2017 Brazilian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Felipe Massa’s son Felipinho must have the distinction of being the youngest person to make an appearance in the team radio communications. He sent a special message at the end of his father’s final home race.

Brazilian Grand Prix in pictures

Massa had plenty to be proud of at the end of a race in which he successfully resisted the attack of his former Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso. Earlier in the race Alonso revealed his plan to stay within range of Massa in order to be able to use DRS to see off the threat from Sergio Perez behind. That worked, but his straight-line speed deficit meant he wasn’t able to find a way past the Williams.

Max Verstappen was also calling the shots on his strategy. Late in the race Red Bull advised him that if he took the opportunity to make a ‘free’ pit stop he would end up further behind the front-runners and less likely to benefit if any of them suffered a late-race drama. Nonetheless, Verstappen came in and took on a fresh set of tyres.

It was a tough race for Massa’s team mate, however. He was astonished by Romain Grosjean’s traction while stuck behind the Haas, then locked up his front-left tyre which, despite his engineer’s assurances about its safety, threw part of its tread and forced him to pit again. His team were quick to urge Stroll to get out of the way of his team mate when Massa and his pursuers came by.

Grosjean lost time due to his first-lap clash with Esteban Ocon and subsequent 10-second penalty. His team didn’t bother telling him about the sanction until the time came to serve it, some 50 laps after the incident, and Grosjean was not impressed to discover he’d been held responsible.

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2017 Brazilian Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap*	Driver	Message
PR	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK Kimi I’ll go through the normal stuff in a second but just to bring you up to speed where we are, the reason why all the fuss earlier was we saw an issue with the telemetry signal being a bit weak so we’re worried we migh tlose telemetry in the race. We did then have problems connecting to the car but that seems to have resolved itself. So the only thing to remind you of in the event we do have a problem with telemetry is to look after your fuel. You’ve got your display, you know how to use it.
PR	To	Potentially an issue with Raikkonen’s engine. It looks like that might be potentially resolved now. Keep an eye out.
PR	To Esteban Ocon	Hamilton also started on softs. Three soft starters: Ricciardo, Ericsson, Gasly
PR	To Valtteri Bottas	So no change track temperature and wind.
FL	From Felipe Massa	Massa prepared for his final home grand prix with a special pre-race message. So guys I’m here. Just an amazing feeling to have here in Brazil for my last race in Formula One. The only thing I can say is thank you very much to all of you guys. I love you, I love you for everything that you guys did for me, really thank you very much.
FL	From Lewis Hamilton	Thanks for getting the car ready, guys.
1	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel any damage, question?
1	From Daniel Ricciardo	I’m not sure, I’ll keep going.
1	To Daniel Ricciardo	Understood.
1	From Romain Grosjean	This message was heard on television broadcasts on lap 21. [Censored by FOM] [censored by FOM] [censored by FOM] I’ve been touched by Ocon from behind. I don’t know if I’ve got any damage. I’ve had a spin, I don’t know what’s the car like.
1	From Stoffel Vandoorne	This message was heard on television broadcasts on lap 3. I got squeezed.
1	To Stoffel Vandoorne	Copy. Is the car OK?
1	From Stoffel Vandoorne	No.
1	To Stoffel Vandoorne	OK Stoffel. In that case if the car’s broken both switches. Right-hand side, ten second pause, then left-hand side.
1	To Esteban Ocon	This message was heard on television broadcasts on lap 3. If you can drive back it would be very slowly back.
1	From Esteban Ocon	I’m not sure I can drive back. Should I try or not?
1	To Esteban Ocon	Yes. Go to race plus. I can’t tell what the car’s like from here. OK park it, find a safe place, turn the engine off.
4	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando bit of a race update for you then. The cars behind are Massa, Perez and Hulkenberg. Grosjean, Wehrlein and Ricciardo have pitted. They mat try and go to the end from here.
5	From Kevin Magnussen	My suspension is gone. Do you want to stop on the track?
5	To Kevin Magnussen	OK, OK.
5	To Max Verstappen	OK how are the track conditions, Max?
5	From Max Verstappen	Yep, sunny.
5	To Max Verstappen	Yeah, any more debris left?
5	From Max Verstappen	Heh, no.
5	To Max Verstappen	Understood.
5	To Max Verstappen	And you’re racing from Safety Car line one, Max, a pass into turn one if possible.
8	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Very poor drive-ability.
8	To Carlos Sainz Jnr	Understood, we’re looking at it
9	To Nico Hulkenberg	OK right-hand-side tyres are starting to get into the danger zone.
10	To Brendon Hartley	Radio check Brendon, radio check. Press the radio button if you can hear me.
11	From Romain Grosjean	He just moved at the last minute, I had to avoid him. Cannot do that.
11	To Romain Grosjean	Understood, we’ll report.
11	To Daniel Ricciardo	Nice job mate great stuff. Gasly next one.
12	To Sergio Perez	Hamilton is now the car behind, one-and-a-half seconds behind on softs, he’s eight tenths a lap faster.
13	To Daniel Ricciardo	Very good. Next one: Sainz.
15	To Daniel Ricciardo	Next car ahead Hulkenberg. Let’s get after him.
16	To Max Verstappen	Max how is our pace relative to Kimi ahead?
16	From Max Verstappen	I’m faster but I’m stuck.
16	To Max Verstappen	Understood, thank you.
16	From Lewis Hamilton	I see Vettel’s pulling away.
16	To Lewis Hamilton	Gap to Vettel at the moment 15 seconds. He needs to start managing some more.
17	From Kimi Raikkonen	The tyres don’t feel great, it’s moving around a lot.
17	To Kimi Raikkonen	Understood Kimi. Rear-right temp’s high as you’ve seen. Hopefully they’ll start to come down.
19	To Daniel Ricciardo	That’s a good lap, 14.6, same pace as Hamilton, same pace as Verstappen on his supers.
19	From Brendon Hartley	Radio check one-two.
19	To Brendon Hartley	Yep radio is back.
19	From Brendon Hartley	OK. Copy.
22	To Valtteri Bottas	It’s important to close that gap now. Close the gap.
22	To Fernando Alonso	Ricciardo has passed Hulkenberg. You’re doing a really good job. Pit window is full at the moment. We are plan A, target lap.
22	From Max Verstappen	The rear tyres, they’re getting warm.
22	To Max Verstappen	Understood.
22	To Daniel Ricciardo	Pace is great, mate, you’re doing a good job, keep it up.
22	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK mate, keep me posted.
24	From Marcus Ericsson	I thought he was supposed to pull away from me?
24	To Marcus Ericsson	Copy that. Stay behind him. Keep pushing, he’s faster than us in sector two.
25	From Pascal Wehrlein	I am losing a lot of power.
25	To Pascal Wehrlein	Copy Pascal we’re still checking, keep pushing. At the moment pace is still good.
25	To Fernando Alonso	We are P9. There are two cars in front yet to stop. That’s Ricciardo and Perez. You are much quicker than Perez. Both should come out behind you. How you are driving the tyres should be good to the end.
25	From Fernando Alonso	Yeah I would like to catch Massa to have the DRS.
25	To Fernando Alonso	OK so it’s important to close that gap now, close that lap.
26	From Lewis Hamilton	The super-soft’s looking quite good, huh?
27	From Max Verstappen	I’m struggling a lot now.
27	To Max Verstappen	Copy Max.
27	From Lance Stroll	It’s very hard to overtake this one. He has very good traction out of the hairpins.
28	To Fernando Alonso	Fernando G6. 100% pace. How’s the balance.?
28	From Fernando Alonso	A little bit oversteering. And I cannot use G6 now, it’s wasting.
28	To Fernando Alonso	Understood.
29	From Max Verstappen	Yeah this is almost undriveable now.
29	To Max Verstappen	OK copy that.
29	From Max Verstappen	OK I really want to box.
29	To Max Verstappen	Just stay out for this lap, Max.
29	From Max Verstappen	Yeah but look how much time I am losing.
29	To Max Verstappen	Understood.
29	To Sergio Perez	Checo plan B.
30	From Carlos Sainz Jnr	Yeah front tyres are nearly finished because of many flat spots. Rears five more laps, something like that.
31	From Lewis Hamilton	Quite good pace but the rear doesn’t feel spectacular.
31	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK Daniel Max is the next car behind you now around three seconds behind you. He is on fresh soft tyres, don’t hold him up please.
31	From Daniel Ricciardo	Understood.
33	To Kimi Raikkonen	OK Kimi quick update: Option pace looks good on Hamilton, he has been quite quick so I think it’ll be fine for us too. He has got some blistering but it’s not affecting his pace. And obviously Hamilton is going to be as threat to us at the end of this race.
34	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando, Perez, who has stayed out, has lost time. We want best pace to the end.
34	From Fernando Alonso	What is the gap to Massa and who is quicker?
34	To Fernando Alonso	Gap to Massa 2.2, he’s managing his pace.
35	To Kimi Raikkonen	Nice lap Kimi, quickest man on track.
36	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando race update. We are P9. There are two cars in front yet to stop, that’s Ricciardo and Perez. You are much quicker than Perez. Both should come out behind you. And Fernando how you’re driving the tyres should be good to the end.
36	From Fernando Alonso	Yeah. I would like to catch Massa to have the DRS.
38	From Pascal Wehrlein	Yeah there’s nothing I can try.
38	To Pascal Wehrlein	Understood Pascal. Nonetheless last lap time was good, three-tenths quicker than Gasly and we are racing Gasly.
39	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK for info the leaders pitted after around 27, 28 laps on their super-softs. They were starting to struggle. Remember there was quite a lot of Safety Car laps involved as well. That’s why we think it’s still a bit early at the moment. There are still 36 laps to go.
39	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK. Undestood. I think I can hold this.
39	To Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah that’s good stuff mate.
41	From Fernando Alonso	Gap to Massa every lap.
41	To Fernando Alonso	Last lap 2.8. Perez plus 6.7.
41	From Fernando Alonso	Perez I don’t care. He will come, nothing we can do. We catch Massa or we are in danger.
41	To Fernando Alonso	OK, let’s go get him then.
41	To Lance Stroll	Jesus he has good traction. How is this possible with 30 lap tyres?
42	To Brendon Hartley	Box Brendon box we are to retire the car.
42	From Brendon Hartley	Copy, box.
42	From Lewis Hamilton	I’ve lost time to Vettel.
42	To Lewis Hamilton	Yeah copy. He’s got to get through them too.
44	From Daniel Ricciardo	Starting to strggle.
44	To Daniel Ricciardo	Understood.
44	From Daniel Ricciardo	Just can’t lean on it any more.
45	To Max Verstappen	OK so this will be blue flags for Stroll and Grosjean. They’re racing.
45	From Max Verstappen	They just keep racing.
46	To Lewis Hamilton	OK Lewis currently P5 at the moment. We are chasing a podium.
47	To Felipe Massa	That’s Ricciardo behind. He has DRS. Don’t make it too easy for him but he’s not really in our race.
48	From Max Verstappen	Is the wind increasing in turn three because I’m all over the place?
48	To Max Verstappen	It is gusty in three.
48	To Pierre Gasly	Fantastic job.
49	From Lewis Hamilton	Lost another two seconds just there. Wouldn’t let me by.
49	To Lewis Hamilton	Yeah copy we saw that.
51	To Valtteri Bottas	So based on Lewis’s wear we’re not concerned about your wear.
52	From Romain Grosjean	OK if I’m faster than the guy, can I overtake or can I not?
52	To Romain Grosjean	If you’re faster you can overtake. He has to pull away.
52	To Romain Grosjean	Box now Romain, we have a 10-second penalty, box now.
52	From Romain Grosjean	For what?
52	To Romain Grosjean	For the Ocon incident.
52	From Romain Grosjean	You must be kidding me. You must be kidding me.
52	To Romain Grosjean	Yeah so we’ll just be sitting there before the stop, before they commence work.
53	From Lewis Hamilton	Just to make a note of car feeling different.
53	To Lewis Hamilton	OK, copy.
55	To Max Verstappen	Do you think you can cope with plus one on your brake balance offset?
55	From Max Verstappen	No. The tyres feel like rocks. So stiff. Unbelievable.
55	From Lance Stroll	Ah this [censored by FOM] flat spot.
55	To Lance Stroll	The flat spot is OK in terms of safety so no problem.
55	From Lance Stroll	Yeah I know it but I can’t drive because the balance is killing me, the understeer.
55	To Lance Stroll	OK.
56	From Daniel Ricciardo	Did Max’s right-rear run hot as well on this compound?
56	To Daniel Ricciardo	Yes right-rear same temperature as you now. Your left-rear is nice and cool but your right-rear is the same as he had. He did 28 laps.
56	From Daniel Ricciardo	Was he in trouble at the end?
56	To Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah same as us on the soft, same symptoms you had on the soft, that’s why we’ve been a bit cautious, mate.
60	To Max Verstappen	Alright nothing you can do about that Max. So we just need to bring this home now, mate.
60	To Lewis Hamilton	Nice work Lewis that’s P4. Raikkonen next car ahead.
61	To Sergio Perez	Tyres now fine to push until the end.
62	From Max Verstappen	Can we make a pit stop because the tyres are horrible?
62	To Max Verstappen	Max at the moment our preference would be to stay out just to be able to capitalise and stay as close as possible to the guys ahead. I’m afraid that is the quickest way to the end of the race at this stage.
62	From Max Verstappen	Yeah but I don’t think we will stay close if within ten laps I’m drifting all over the track.
62	To Max Verstappen	I understand but with the laps remaining you wouldn’t necessarily make up and get back to your track position on the super.
62	From Max Verstappen	Oh sure but we will stay in fifth anyway so what’s the problem. This is just a lot more difficult to drive. Ah rear tyres are gone.
62	To Max Verstappen	Copy.
64	To Valtteri Bottas	Ten laps remaining. Vettel has been told to look manage his tyres so if there’s anything left let’s go and attack him.
64	To Daniel Ricciardo	OK so for info Verstappen has boxed again. Same issues as we had at the end of our stint, same issues. I’m happy with our tyres the way they are.
68	To Lewis Hamilton	Go HPP7 to position two for a bit more poke.
69	From Lance Stroll	Woah the tyres, something’s on the tyre.
69	To Lance Stroll	OK, understood.
69	From Lance Stroll	Yeah I think it’s finito.
69	To Lance Stroll	Watch out behind is Felipe. Felipe racing eh, let Felipe go. There’s a train of Felipe, Alonso, Perez.
69	From Lance Stroll	OK but I’m boxing?
69	To Lance Stroll	Yeah you box.
69	To Max Verstappen	OK so Stroll has suffered a tyre failure. Possible debris around turn eight.
70	To Lewis Hamilton	Just keep the pressure on, Lewis, nothing to lose.
71	From Pascal Wehrlein	How many laps to go? I think the tyres will explode.
71	To Pascal Wehrlein	You finish this lap and then it’ll be the last lap.
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	Yes! We won it! Great drive.
VL	To Sebastian Vettel	Seb, grande gara.
VL	From Sebastian Vettel	Woohoo. Grazie ragazzi. Forza Ferrari. Grande gara. Grazie! Danke!
VL	To Valtteri Bottas	So good job Valtteri. Just didn’t fall our way today.
VL	From Valtteri Bottas	Yeah sorry guys we lost it in the start. Otherwise the pace was OK compared to Ferrari but there was nothing we could do. Thank you guys.
VL	To Kimi Raikkonen	Nice job Kimi nice drive. Thank you mate. Perfect.
VL	To Kimi Raikkonen	Bravo Kimi. Well done Kimi.
VL	To Lewis Hamilton	Nice work Lewis. That was close mate very close but P4, got to be hapy with that, only 5.4 seconds off the lead.
VL	To Max Verstappen	Alright Max that’ll be it. Fifth place.
VL	From Max Verstappen	That was a good effort Max. Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace today. You got the fastest lap at the end of it but a bit of a static race unfortunately.
VL	To Daniel Ricciardo	Good race today mate. Good recovery.
VL	From Daniel Ricciardo	Yep. Thanks guys. Can’t complain. Cheers, thank you.
VL	To Daniel Ricciardo	For info the incident with the three cars at turn two at the start of the race is going to be investigated after the race. We’ll see what happens.
VL	From Daniel Ricciardo	OK. Obviously I was on the outside I couldn’t really see much. So I’ll let you tell me after.
VL	To Daniel Ricciardo	Yeah understood mate. It looked like Vandoorne clipped your left-rear. Right-rear, sorry
VL	To Daniel Ricciardo	That was a good effort Daniel, some nice moves into turn one.
VL	From Daniel Ricciardo	Thanks Christian, cheers boys.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Brilliant job Felipe.
VL	From Felipe Massa	Come on!
VL	To Felipe Massa	Thank you Felipe, terrific job, that was such a great drive. Thank you. It’s been an absolute pleasure.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Obrigado, Felipe. Absolutely brilliant drive. Nice job. It’s been an absolute pleasure.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Well done mate, brilliant drive. Thank you so much. Excellent, excellent drive.
VL	From Felipe Massa	Thank you mate, thank you.
VL	To Felipe Massa	Daddy I’m so proud of you and wherever you go I will support you. I love you. By the way, I loved your start.
VL	From Felipe Massa	Thank you, I love you all. Thank you so much. I love all of you guys.
VL	To Fernando Alonso	OK Fernando nice race. P8. Almost had him.
VL	From Fernando Alonso	Yeah very good. We definitely deserved the points today. Deserved the points many times but today we achieve it. Obviously with a normal speed we could finish top five, top four easily. So next year’s going to be fun.
VL	To Fernando Alonso	Yeah mate. Great race and a great weekend.
VL	To Sergio Perez	Good go Checo but P9 I’m afraid there.

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 Brazilian Grand Prix

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13 comments on “2017 Brazilian Grand Prix team radio transcript”

Gigantor (@kbdavies)
16th November 2017, 13:20
Tyres. Tyres. Tyres. These Pirelli tyres are just something else.
They are inconsistent within the same batch. They are inconsistent across different stints (on same car), They are inconsistent regarding operating temperature range and windows – even when they are identical. They are inconsistent across the cars in the same teams. They are inconsistent across different cars and different teams. They are inconsistent in practice, qualifying and race – even when conditions are the same
They simply cannot be relied upon to behave in a consistent manner using ANY parameter. How on earth did we get here where a tyre manufacturer finds it impossible to build a compound/s that behave consistently in ANY given circumstance??
1. Matthijs (@matthijs)
  17th November 2017, 9:43
  @kbdavies You’re being harsh. It’s only logical that drivers and teams constantly communicate about tyres, tyre condition is one of the most important parameters in a race. I’m sure that in the Bridgestone era there were many messages about tyres too.
eljueta (@eljueta)
16th November 2017, 15:08
From Romain Grosjean
[Censored by FOM] [censored by FOM] [censored by FOM] I’ve been touched by Ocon from behind.
5 other people since then have come out exposing Ocon for his unacceptable behaviour.
1. Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
  16th November 2017, 15:34
  Assuming you meant Grosjean.
2. Reggio (@reggio68)
  16th November 2017, 16:14
  +1 , Historical incidents presumably? :-D
3. Phylyp (@phylyp)
  16th November 2017, 17:12
  @eljueta – funny and contextual in a non-F1 way, nicely done :-)
  @ho3n3r – two words: Harvey Weinstein.
4. Matthijs (@matthijs)
  17th November 2017, 9:38
  @eljueta Well done!
  On a serious note: in what parallel universe does Grosjean live that he actually believes that Ocon touched him from behind? Or was he referring to the first corner where he allegedly got a puncture after contact (with Vandoorne I believe).
thedonz
16th November 2017, 16:43
‘Felipe Massa’s son Felipinho must have the distinction of being the youngest person to make an appearance in the team radio communications. He sent a special message at the end of his father’s final home race.’
are you sure?
wasn’t Max Verstappen younger than Felipinho is now when Max first raced a formula 1 car?
1. Ashwin (@redbullf1)
  16th November 2017, 20:11
  Hmm… Felipinho is 8 years old
  1. Thedonz
    17th November 2017, 6:47
    Exactly……
VVish
16th November 2017, 22:18
Grosjean is such an annoying character when behind the wheel… Loudly blaming Ocon for his own lack of caution.
1. BigJoe
  17th November 2017, 11:14
  It was all ‘crybaby’ Alonso’s fault.
Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
17th November 2017, 20:42
Felipe’s son on the radio is my favourite ever team radio moment.