Sergio Perez, Force India, Singapore, 2018

Whiting: Teams don’t refer all driver complaints to me

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Race Director Charlie Whiting says teams often choose not to pass complaints from their drivers onto him as they know he will not refer it to the stewards.

What they say

If a driver tells the team to tell me, they don’t always do that. Thankfully. The team filter it. The drivers say ‘tell Charlie this, tell Charlie that’ and they think it’s not worth it, because they know what I’ll say.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

View this post on Instagram

It was a very hard day in which I found myself in a very hard position from the start. As I went out of the first corner I saw Grosjean very close to me on my left and didn’t realize that Esteban was coming in on my right side and we ended up touching. Unfortunately it was my teammate but it could have been any other car. Then we payed off for the extraordinary qualifying we had yesterday and my strategy was compromised by having the softest compound. We stopped very early in the race and then we went out into a lot of traffic in a track where is very hard to overtake. In the incident with Sirotkin I closed the line a bit earlier and I got a well-deserved penalty. Definitely this was the worst day of the year. It’s time to move forward and I’m really looking forward to Russia. Thank you everyone for your support in the bad ones! ••• Un día muy difícil en el que desde la arrancada me encontré en una posición complicada. Al salir de la primera curva vi por mi lado izquierdo que traía a Grosjean muy pegado y por ir cuidándome de él no vi que Esteban venía por mi lado derecho y terminamos tocándonos. Desafortunadamente fue mi compañero de equipo pero pudo haber sido cualquier otro auto. Después pagamos haber tenido una gran calificación y mi estrategia se vio comprometida por llevar el neumático más blando. Paramos muy temprano y salimos al tráfico en una pista súper complicada para pasar. Tuve el incidente con Sirotkin, cerré la línea antes de tiempo y creo que la penalización fue bien merecida. Definitivamente hoy tuvimos el peor día del año. A darle la vuelta a la hoja lo más pronto posible y pronto estaremos nuevamente en Rusia. Gracias a todos por su apoyo en las malas! #SingaporeGP #Checo11 #nevergiveup

A post shared by Checo Pérez (@schecoperez) on

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Comment of the day

As attractive at the 2021 concept cars may look to many, will the real thing eventually look like that? Reader @fer-no65 isn’t so sure…

I think it’s pointless to comment on looks because we’ve seen concepts of future cars thousand times before and they never correspond to reality. Knowing how engineers minds work the cars won’t follow any predetermined design, and rightly so.

The main issue is overtaking and close racing, and that’s what media should be reporting. I’ve not read anywhere about the proposed solutions for closer racing. Maybe Ross didn’t even comment on it.

It’s been all about the proposed looks, which as I mentioned, it’s academic.
@fer-no65

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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29 comments on “Whiting: Teams don’t refer all driver complaints to me”

  1. Speaking of miscellaneous gripes and oddities: I am *this* close to turning off Formula 1 television coverage due to the insufferable amount of unnecessary, intrusive, and downright maddening abundance of bleeps and blips that seem to be increasing in frequency during each successive race broadcast. Pit stop? Text message bleep. Pit exit? Text message bleep. Radio communication? Text message bleep. Fastest lap? Text message bleep.

    …Have I missed any?

    To quote Mr Vettel: ‘What are we doing here?’

    1. And continually asking me to log in when I am already logged in/on
      AMATEURISH!

    2. Embarassing startline bleeps.

      1. I like those bleeps, missing the long one when it goes ‘green’ (lights off).
        I watch F1 closer to the TV than anything else, and at the start I only focus on how quickly the cars get off the line. With the audio cue I don’t have to check the lights.
        Similar during the racing; good when the bleep tells me there is another fastest lap (and by Alonso/Magnussen of all drivers).

    3. Agree with you ! Was thinking the exact same thing yesterday from the grid place info onwards.
      Allthough I do find that the shared information is very welcome during boring races (like yesterday), the bleeps are not necessary and rather annoying.

    4. My reckoning is it’s to keep the “younger generation” interested, you know, the lot that can’t pay attention to a single thing for more than ten minutes so they end up staring at another screen instead. “second screen viewers” as those in the biz might say. A ding or a whoosh reminds them that they were watching something and suddenly now it’s worth paying attention to again.

      That being said I still don’t like it. I miss Bernie…

      1. @hollidog More charitably, you could say it’s attempting to take advantage of how all of us process information in the digital age and present it in a format that is familiar to us and allows more information to be readily digested. That, at least, is how I experience it. My ears do perk up when I hear a ding, and I enjoy it.

        Overall, I’m a big fan of this year’s graphics package. While I still use the timing app, I find I need I refer to it less and less frequently because the intervals are now consistently and continually displayed, and the purple sector/lap notifications give me much of the same information that I used to scour the timing screen for.

        The “pit window open” alert is not that useful, as Keith often notes, but I very much appreciate the average pit stop delta graphic that is shown around the same time. And I wonder if perhaps down the road there will be more pit window graphics with the on-screen timing tower that could, for instance, visualize where in the order drivers are projected to rejoin after a stop, and whether or not they will slot into a gap with clear track.

        1. @markzastrow It’s making it more difficult for me to follow, because it comes across as superfluous junk sensory output. It means useful information gets lost in the useless stuff (for example, I’ve not noticed the pit window graphic since Bahrain because there’s been too much other stuff to filter out).

    5. @newfangled @tenerifeman @john-h @hollidog

      I’m frankly tired of reading complains. Just stop watching it, no one will miss you. I’m a bit too harsh probably, but the grasp about how things were better when they were the way they were before is more boring than the last GP. And I’m not a youngster, I watch F1 since the eighties; I’m just accepting the transition. I’ve rewatched races from some years ago and the video quality, on-screen info, and overall coverage were much worse. We have a video quality now where you can see the eyes of a driver and yet people can only complain about how lame on-screen graphics are.

      The app is a great addition. I hadn’t my tablet with me this Sunday and I really missed it, the opportunity to have the tires situation under control or the lap times. The last release has some problems, I’m writing a review on the App Store and wait until they’ll fix it. They will, Liberty is doing a great job in taking F1 out of the Middle Age it was only a couple of years ago. They’re also experimenting, which is a good thing: the virtual F1 seems to be gone, for instance.

      You don’t like the audio? Mute it. You don’t like the video? Stop watching it. You don’t like the halo? Watch Indy. F1 is not the idea each one of us has in mind. F1 is what it is, if “they” are breaking your toy, go for another toy. Or accept what you don’t like, because along with that, there is a large number of things that changed for good.

      1. @m-bagattini I couldn’t agree more with you. I don’t mind about the TV coverage bleeps at all either. They make zero difference to my concentration on what is happening on the screen.

      2. Great comment there @m-bagattini!

        While i have my gripes about Sky’s team for commentary, the overall quality really is very good and it really does seem like Liberty are both trying to listen and make steps forward to improve things. The simple fact that they take critical comments / feedback without lashing out against that publicly is a huge step forward.

      3. One of F1’s features is the consistent capacity of fans to gripe and only view the past through rose colored glasses.

      4. @m-bagattini F1 (allegedly) would miss the complainers, since any complainer that hasn’t left is helping fuel everyone’s viewing (except for those who are resorting to piracy).

    6. I hadn’t noticed any of those bleeps. What I have noticed is I’m seeing battles happening up all over the place, whereas previously the cameras were glued to the cars at the front.
      Besides that, as soon as Ocon crashed out we had the onboard camera footage from Perez’s car, then from one of the car’s behind, then from Ocon’s car. Sky didn’t have to wait a few minutes to find the right footage, they got the right footage in seconds. That doesn’t just mean Sky have access to 20 on board cameras, they also have the means to select any one of those while the video is being recorded and play it back. I have no idea how they do this, but there’s a lot of coordination between many people and the use of very impressive technology for them to be able to do this.

  2. Haha, did not expect to ever see a Redeye tweet showing up here. Kinda cool, maybe they can get him to present the F1 esports, he’s an incredible host.

    The Ricciardo article should read: Ricciardo expects it will take Renault one year to implement everything he learnt from his years at Red Bull.

  3. One long straight. That, in my opinion, would turn the Marina Bay Street Circuit into a great track, as we would be able to see drivers hustling the cars around the track, trying to keep it within the barriers, but you can still overtake, so the racing is also better. I’m not asking for a 2.2km straight like Baku, but if Singapore had a straight that was 0.9-1km, it would make it far better for the action. Perhaps they don’t do so because they don’t want to increase risk by letting the cars do 300kph+ on such a narrow track with little room for error.

    1. @mashiat I agree, but not sure where it’s possible. I’ve often wondered whether extending the Raffles Boulevard straight around War Memorial Park—essentially taking the “notch” out of the northwest end of the circuit—would help. It’s only an extra 150 metres, but it does get you past the 0.9 km mark. Other than that, I’m not sure where you could find the extra space for a longer straight.

  4. Not buying Perez’s Instagram post. He’s trying to overcompensate with his detailed explanation.

    First of all, he has to be blind to not notice his teammate on the outside. It wasn’t like Ocon was slightly behind him, and Perez’s rear wheels touched Ocon’s front wheels. Ocon was alongside, if not slightly in from of him going in to T3. It was kind of obvious he wanted to squeeze him on the exit. I think Perez got lucky that Force India settle it among themselves instead of reporting it to Charlie.

    In the Sirotkin incident, it was clearly visible that he was losing his marbles while trying to get past Sirotkin. He was ranting on the radio and also asking his team to contact Charlie for some bizarre reason. When he finally got in front, he attempted another squeeze to get the opposing driver to lift. Instead, he just ran in to the side of the driver.

    I think Perez is a little lucky to have not gotten black flagged the way he was driving. Really poor show of sportsmanship and temperament from him.

    1. I think Perez is a little lucky to have not gotten black flagged the way he was driving.

      It did look like a sudden deliberate snap to the left rather than ‘closing the line’, @todfod.
      After side-swiping during SC by Vettel, post-race crashing by that F2 weirdo, and now in race anger fits like this – what’s next?

      At least in Nascar they stick with the good old fistfight ;)

      1. Haha, yes that ‘closing the line’ comment did make me laugh. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so deserving of a black flag for a very very long time.

    2. @todfod I give him the benefit of the doubt for the T3 incident, as he was probably focussing on the inside line, and that was where his attention was.

      1. Likewise. T3 was a racing incident.
        The Sirotkin battle was definitely him losing his cool, but fair play for the apology. Nice to see someone accept full blame for a change.

        1. He didn’t really accept full blame for what the incident actually was though, he said he ‘closed the line’ when in reality he just completely side swiped him. That’s taking the blame with some serious rose tinted glasses.

    3. My guess when seeing the incident was that Perez really did not see Ocon because he was apprehensive / reacting to Grosjean on the other side @todfod.

      After that he must have felt the need to make it up to his team get to him – they reacted to Hulk pitting, but somehow forgot that Sirotkin would try to stay out on his softs until the end of the race.

      He really lost it from frustration with all those complaints behind Sirotkin and I think he should have gotten a far heavier penalty for then barging into the Williams when his move still did not work – then again, Vettel got away with a rage bang in Baku last year, so I guess the stewards feel it is understandable to lose it!

  5. If the top (round-up thumbnail) image is from the opening lap, then the world feed coverage managed to entirely miss Grosjean cutting T1 albeit apparently without gaining any position, LOL.
    – From the Sky-article: “I don’t want to count off a podium next year but I think realistically it has to come under some circumstances, if it’s a bit of a crazy race like Baku 2016 or something.” – You mean 2017.
    – I entirely agree with the COTD.

    1. @jerejj I saw it – Romain appeared to be avoiding a potential crash to his right that ultimately didn’t come to anything.

      1. @alianora-la-canta How? It wasn’t visible from any of the camera angles used for the first corners neither in the live footage nor the replays. Had it been then I’m sure that I, at the very least, would’ve noticed it on one of the angles used for the replays. Nevertheless, a deja vu to twelve months ago to a certain extent when Perez did precisely the same (and had passed Bottas in the process, all of which I only became aware of after the following race weekend in Malaysia when the pre-Malaysian GP drivers’ briefing was uploaded to YT), and coincidently, without being visible on the world feed either due to the amount of spray.

        1. @jerejj It was in the original showing of the first corner (which was when I noticed it), though I think all the replays cut away from the head-on angle before the Haas got there. Presumably Romain’s corner-skip was considered a non-event compared to what was happening around him.

  6. Good point made in the CotD @fer-no65, although I do think that Brawn mentioned that they are working on a car to allow close racing, the slick pictures got all the attention.

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