know what is the car damage. Sometimes high speed I feel a little bit strange, maybe.
4	To Fernando Alonso	There is damage to the left-hand side of the rear. But everything else looks OK to us. It’s going to be a fight so we’ll just do the best we can. Safety Car is in this lap.
5	To Felipe Massa	Use overtake start of the straight, use overtake.
5	To Sergio Perez	Palmer on full wet behind has passed Bottas on inters. Hulkenberg ahead wet, two leaders inters.
5	To Daniel Ricciardo	Rain has now stopped in the pit lane.
6	To Daniil Kvyat	Slippery track reported in turn five.
6	To Romain Grosjean	Watch for debris out of five, possible debris out of five. You can go to spark three when you want.
6	To Daniel Ricciardo	What do you think of the conditions, Daniel? I know it’s early, what do you think? Tyres are still improving.
6	From Daniel Ricciardo	Yep, inters the right tyre.
6	To Daniel Ricciardo	Hamilton could be getting issues on his front inters so watch your fronts.
8	To Daniel Ricciardo	Fuel 14 when you can.
8	From Lewis Hamilton	Pace still good?
8	To Lewis Hamilton	Affirm Lewis pace still good. Gap to Ricciardo five seconds. Eight-tenths to Ricciardo last lap.
8	From Lewis Hamilton	Already feeling the fronts starting to grain a little bit.
9	From Fernando Alonso	Again I have no power. So there are some kind of issues that I think we have to stop unfortunately. The state of charge is crazy and other things. Even in G8 I ran out of battery.
9	To Fernando Alonso	Yeah we see the problem, we’re looking at it and discussing now. OK Fernando we see too many problems. We need to retire the car, bring it back to the pits.
9	From Fernando Alonso	OK mate.
10	From Esteban Ocon	I’ve fighting quite a lot with traction.
10	To Esteban Ocon	Copy that. Push the braking more. Turn seven and turn ten.
10	From Esteban Ocon	The intermediate’s faster guys.
10	To Esteban Ocon	Yeah copy that we just don’t want to afford the pit stop ’cause you’ll drop to the back f the pack.
11	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Well done Chilli, well done. Next target Vandoorne.
11	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Leave me alone, leave me alone. I need to focus guys. Don’t talk to me.
11	To Daniil Kvyat	Consider coming back to diff mid four. Come on Danny, you can do it.
11	From Daniil Kvyat	Please leave me alone.
11	To	I’m driving to the grip of the tyres. Traction’s really weak. But front’s starting to drop a bit.
11	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood. Think about the tools to help that out.
12	From Daniil Kvyat	Kvyat crashed. I’m sorry guys, I’m sorry.
12	To Daniel Ricciardo	What do you think of track conditions?
12	From Daniel Ricciardo	Not much has changed. Still inters.
12	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK and now you can chill out. Maintain position to cars behind. Just Hulkenberg ahead on his [full wets].
12	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	I cannot see the temperature of my tyres.
12	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	GPS are gone.
12	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	But I was overheating or not?
12	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Danny, er, Carlos, we don’t have data. Based on Danny’s data we think you were OK.
12	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Yep. So I have more grip than the extremes but in traction I don’t know why they have better traction than I have.
12	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood.
13	To Felipe Massa	Massa stayed out on full wets. OK Felipe so let’s just keep warming the brakes and keep the rear tyres cool. Any puddles there, use the puddles to keep the rear tyres cool.
13	From Felipe Massa	I think I will be holding everybody no, don’t you think so.
13	To Felipe Massa	That’s a gamble we need to take now. We’ve got track position. There are other cars have stayed out on full wets.
13	From Lewis Hamilton	Has everyone pitted except me? Not sure that was a good idea. Is it? These guys have had a free stop, guys. Think that was a mistake.
13	To Lewis Hamilton	Lewis they would have done the opposite to us so we’d be sat in P2.
14	To Daniel Ricciardo	Mate so let’s keep getting these tyres ready. Think about your gear sync if you can. They’re still doing some barrier repairs. I don’t think it’s going to be this lap but just get ready anyway, I’ll keep you updated. Yeah it’s not going to be this lap mate they’re still repairing the barriers.
14	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK.
14	From Valtteri Bottas	There’s something broken with the drink system. It’s not working.
14	To Valtteri Bottas	OK copy that. Possibly just give the left-hand a squeeze on the leg pad, see if that pushes it into life.
14	To Lewis Hamilton	Safety Car in this lap.
14	From Lewis Hamilton	On these new tyres he’s going to have a lot more pace than me now I imagine.
14	To Sergio Perez	Checo work on tyre temperatures. Tyre temps are low and the inters will really need work at the restart. It will be race switch ‘race plus’. And you can attack and defend from Safety Car line one which is pit lane entry before turn 22.
14	To Daniel Ricciardo	Safety Car now turn 21 and it’s in this lap, let’s go.
16	To Kevin Magnussen	Go to mode push please and spark three.
16	From Lewis Hamilton	Definitely harder to drop him since he’s on those new front tyres.
16	To Lewis Hamilton	OK copy Lewis. Nine-tenths faster that lap, gap is now 2.1.
16	To Nico Hulkenberg	Fail B zero one on, urgent.
17	To Felipe Massa	OK Felipe how long before it’ll be ready for slicks?
17	From Felipe Massa	I think quite a way.
17	To Felipe Massa	OK.
17	From Lewis Hamilton	This track is drying so slow.
17	To Lewis Hamilton	OK copy Lewis. Go strat five that’ll give you a bit more electrical. DRS has been enabled. Ricciardo gap 2.2, you were four-tenths faster last lap.
17	From Felipe Massa	Massa and Vandoorne made contact He touched my car. On a straight.
18	From Felipe Massa	Massa wanted to pit. I think I have to stop guys. I have to stop.
18	To Felipe Massa	OK Felipe. And there’s now way we can do the slick, no? Too wet?
18	From Felipe Massa	No it’s too wet for the slicks.
19	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Dan what do you think of the conditions?
19	From Daniel Ricciardo	Still inters. There’s some parts that are a bit dry but the wet parts are still too wet.
19	To Valtteri Bottas	Sector one looking strong now. Sector two and particularly three we need to work on. Consider forward brake balance for there.
19	To Lewis Hamilton	You were two-and-a-half tenths faster last lap.
19	To Lance Stroll	OK Lance the rears are starting to get hot now so start looking for some damp patches just to cool the rears. Pace is still good.
20	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Yeah you can see the guys on new tyres a bit quicker.
20	From Lewis Hamilton	Tyres are sill good. This track is drying very slow.
20	To Daniel Ricciardo	So the group of cars behind Bottas, 17 seconds behind you to Sainz, Hulkenberg and Perez.
21	From Felipe Massa	How is it compared to the others?
21	To Felipe Massa	Closing on Wehrlein quickly. But the key to this is going to be getting onto slicks as quickly as we can so let us know.
21	To Lewis Hamilton	Gap to Ricciardo at 4.1. You were five-and-a-half tenths faster last lap. Let us know when the track will be ready for dries.
21	From Lewis Hamilton	My guess is probably ten laps.
21	To Lewis Hamilton	Copy. How’s the balance?
21	From Lewis Hamilton	A little bit understeery. The balance actually feels nice. Just right.
21	To Lewis Hamilton	Copy.
22	To Valtteri Bottas	And when you can just let us now how the tyres are.
22	From Valtteri Bottas	Some drop-off. But we really need to keep this to a minimum otherwise I will go off.
22	To Valtteri Bottas	Copy.
22	To Kevin Magnussen	How much are you losing staying behind?
22	From Kevin Magnussen	Half a second, three tenths.
22	To Kevin Magnussen	OK get as close as possible please.
23	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Good job Stoff. You’re still closing on the cars in front. No more rain expected.
23	From Lewis Hamilton	How’s the gap now? Slowed down this lap.
23	To Lewis Hamilton	Yeah copy. Gaps’ now closed to 4.3
23	From Lewis Hamilton	Understood.
23	To Lewis Hamilton	Seven-tenths in the middle sector. Ricciardo does have signs of deg.
23	To Felipe Massa	OK Felipe this is good. Gaining on Perez, two seconds a lap quicker.
24	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Half a second faster than Bottas in front. Really good pace.
24	To Stoffel Vandoorne	You took one second out of Palmer last lap. This is good Stoff, let’s go and get Palmer, let’s go and get him.
24	To Nico Hulkenberg	OK Nico we think in the event of a Safety Car it would be dry tyres, please confirm.
24	From Nico Hulkenberg	I’m sceptical about that. Especially behind the Safety Car, you lose all the temperature. Still a lot of damp patches. Not a good idea.
24	To Nico Hulkenberg	Message understood, OK Nico.
25	From Kevin Magnussen	Guys box now, box for dry tyres.
25	To Kevin Magnussen	OK we are ready for you. SOC 1, give everything.
25	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel what do you think about conditions now? How far away from dry tyres do you think?
25	From Daniel Ricciardo	Still greasy, not ready yet.
25	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood
25	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Track update now. Cars getting quicker. Beware behind us. Track update.
25	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Let me know about the splits. It’s very close.
26	To Lance Stroll	OK Lance for information some cars pitting now for slicks.
26	From Lance Stroll	OK keep me updated on how they’re doing, there seems to be a dry line.
26	To Lance Stroll	OK.
27	From Daniel Ricciardo	The last lap it did dry up quite a bit. I still think it’s not quite there, but getting closer.
27	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood so at the moment we’ve got Magnussen, also Massa he’s just a few seconds ahead of you, on dry tyres. There’s two cars now on dry tyres. They’re both on ultra-[softs].
27	To Felipe Massa	OK so let’s make the most of this now. So Ricciardo is the next car, he’s still eight seconds behind, so let’s make the most of this tyre now.
27	To Felipe Massa	Is this the correct tyre? Is the track dry enough for this?
27	From Felipe Massa	Yeah it’s OK now. Some of the corners a bit wet but it’s OK.
27	To Stoffel Vandoorne	OK Stoff that’s a great lap. Magnussen’s looking close to crossover now.
28	From Daniel Ricciardo	Think it’s getting very close just ’cause the inters’ plateau’d.
28	To Daniel Ricciardo	Understand what you’re saying. We’re watching the gaps behind.
28	From Lewis Hamilton	The track’s still very greasy. And these tyres are still doing good.
28	From Daniel Ricciardo	These tyres are starting to go in the rear.
28	To Daniel Ricciardo	Understood. We’re watching the gap behind. There’s a traffic of traffic there, I think it’ll be difficult to overtake on dries now, we’re just watching the gaps..
28	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK copy.
28	To Daniel Ricciardo	It is going to be close, though, it’s going to be getting close.
28	To Lewis Hamilton	Let’s go strat five, we’ll just keep building that gap.
29	To Daniel Ricciardo	Box, Daniel, box.
29	To Sergio Perez	Traffic ahead, box, box.
29	To Daniel Ricciardo	You’ll be close to Palmer at pit exit, Palmer still on his inters.
29	To Lewis Hamilton	HPP four to position four.
29	From Lewis Hamilton	How many laps?
29	To Lewis Hamilton	33 laps remaining but this will be time-limited. And box, box.
29	From Lewis Hamilton	Which tyre are you going for?
29	To Lewis Hamilton	We’re going for the ultra, it’s the same as Ricciardo.
30	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel so we expect Palmer to be in this lap.
30	To Lance Stroll	That’s Magnussen behind he stopped two laps before. We are same pace. He is three seconds behind.
30	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so Hamilton pitted just now. I’ll give you the gaps when it all calms down but it’s still quite stable.
30	To Stoffel Vandoorne	OK Stoff so Palmer’s just exited the pits he’s the car ahead. That was a slow stop but it hasn’t cost us track position, we’ve just dropped back a bit. You’re still P8.
30	To Nico Hulkenberg	OK Nico strat mode eight for that extra deployment.
30	To Lance Stroll	That’s Wehrlein ahead on an out-lap, he should get blue flags.
31	To Daniel Ricciardo	Brake balance one click forwards. Gap to Hamilton 8.7 ahead.
31	To Daniel Ricciardo	Looks like his warm-up wasn’t very good. You were one-and-a-half seconds faster than him in the last two sectors. Gap behind to Bottas 16 seconds.
31	To Romain Grosjean	Romain started to pick up a bit of pace, he is one second quicker than you. SOC seven to recharge a bit the battery.
32	To Lewis Hamilton	Same time as Ricciardo last lap. He was strong in sector one, half a second. You were two-tenths faster in sector two, three in sector three.
33	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Keep the pressure on him, Stoffel.
34	From Felipe Massa	What’s happened?
34	To Felipe Massa	That’s Wehrlein ahead. We will be lapping him so he should get blues.
34	From Felipe Massa	OK.
34	From Nico Hulkenberg	How many laps or time in this race?
34	To Nico Hulkenberg	Confirming race will be shortened by two laps, so 28 laps to go including this one.
34	To Valtteri Bottas	We don’t think it’ll go full distance, we think it’ll go three laps short, so 26 laps to go. Expecting to stay on these tyres,.
34	From Valtteri Bottas	Copy.
34	To Kevin Magnussen	Press red button.
34	From Kevin Magnussen	Come on, shut up.
35	From Lewis Hamilton	Pedal getting a bit soft.
35	To Lewis Hamilton	So brake temps are under control and brake wear is not a problem. We’re happy with the brakes, just looks like a little bit of knock-on.
35	To Valtteri Bottas	So fastest lap of the race. Currently three-tenths of a second faster than Ricciardo in font.
35	From Valtteri Bottas	How far away is he?
35	To Valtteri Bottas	Currently 16 seconds.
36	To Daniel Ricciardo	Suggest diff seven to help the balance and you need to shift on the reds gears two, three and four. That last lap was quickest lap so. Within three-tenths in sector two. Sectors one and three are good. Gap ahead 9.5 to Hamilton and 16 behind to Bottas.
36	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Carlos with this battery we are…
36	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Shut up please, please.
36	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate so that lap you were half a second quicker than Hamilton, Gap now 8.9.
36	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis looks like the pace is picking up across the field. Ricciardo half a second faster last lap.
37	To Jolyon Palmer	Very good lap, how was the balance?
37	From Jolyon Palmer	Good. Say something, please.
37	To Jolyon Palmer	0.5 quicker than Vandoorne behind you and 0.5 quicker than Perez ahead.
37	To Lewis Hamilton	And we go HPP three to position five.
37	From Jolyon Palmer	[Unclear]
37	To Jolyon Palmer	Please repeat, radio is breaking up.
37	From Jolyon Palmer	Gap to Perez?
37	To Jolyon Palmer	Nine seconds.
38	To Lewis Hamilton	And seven-tenths faster that lap. Gap is out at 9.7. Give us your TAG mode.
38	From Lewis Hamilton	Give us your TAG mode.
38	To Lewis Hamilton	Two.
38	From Lewis Hamilton	OK we’re happy with that. We just want to keep pulling that Safety Car gap to Ricciardo.
38	To Lewis Hamilton	Yellow, yellow. Ericsson has stopped.
38	To Marcus Ericsson	All OK Marcus?
38	From Marcus Ericsson	Ah I’m done.
38	To Marcus Ericsson	Yeah we can see the rear, your rear-left. Switch off the car.
38	From Marcus Ericsson	Yeah copy,
38	To Marcus Ericsson	Remember the switch off procedure.
39	From Lewis Hamilton	Why another Safety Car? Surely VSC would work.
39	To Lewis Hamilton	OK copy Lewis. So just cancel the RS magic. Staying out.
39	To Valtteri Bottas	So just talk to us about balance.
39	From Valtteri Bottas	Yeah balance is OK, tyres OK.
39	To Valtteri Bottas	Copy.
40	From Lewis Hamilton	It seems that at this moment Hamilton saw Ericsson’s car and realised why a Safety Car was needed to recover it. How many laps to go, guys? Can’t believe we had that gap and now it’s… OK, I thought he had turned around, already. Understood.
40	To Lewis Hamilton	So Lewis pace was very good before this Safety Car. The tyres haven’t seen any temperature yet that would damage them in any way so I think we’re good to go.
40	From Felipe Massa	How many laps to go?
40	To Felipe Massa	OK so could become time limited. Around 20 laps to go.
40	From Lewis Hamilton	Where is everyone?
40	To Lewis Hamilton	It’s taking a while to close the pack. Stay within ten car lengths.
40	From Lewis Hamilton	Bono the Safety Car’s going so slow I can’t keep temperature in.
40	To Lewis Hamilton	OK, copy.
40	To Esteban Ocon	So they’re going to bunch the pack so you don’t need to take too much out of the tyres. They will bunch the pack so that they can move the car. They won’t try to move the car that’s in the road until they’ve bunched the pack.
41	From Lewis Hamilton	Let me know if this is working better temp-wise.
41	To Lewis Hamilton	OK just be careful with calipers they’re under control at the moment. Just front calipers is our only concern.
41	To Valtteri Bottas	Just come rearward on brake balance to cool the front calipers, please.
41	To Daniel Ricciardo	So there is now a crane on the track on the bridge. I’ll keep you updated.
41	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so for info we are now on lap 41. There are only 28 minutes to go at the moment. I’ll keep you updated.
41	To Lewis Hamilton	RS magic on. Remember brake balance for turn one. Safety Car currently turn 19. No stop-starting, weaving is OK.
42	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK battery is full, use it if you need it.
42	To Lewis Hamilton	How many laps to go.
42	From Lewis Hamilton	So it’ll be time-limited. We estimate 14 laps to go.
43	To Romain Grosjean	Mode push before the end of the lap.
43	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate so your pressures and temperatures are coming up a little bit. It will get easier.
43	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Tyre temperatures and pressures still coming up, they’re still cool.
43	To Daniel Ricciardo	B-bal [brake balance] two.
44	To Lewis Hamilton	We recommend tag mode one. We want to keep the field compressed. We don’t want to give anyone a free stop if there’s another Safety Car. You are putting purple sectors in.
44	To Lewis Hamilton	Gap to Ricciardo at four seconds.
44	From Lewis Hamilton	What do you want me to do? Make it less?
44	To Lewis Hamilton	Hold that gap. Four seconds is just perfect for us.
44	From Sergio Perez	Is Ricciardo struggling?
44	To Sergio Perez	Green cal one. Ricciardo still on green sectors.
46	From Lewis Hamilton	How far behind are they? Is he slowing up?
46	To Lewis Hamilton	Ricciardo has plenty of cars behind him so all looks good at the moment.
46	From Lewis Hamilton	I don’t get your tactic. It’s not comfortable to drive off-pace.
46	To Lewis Hamilton	OK copy if you’re not comfortable you can dictate your pace.
46	To Jolyon Palmer	Torque seven.
46	From Jolyon Palmer	Copy.
47	To Sergio Perez	Purple mode four.
47	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Maximum focus now. Let others make mistake. Hand in the candle.
48	To Valtteri Bottas	HPP four to two please.
48	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Fail Charlie 73 fail, when you can.
49	From Lewis Hamilton	Something flapping on my left-front tyre.
49	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis we are looking. We don’t see anything on vibration metrics at the moment.
49	From Lewis Hamilton	It’s red, red or orange.
50	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis we don’t see anything at the moment.
50	From Lewis Hamilton	It’s clearing up.
50	To Lewis Hamilton	And we think everything’s OK with the tyre.
50	From Lewis Hamilton	Yeah it’s cleared up. Just watch the tyre pressure.
50	To Lewis Hamilton	Copy Lewis, we’re all over it.
51	To Kevin Magnussen	Slow down, slow down.
51	From Kevin Magnussen	Why?
51	To Kevin Magnussen	We have lost MGU-K.
51	From Kevin Magnussen	Oh [censored by FOM] sake.
51	To Daniel Ricciardo	Remember to breathe and drink.
52	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK seven laps to go.
53	To Lewis Hamilton	Ricciardo’s a 47.1 last lap.
54	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK five laps to go.
54	To Sergio Perez	Palmer behind is not under pressure from cars behind. Vandoorne is five seconds behind Palmer.
54	From Sergio Perez	Yeah I don’t care about him. I want to put pressure on Sainz in the last lap.
54	To Lewis Hamilton	Looks like Ricciardo’s sorted out whatever problem he had. Gap at 4.5.
55	To Sergio Perez	Checo three laps to go. The race will end on time so it could be two laps but at the moment three expected.
56	To Valtteri Bottas	Strat eight, please.
56	From Valtteri Bottas	How many more laps?
56	To Valtteri Bottas	We’re going to have roughly three more to go.
56	From Valtteri Bottas	Need a drink.
56	To Valtteri Bottas	Copy that.
56	From Valtteri Bottas	Have you tried it again?
56	To Valtteri Bottas	Yeah. Takes a lot of effort. I can only have a drop or two.
57	To Lewis Hamilton	And we can go strat 11 to the end.
57	To Daniel Ricciardo	Two more laps to go, two laps remaining now.
58	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so you’re starting the final lap. This is the last lap.
58	To Sergio Perez	Green cal one. Palmer one second behind.
VL	To Lewis Hamilton	Get in there, Lewis. What an awesome drive, mate. What an awesome drive. Absolutely stellar result. Can’t wish for better than that.
VL	From Lewis Hamilton	Guys, what can I say? What a turnaround today. Fantastic job with the strategy. Thank you so much for all the hard work and continuing to believe in me. What a great day.
VL	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	P4 Carlos! Boom Shack-A-Laka!
VL	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Vamos! Vamos vamos vamos vamos vamos! Vamos!
VL	To Sergio Perez	Great job Checo. Points again in Singapore and P5. Well done. Run switch ‘end’, take the pick-up.
VL	From Sergio Perez	Well done guys, good race, well done guys. Good points out of a difficult weekend so not bad.
VL	To Lance Stroll	Yes, good job.
VL	From Lance Stroll	Yes! Get in there.
VL	To Lance Stroll	Nice work, P8.
VL	From Lance Stroll	Yeah baby, awesome.
VL	To Lance Stroll	Great job.
VL	From Lance Stroll	Great opportunity, we took it, two times in a row.
VL	From Felipe Massa	OK guys, strategy didn’t work for the tyres, I’m happy for the position for the team. Good for our championship. Not so bad compared to yesterday how we started.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Absolutely. Nice job.
VL	To Jolyon Palmer	Excellent job Jo, excellent job. P6. Well done.
VL	From Jolyon Palmer	Yes, great race. So happy guys.
VL	To Jolyon Palmer	Nice work Jo, nice work.
VL	From Jolyon Palmer	Thank you.

Note: Only includes messages which were broadcast in the race coverage.
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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2017 Singapore Grand Prix

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22 comments on “2017 Singapore Grand Prix team radio transcript”

altitude2k
25th September 2017, 13:17

Strange there doesn’t seem to be any mention of Ricciardo’s gearbox trouble.
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  25th September 2017, 13:21
  
  He was given an instruction regarding his gearbox here. But if he was told anything about it on the radio earlier on that wasn’t put in the broadcasts. Perhaps it got overlooked amid the first-corner drama.
  1. AJ
    26th September 2017, 4:39
    
    Could that have been the Fuel 14 message on Lap 8?
2. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
  26th September 2017, 8:35
  
  @altitude2k I was looking for that too. There’s two messages –
  
  Lap 14: “Think about gear sync if you can.”
  Lap 36: “…and you need to shift on the reds gears two, three and four.”
  
  Lap 36, they also tell him he’s 0.5 seconds quicker than Hamilton, so he doesn’t seem to have any problems.
  
  I think the L14 message just tells him to change gear when the car asks him to. The L36 message is telling him the same thing (assuming red lights signal ‘change now’). It’s not obvious he has any problem.
  1. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    26th September 2017, 9:29
    
    Correction L36, they’re telling him to short shift (blue lights indication ‘change now’), but that might be just to do with traction – certainly, he’s very quick at that point.
Mark (@mark4211)
25th September 2017, 13:37

I’m very sure that Hamilton’s ‘TAG Mode’ at Lap 38 and 44, is actually ‘Attack Mode’.
baasbas
25th September 2017, 13:37

Thumbs up to VER for keeping the radio link opened while crashing out. That’s viewer engagement right there
GeeMac (@geemac)
25th September 2017, 13:50

Over 25 years watching the sport but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anyone tell a driver to “hand in the candle” before…
Joao (@johnmilk)
25th September 2017, 14:02

Vettel was apologising for spinning when he was still unaware that he had damage on the sidepod.
It wasn’t for the initial crash with Max and Kimi
1. Lums (@lums)
  25th September 2017, 16:16
  
  He was well aware of the damage before apologising. Did you just try to make stuff up
  1. Nikhil Patel (@tiya)
    25th September 2017, 16:53
    
    Did he know he was leaking coolant at the time?
  2. Joao (@johnmilk)
    25th September 2017, 17:10
    
    2 From Sebastian Vettel
    I spun, lost the car, I think I have damage on the front left.
    2 To Sebastian Vettel
    Yeah big damage on the sidepods. Stop the car.
    2 From Sebastian Vettel
    You sure?
    1. Robbie (@robbie)
      25th September 2017, 19:27
      
      @johnmilk I’m with you. I think it is presumptuous to assume SV was apologizing for ‘risking too much.’ Since the race has SV literally said he risked too much? And how would going conservative and opening the door for an always hard charging Max, who said he was going to go for it on the first lap, be risking less? I think much of the criticism toward SV has been with the luxury of hindsight, and because LH was starting in 5th, like there was some guarantee he’d finish there too.
Madwinchester (@madwinchester)
25th September 2017, 14:03

Was I the only one getting frustrated with neither of the Channel 4 commentators realising that the reason the track wasn’t drying was because it was a night race? I’m generally a very calm person but found myself repeatedly shouting at the telly “IT’S BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUN!”.
1. altitude2k
  25th September 2017, 16:41
  
  I think it was more to do with the humidity. Obviously it’s quicker in the day, but at those temperatures at night you would have expected it to dry pretty quickly with cars running over it. With relative humidity being higher than expected there’s nowhere for the moisture to evaporate to.
2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
  25th September 2017, 18:03
  
  Well, I’m a little surprised by your comment if I’m honest. It is often the cars that help dry a circuit quite a bit too and the temperature at Singapore is already higher than a lot of other F1 tracks. The sun doesn’t do everything. They were not missing something obvious because it did seem rather unusual. The drivers seemed to say it was taking a while to dry too.
  1. Joao (@johnmilk)
    25th September 2017, 18:06
    
    Road tarmac is not as rfficient as circuit tarmac when it comes to drain water
    1. mystic one (@mysticus)
      25th September 2017, 21:02
      
      weather humidity (feel of water vapor concentration in the air) levels are very high at night, and without sun, water cant moist fast enough (not enough energy to reach dew points), so harder for water to evaporate quickly i guess?
      like trying to boil water (and evaporate as well) using candle vs proper oven? water still boils at 100 C but it will take candle long time to get same amount of water to boil than you would do with oven!
      
      and more tech answer i guess would be chemistry, more heat (temp) ignites more kinetic energy hence faster evaporation… colder temp it will take longer for water molecules to get same amount of kinetic energy to be freed from liquid chains to gas form…
  2. Madwinchester (@madwinchester)
    25th September 2017, 22:53
    
    It’s not just the temperature caused by the sun that causes evaporation, the sunlight itself contributes significantly. I don’t know a great deal about it, but I do know that scientists have noticed global levels of evaporation dropping even though temperatures have risen, and have attributed this to global dimming – a reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching the earths surface due to air pollution. I guess it’s difficult to prove that the slow drying was because it was a night race because this was the first ever wet night race. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if the same thing happens at the next one.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
25th September 2017, 17:07

Kvyat telling his engineer to shut up, then crash out.
Pathetic.
1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
  25th September 2017, 17:58
  
  @edmarques
  
  I do agree it was a little silly what Kvyat did. Both these drivers at this team do often seem to find team radio a bit distracting sometimes. But I think what Sainz said was very unreasonable and the commentators on Channel 4 though that a bit too. Telling the team to shut up when they were giving what could have been critical information about the battery. If it had been a problem and he interrupted in the way he did, then he will have looked as silly as Kvyat. Both these drivers need to respect the information their team gives them. They both seem to be about the leased respectful when it comes to this. At leased Sainz managed a very good result in the end though.
  1. Ed Marques (@edmarques)
    26th September 2017, 3:54
    
    @thegianthogweed
    I agree with you, i pointed out Kvyat because of the crash. I think it’s ridiculous how a few of these drivers treat their engineers. Kvyat, KMag, they should extremely grateful that they still are in F1. Pathetic behaviour.
    
    Hamilton said to Bono “leave me to it, Bono” and Bottas said to Tony Ross “minimal talking”, they didn’t yell with them, they dealt with the situation with respect. We don’t see Vettel or Ricciardo fighting either. Maybe this is another reason why theses drivers are in top teams.