[jodrell]

Is there any technical regulation in F1 that prevent a teams drivers from talking to each other during a race or is this simply a choice made by the teams?

I was thinking that a couple of times during the race on Sunday Hamilton could have been talking to Rosberg…when the team order came Hamilton telling Rosberg directly that he wasn’t close enough yet.

Secondly towards the end Hamilton could have done with Rosberg catching up faster to put pressure on Riccardo to make him go on the defensive…I’m thinking like something out of Top Gun “Get you ass over here Nico, this bogey’s all over me!”

:-D

[RyanDixon]

I don’t think that there are any technical regulations on car to car radios however the problems it may cause would mean that it wouldn’t be worthwhile. We hear of radio problems throughout weekends and that is just from the pits to the car. Having to try and create radio channels for every car to connect to the car of a team mate, as well as the pits for both cards means that it wouldn’t be easily implement. Add that with the radio waves given off from the TV crews, radio crews and just general interference from fan mobiles ect means that it wouldn’t be worthwhile.

Another downside is that what stops a driver from giving another driver and ear full of noise when they are about to go round a corner? If the two drivers are going side-by-side what is to stop one from screaming and distracting another? Sounds childish but could be a problem. Although it would make the race more interesting having Nico and Lewis having a barmy.

[GeorgeDaviesF1]

Would be quite amusing if not practical!

[Anonymous]

Can you imagine if Prost and Senna had been able to talk to each other during the 1988/89 seasons?! How might that have gone! Or Mansell/Piquet (1986/7); Alonso/Hamilton (2007); or Reutemann/every teammate (each year!)

[GT Racer]

I’m fairly sure that driver to driver radio is actually banned, If not by regulation then by an agreement as I was told some years ago that while possible there not allowed to do it.

It used to be done in Nascar, Drivers could tune into the frequencies of other drivers (Not just teammates either) & would often discuss drafting & other tactics (Especially useful on the 2 restrictor plate tracks, Daytona & Talladega).

However Nascar banned that 2-3 years ago because drivers were using it to plan the 2 car drafts (1 car bump drafting the other all round the track) as well because it was thought it could be used to block faster cars.
Drivers also said it was a bit distracting when they were having to try & remember what frequency they needed for which car & having to concentrate on the driving & switching the frequencies over.

Here’s an example of it-

[Chris Lawson]

Actually happened at Silverstone in 1998 in the wet. Something went wrong with Ferrari’s radio and Schumacher and Irvine were able to talk to each other (doubt Irvine told him to take his stop-go penalty after the chequered flag though!)

[Anonymous]

@chrislawson I was at that race! No-one had any idea what was going on that last lap – even now, amazing that Schumacher received no further punishment for serving a penalty after the flag fell!

[Author]

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