2017 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript

Away from the action at the sharp end, where Sebastian Vettel gambled on a two-stop strategy in the hope of disrupting Lewis Hamilton’s charge to another win, several absorbing storylines played out further down the running order in Austin.

At Renault any hopes of seeing how new hire Carlos Sainz Jnr would stack up against Nico Hulkenberg ended earlier when the latter succumbed to another power unit problem in what had been a frustrating weekend. Meanwhile Sainz impressed: His dazzling pass on Sergio Perez earned praise on the radio and after taking the chequered flag he reflected on a weekend his race engineer described as “faultless”.

2017 United States GP in pictures

Meanwhile his former team mate Daniil Kvyat had returned to Toro Rosso and teamed up with Sainz’s former engineer Marco Matassa. “Welcome back, I’m proud of you,” Matassa told Kvyat after they grabbed the final point. Just 24 hours later the news broke that Kvyat had driven his last race for the team.

Brendon Hartley acquitted himself well at Toro Rosso, though was frustrated at being boxed in behind Lance Stroll early in the race and then running out of strategic options later on.

His frustrations paled in comparison to what was going on at Haas, however. The “I’m not moaning” legend on Romain Grosjean’s one-off helmet design seemed increasingly doubtful as he complained about a series of problems with his car during the race. With ten laps to go he warned his team about the dire conditions of his tyres, and some time afterwards his lobbying to park his car was met with a dismissive “shut up”.

Grosjean has faced questions about his radio remarks on several occasions in the past. He has suggested that it’s simply the case that more of his negative messages are played than those of other drivers. But it’s hard to imagine many of his rivals’ conversations are as terse as this very often.

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2017 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
PR	From Sebastian Vettel	OK check the roll behaviour in turn one and turn 12. So check potential three-wheeling in those corners.
PR	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood.
PR	To Sebastian Vettel	Any car issues?
PR	From Sebastian Vettel	No car issues.
PR	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood
PR	To Romain Grosjean	Based on the flags it’s now come around to be something more like a headwind.
PR	From Brendon Hartley	Can you give me an update on the exact wind direction?
PR	To Brendon Hartley	Tail in sector one.
FL	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Good luck, have fun.
FL	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	OK, thank you.
3	To Brendon Hartley	Good job Brendon, next one is Vandoorne on super-softs.
3	To Max Verstappen	Well done mate, good lap-and-a-half, let’s keep it moving.
3	From Lewis Hamilton	Pace feels pretty good.
3	To Lewis Hamilton	OK copy.
3	From Romain Grosjean	Mate Kvyat is moving all over the place. Left, right, right left.
3	To Romain Grosjean	Understood.
5	To Pascal Wehrlein	So Pascal we stay out, consider the pace, and then decide.
6	To Nico Hulkenberg	Scenario 12, we need to box.
6	From Nico Hulkenberg	Oh, come on man.
6	To Nico Hulkenberg	We’re retiring the car, Nico.
6	To Stoffel Vandoorne	That’s exactly what I was talking about Stoffel. Brilliant job.
6	From Pascal Wehrlein	Box this lap.
6	To Pascal Wehrlein	OK Pascal copy, box this lap. We retire the car.
7	From Brendon Hartley	Yeah not easy to overtake with the turbulence.
7	To Brendon Hartley	No worries.
8	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Stoffel do you think it will be possible to overtake Stroll or do we need to jump him in a pit stop.
8	From Stoffel Vandoorne	Not sure. Let me give it another go.
8	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Yeah you’re pretty close. Keep fighting.
8	From Pascal Wehrlein	Someone crashed completely into me.
8	To Pascal Wehrlein	Understood. Further feedback on damage Pascal.
8	From Pascal Wehrlein	Yeah the car is not drive-able any more.
8	To Lewis Hamilton	We are on plan A.
9	To Kevin Magnussen	Front-right puncture. Box Kevin, please confirm.
9	From Kevin Magnussen	OK.
9	To Kevin Magnussen	Pace is pretty good. Even too good.
9	To Daniel Ricciardo	How are the tyres?
9	From Daniel Ricciardo	Fronts are pretty [censored by FOM]. But it’s not helped by the dirty air. And the rear, just got to manage.
10	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	How are the tyres?
10	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	So far so good. Let’s keep going.
10	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood.
11	To Brendon Hartley	Careful with the front locking. We’ve got long to go on this one.
11	To Max Verstappen	Well done Max. Alright so we’re back in the game, P6. Kimi is seven-and-a-half seconds ahead.
12	From Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah as soon as we get a gap, let’s go.
12	To Daniel Ricciardo	Understood.
12	From Sebastian Vettel	I’ve got blistering on the front-left.
12	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood.
12	To Romain Grosjean	All looking good from our side. How is it following cars?
12	From Romain Grosjean	Yeah I’ve got no pace.
12	To Romain Grosjean	OK understood.
12	From Romain Grosjean	There’s too much imbalance between headwind, tailwind. I’ve got massive oversteer into turn 15 and I don’t know what to do.
13	To Max Verstappen	Think about your speed through turn 6 to make sure you’re quick enough for 7, 8, 9.
13	From Max Verstappen	Yeah, I don’t want to damage the tyres.
13	To Max Verstappen	Yeah exactly so think about your speed through six.
14	From Kimi Raikkonen	Just drive into me but I guess that’s [censored by FOM] OK.
14	From Lewis Hamilton	To make a longer stint I need another half a hole out.
14	To Lewis Hamilton	OK, copy.
15	To Fernando Alonso	100% pace. Box this lap.
16	From Daniel Ricciardo	Engine’s gone.
16	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK understood. OK mate so pull over somewhere safe.
17	From Max Verstappen	What happened to Daniel?
17	To Max Verstappen	He has stopped.
17	From Lewis Hamilton	Tyres are good. I can extend this stint.
18	From Max Verstappen	Front wing is fine. A little bit of rear locking.
19	From Fernando Alonso	I can’t see from my steering. It’d be nice to know what strategy we’re doing. Can I drive differently? So we’re still in strategy B?
19	To Fernando Alonso	We are plan B. Perez plus 2.4. Cars in front Ocon and Stoffel in front. This is our chance on Ocon.
20	To Fernando Alonso	Perez plus 1.6. Stoffel won’t hold you up. We need to maximum pace.
20	From Fernando Alonso	That’s what is confusing. We need maximum pace or we go into the plan B.
21	From Lewis Hamilton	That’s a little bit close, guys. Why’d you allow him to get so close?
21	To Sebastian Vettel	Can read the temps on the dash?
21	From Sebastian Vettel	Too far, sorry, too far.
22	To Fernando Alonso	Perez plus 2.4.
22	From Fernando Alonso	Yeah we’ll see in a minute, I don’t care.
22	To Kimi Raikkonen	And K2 off, Kimi, let’s keep the [state of charge] high. You’ll need it when we get to Bottas.
24	To Max Verstappen	Box, pit confirm please Max. Watch out for the pit lane entry, could be slippery. And then make sure you keep hold of the brakes and keep off clutch.
25	From Fernando Alonso	I think I have an engine issue.
25	To Fernando Alonso	Back off please.
25	From Fernando Alonso	I can’t believe it. Another six, eight points.
25	To Fernando Alonso	Yes mate I know. Back off and we will box and retire the car.
28	From Lance Stroll	I mean it’s unbelievable how bad the traction is.
28	To Brendon Hartley	Magnussen is pulling away in front of Stroll. We are losing time.
28	From Brendon Hartley	Yeah copy that mate I can’t get past him.
28	To Brendon Hartley	Yeah no problem you are doing a good job.
29	From Sergio Perez	We need Esteban to pick up the pace. I’m a lot faster.
29	To Sergio Perez	Understood.
32	From Sergio Perez	Sainz is coming. I have a lot more pace than this. Can you tell Esteban to let me by? I’ll give him back the position in the end. Because I have a lot more than this.
32	To Sergio Perez	Checo we need more management. Esteban is doing the management.
33	To Max Verstappen	How’s the balance, Max?
33	From Max Verstappen	All good.
34	From Brendon Hartley	Can we not get an undercut to get some clear air?
34	To Brendon Hartley	If we pit now we will get a lot of blue flags and lose a lot of time. We cannot box now. There is no option open.
34	From Brendon Hartley	OK copy.
34	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Brilliant job.
35	To Max Verstappen	OK Max let’s push on now please mate. Try and catch Kimi.
35	To Marcus Ericsson	OK Marcus use overtake button now. We believe Hartley has low battery. Try to pass him.
36	From Sebastian Vettel	Think about plan B.
36	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood, we are thinking.
36	From Sebastian Vettel	I’m not saying doing immediately I am just saying think about it.
36	To Sebastian Vettel	Understood. Our best option is to go to the end but we are thinking.
37	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Another great overtake Stoffel, good work, that’s P12 now.
37	To Sebastian Vettel	Try to hang in there. Bottas in a fight with Kimi behind. Bottas lap time 39.7 and Kimi right behind him, they are fighting.
37	To Max Verstappen	Doing a good job Max, keep pushing up to Kimi.
38	To Max Verstappen	Box and confirm, Max.
38	To Max Verstappen	Stop on your marks, deep on clutch. You know what we’re up to. Going to be a big lap.
39	To Max Verstappen	Alright so Seb’s onto super-softs as well. That’s him coming out of the pits.
39	From Lewis Hamilton	Keep me up-to-date with what you need me to do. Tyres are still good.
41	From Felipe Massa	We are plan A?
41	To Felipe Massa	Yep we are plan A. Your pace is good, 17 laps to go. We can catch all these guys, can have some fun here, Felipe.
43	To Kimi Raikkonen	Nice work, nice work. Keep engine one for another lap, let’s pull a gap.
44	To Lewis Hamilton	Raikkonen 38.8 last lap.
44	From Lewis Hamilton	Bono how are they so close?
45	To Lewis Hamilton	Raikkonen is on the same plan as us, same age tyre.
46	From Romain Grosjean	OK I hope I’m not going to explode the front-left, there is no more rubber.
46	To Romain Grosjean	OK, understood.
47	To Kimi Raikkonen	Multi-function turbo six, Kimi. All these things are for fuel.
47	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah but now my car is very bad. So we have to go back on the turbo stuff or something I don’t know what you think but [censored by FOM].
47	To Kimi Raikkonen	Go back to turbo five.
48	To Marcus Ericsson	Ericsson and Magnussen collided. All OK Marcus?
48	From Marcus Ericsson	Yeah OK. He turned in on me.
48	To Marcus Ericsson	Keep pushing.
48	To Kevin Magnussen	Traction looks fine so far.
48	To Marcus Ericsson	OK Stroll right behind, we are racing him, you can use overtake button to defend.
48	To Kimi Raikkonen	Just watch for debris in 13.
49	To Stoffel Vandoorne	OK Stoff you know how to attack into turn one. I f you need you can change the approach to 17/18.
50	From Kevin Magnussen	I don’t think I’m going to be able to do the last six laps on these tyres, guys.
51	To Max Verstappen	Get right up to Seb. You want to be right there to take the opportunity as he passes Bottas.
52	To Max Verstappen	Come on let’s get this, make this count nice and quickly.
52	To Kimi Raikkonen	Seb is now the car behind.
52	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK if Seb comes alongside let him by.
53	From Kimi Raikkonen	Yeah but tell him to keep going, I’ll try to get some tow from him.
53	To Kimi Raikkonen	Copy, copy. Take DRS from him if you can.
53	To Max Verstappen	Well done mate. OK let’s push on to Kimi. Four seconds to him now and four laps to go.
55	From Stoffel Vandoorne	I have no left mirror so I cannot see.
55	To Stoffel Vandoorne	That is Stroll behind.
55	To Brendon Hartley	Two more laps. Bring it home.
56	To Max Verstappen	You’re going to get one shot at him, Max.
VL	To Lewis Hamilton	Get in there Lewis! Beautiful work, mate. Excellent drive there.
VL	From Lewis Hamilton	Woohoo! Great job guys. Ah that was so much fun today. Thanks so much for your time, appreciate it. To all the fans, thanks so much for your support.
VL	To Lewis Hamilton	Great work yourself Lewis. Mercedes world champions!
VL	From Lewis Hamilton	You guys, everyone in the garage and back at the factory, you guys have worked so hard this year. Truly deserve it. So proud to be a part of it thank you.
VL	To Lewis Hamilton	Thank you Lewis mate. Another great drive from you today. You do seem to love it here.
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	P2, Sebastian, P2. Tough race.
VL	From Sebastian Vettel	Copy that. How did he get him there in the end?
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	Got him in turn 18.
VL	From Sebastian Vettel	OK. Grazie ragazzi. Today I think we were just not quick enough. Probably with the strategy it didn’t make a big difference but grazie.
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	OK thank you.
VL	From Kimi Raikkonen	[Censored by FOM]. Sorry guys. [Censored by FOM]. [Censored by FOM].
VL	To Max Verstappen	Yes boys, yes boys, podium mate.
VL	From Max Verstappen	Yes! Yes! Ah that was a good one! Haha!
VL	To Max Verstappen	Max Verstappen you are brilliant. Fantastic drive. What an overtake.
VL	From Max Verstappen	That was a good race. I really enjoyed that one.
VL	To Max Verstappen	Mate that was absolutely solid from where you started. Mega pace all the way through. Mode one. You deserve that.
VL	From Esteban Ocon	Awesome job guys. And well done for the repair on the grid. Big motivation from everyone, really appreciate it. Thanks a lot for that.
VL	To Esteban Ocon	Copy that Esteban.
VL	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Excellent job Carlos. Well done. Absolutely faultless.
VL	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Thanks you guys. Very solid weekend from all of us. Congratulations. I think we did the job that was take points from Williams so bravo. Thank you. Merci.
VL	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Brill job Carlos, well done.
VL	To Felipe Massa	That’s a great race. Bit of a shame at the end we didn’t manage to get Perez. But still that worked out well, was a great drive one-stopping on those tyres. Fantastic job.
VL	From Felipe Massa	Yeah guys thank you. Yeah shame not to pass him. [Unclear] with the lapping car behind and the car with the DRS before. Anyway thank you guys, good job.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Yeah well done Felipe.
VL	To Daniil Kvyat	Come on Danny, P10, one point in the bag. Well done.
VL	From Daniil Kvyat	Thanks mate.
VL	To Daniil Kvyat	You made it. Well done. Awesome drive in this stint, not easy at all. Well done.
VL	From Daniil Kvyat	Grazie Marco. Been a while since a good race so thank you.
VL	To Daniil Kvyat	Welcome back mate, well done, I’m proud of you.
VL	To Stoffel Vandoorne	OK Stoffel that is the chequered flag. P12. Some great racing, some great overtaking, was always going to be difficult from P20, I think you raced very well today.
VL	From Stoffel Vandoorne	Yeah I think that was the maximum possible today. Lost too much time with Grosjean fighting at the end.
VL	To Brendon Hartley	Very good job Brendon. The pace was pretty good at the end. Shame about Stroll at the beginning. Very good job today, strong race.
VL	From Brendon Hartley	Yeah thanks a lot guys, awesome. Yeah I mean we lost a lot of time behind Stroll, but mate I’m smiling. Amazing feeling to complete my debut so thanks a lot guys.
VL	To Brendon Hartley	Yeah you’ve done well, very strong race again. And the pace was not bad at all.
VL	From Brendon Hartley	Yeah I lost so much behind Stroll in that middle section buddy. But anyway, cheers.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	This conversation clearly happened before the victory lap. Mate what was that? Seriously. I don’t know if I… I think we should retire the car. I think we should retire the car, no point in going to the end. I can see the whole [censored by FOM] left tyre. What are we doing, guys? Seriously.
VL	To Romain Grosjean	Shut up.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	You’re not paying your life here. The tyre is completely gone.
VL	To Romain Grosjean	OK dude so we’ll box to retire the car, retire the car. Box now. It’s the last lap anyway, man, but just bring it in easy.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	I can go the chequered flag if you want, but…
VL	To Romain Grosjean	Yeah we’ll just take the chequer.
VL	From Romain Grosjean	OK.
VL	To Marcus Ericsson	So was a pretty decent race. Good pace. And also we got a five-second time penalty for the collision with Magnussen.
VL	From Marcus Ericsson	OK copy.
VL	To Marcus Ericsson	We could see some big floor or front wing damage.
VL	From Marcus Ericsson	Before that the pace was good.
VL	To Marcus Ericsson	It was good, consistent and quite fast. OK, thank you.
VL	From Marcus Ericsson	I had to try and go for it because, with Vettel there…
VL	To Kevin Magnussen	Just for your reference I think the pace on soft was really good. Really good management. Just unfortunate with the accident with Ericsson.

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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7 comments on “2017 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Nitzo (@webtel)
26th October 2017, 12:01

All Romain had to do was bring the car home safely. It was the last lap anyway. Its not as if he was racing for position, only Kevin and Ericsson were behind.
I am not paying my life here, i understand. But he could have still made it by keeping it safe–something F1 drivers would know with so much of experience. His ‘moaning/whining’ isn’t helping.
1. Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
  26th October 2017, 12:11
  
  Romoan Grosjean
2. Joao (@johnmilk)
  26th October 2017, 18:31
  
  The communication was 3 laps earlier, not on the VL
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th October 2017, 12:02

6 To Pascal Wehrlein: OK Pascal copy, box this lap. We retire the car.
8 From Pascal Wehrlein: Someone crashed completely into me.

F1 sure is dangerous when people crash into you when you are already retired and boxed. ;)
1. Nitzo (@webtel)
  26th October 2017, 12:23
  
  That is only two laps into the future past.
  In Canada,
  Kimi: “Are we going back to tomorrow ? Go back to tomorrow’s set-up?”
  
  I had to pinch myself and check the date twice to make sure i was in the right universe !!!
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
26th October 2017, 12:21

I loved the conversation Grosjean had at the end of the race. But the comment “This conversation clearly happened before the victory lap” may be wrong, if the official start of the victory lap (VL) period happens as soon as the lead driver crosses the finish line. In that case, Grosjean would have been on his last lap when the leaders were on their victory lap. Confusing labelling though.

My favourite message, to Perez: “Checo we need more management. Esteban is doing the management.” Crushing. Almost as brutal as “Shut up”, to Grosjean. Classic from Alonso, too: “Yeah we’ll see in a minute, I don’t care.”

Thanks again for putting these up Keith – lots of insight to be found, and some comedy gold.
ILuvSoundtracks (@)
27th October 2017, 14:52

Lap 14, From Kimi Raikkonen: “Just drive into me but I guess that’s [censored by FOM] OK.”

What happened to Kimi at that time he said that?