Hamilton’s rivals unmoved by radio concerns

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton’s displeasure at the radio restrictions which hampered his race in Azerbaijan is not shared by several of his fellow drivers.

Among them are Kimi Raikkonen, who experienced a similar problem to Hamilton in the previous round of the championship.

“I think it’s fine,” said Raikkonen when asked for his view on the radio restrictions. “Obviously there’s certain situations you might have some issues that we want to talk but rules are rules and it’s the same for everybody.”

Raikkonen said his engine settings problem “wasn’t really any big issue” in Baku. “I kind of knew what it is, but just tried to get some confirmed things but it didn’t change anything. It wasn’t anything that we had to know 100% or we would have had some issues.”

Daniel Ricciardo said drivers should understand how to perform settings changes on their engines.

“I think everything we can do is in front of us,” he said. “Some things, if there’s a failure during the race, then the team’s allowed to tell us certain procedures perhaps to fix the failure. For example an electronic thing or whatever it is.”

“But in terms of engine modes, things like that, sure there’s a lot to do but we do know – or we should know, at least – where it all is. So I think we’ve just had to adapt to it, it’s been OK.”

Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez hopes the clamp down on drivers being given assistance via their radios will lead designers to create cars which are simpler to use.

“I have absolutely no problem,” he said. “I like the idea because it will motivate the engineers to get rid of a lot of buttons on the steering wheel. We just need two pedals and one steering wheel to drive.”

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    31 comments on “Hamilton’s rivals unmoved by radio concerns”

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      30th June 2016, 15:45

      After all the views and heated discussions common sense prevails.

      (or should we have a referendum on this as well?)

      1. #Radexit

        In any case drivers are all for radio bann it seems. Especially since they know it is something they might get advantage with, and obviously believe they will doa better job than anyone else.

        1. Yes I agree , it looks like all teams except Mercedes are doing well with the radio ban.

        2. @jureo @redbullf1 After Baku sky asked every driver they interviewed in the pen about the radio ban & all of those they asked said they felt the ban should be lifted.

          1. Exactly! but i think here we have some bias against Hamilton. So quotes are chosen selectively

    2. The radio restrictions. “Obviously there’s certain situations you might have some issues that we want to talk but rules are rules and it’s the same for everybody

    3. As expected, Sky F1 only made this an issue once it affected Hamilton. Then they ask completely unrelated drivers like Bottas about the radio rules post-race instead of his own drive. Then they kept asking different people in the paddock about this until they found someone who supported their views that it was unfair for Lewis. This was after they blamed the sun for Hamilton’s atrocious driving in qualifying. They push their agenda so hard and aggressively it has quickly became a joke/parody of itself.

      1. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
        30th June 2016, 17:21

        COTD right there ^^

      2. @kingshark Post race in Baku Sky asked many drivers about the radio restrictions in the pen including Button, Alonso, Vettel, Verstappen, Rosberg & all of them felt the radio restrictions should be lifted.

        Guess all those drivers as well as the others they asked were also pushing a pro-Lewis agenda?

        I’m no fan of Lewis Hamilton & I despise these absurd radio restrictions!

      3. halifaxf1fan
        30th June 2016, 22:12

        The excuse making for Hamilton by the english media is becoming a joke, I mean blaming the sun was ridiculous but amazingly they kept at it for days. I guess the sun must have been in on some kind of conspiracy to only affect Hamilton and not the rest of the drivers!

      4. @kingshark You said it. It’s really embarrassing. Following them seriously discussing with Mercedes if they were sabotaging their car and other things, it’s now beyond funny. Not doing people’s perception of Brits any favors at all.

    4. Don’t tell Leigh Diffy. He will conclude that there is now a “feud” and that “fireworks” are sure to ensue. I always see these complaints here about Sky but it can’t be worse than NBC. He’s like an Australian Paul Page, but more hysterical and uninformed.

      1. Haha as an American viewer this was hilarious to me. Diffey just makes you cringe half the time. I do like Hobbs and Machet though.

    5. They asked Max after Baku, without him knowing Lewis radio problems, about if it was difficult to have a radio ban. He basically said: “You have to do your homework, that’s your job”.

      I personally believe radio ban should not be an issue. They are highly paid drivers, so they should have the means/time to learn what to do under circumstances.

    6. Well, Alonso e Vettel are also against it. Vettel called it a joke.
      But let’s hit on Hamilton, it’s more fun.

      1. duncan idaho
        1st July 2016, 2:38

        Hamilton and Rosberg caused the ban in the first place, asking how each other took each corner and the like.
        Maybe they should just have banned Mercedes.

        1. LH and NR didn’t cause this, it was the choosing by FOM of what we get to hear that created reaction. The drivers, ahead of Sunday’s race, can, after all sessions, discuss with their engineer where their teammate was faster and why. And always have.

          It is the combination of live coaching that seems to have become out of fashion along with slower race pace than 10 and more years ago, on forgiving tracks, while being unable to push their cars or themselves to any kinds of real limits due to the tires, while still being unable to pass cars while in their dirty air, that has caused this bandage of a way to make life a little harder for the drivers, when there are many better ways that can be employed, some of which are happening for next year.

    7. People didn’t like my comments about this matter after Baku. I rest my case, here you have 3 different drivers saying the same thing: it’s up to them and up to their teams to sort it out. Tough luck otherwise.

      You either do your homework and study all the maps, menues and whatever, or the team works out a system where you don’t have to press kazillion buttons to make things work the way they should.

      F1 is all about engineering anyway, so I don’t see this being any more difficult than trying to design a wing or a diffuser. A good design, by definition, has to fulfill its function efficiently and that also includes being easy to operate and troubleshoot. As always, it’s a compromise. And with every compromise, there’s always the risk that something will fall outside of your sweet spot and you won’t have an easy ride.

      1. And you have 3 drivers, Lewis, Seb and Alonso all slamming the rules…

    8. While I would agree that it was right to clamp down on the driver coaching that we heard a lot of 2-3 years ago I think the additional radio restrictions for this year have gone too far the other way.

      Putting aside the complexities of the cars & if drivers should be able to memorize everything… I just miss hearing as much team radio traffic as we used to hear because its always been an element of the broadcast that I have loved hearing & having practically none of it now really is making me enjoy the broadcast’s much less, Especially when you then watch other categories like Indycar or Formula E where you hear a lot of it & where there are no restrictions at all regarding what can be said.

      Having situations where a driver is having to spend lap after lap without full power just driving around playing with settings unable to properly race is just dumb as far as i’m concerned, Especially when the issue could be resolved in a few seconds if the team could tell him what to change. I’d rather have that car be at full health & give us another competitive car in the race than just be left driving around with a driver not 100% concentrating on the race because he’s fiddling with wheel settings.

      Fine you can argue that the cars should be simplified & I’d agree to a point (Although I actually like some of the complexity as I’m one who appreciates the technical side of the sport) but for the moment the cars are complex & I doubt anything could really be done to simplify them until next year so not much can be done for now.

      I felt that the restrictions they introduced for 2015 were perfectly fine & don’t feel there was any need to introduce further restrictions for this year. They should IMO lift the restrictions introduced this season & just go back to what we had a year ago.
      I just fail to see what benefit the additional restrictions for this year have, They have taken away an element of the sport that many fans liked (Team radio broadcasts) & I don’t see how been unable to tell drivers how to change settings to fix issues has any bearing at all on driver skill when it comes to actually racing/driving the car.

    9. The thing is I think a lot of us agree with the spirit of the rules. Engineers telling a driver to brake 10m later, take a tighter line and use engine mode red 12 on corner exit switching to diff mode 3 for the next chicane is just silly. That stuff is all the drivers job to do and with these new power units a lot of extra time could be found fettling with the mode settings corner to corner during a lap and while making overtakes or defending so the engineers got a lot more involved with coaching than under the V8 era.

      So yeah I’m happy to see that the drivers are now left to their own devices to find time in the car and manage it’s various capabilities.

      But there is a world of difference in the spirit of the rules intending a driver to drive a car unaided and just being able to say ‘dial x being in mode y has been setup wrong by the engineers, switch to mode z and that should solve it’ as a single corrective measure.

      Yes it’s fair that Hamilton couldn’t be told how to fix it just like any other driver couldn’t be told, but just because something is fair doesn’t mean it’s good sport. We possibly missed some on track battles and race drama because of a technicality. I feel the sport looked a joke at that point.

      1. “dial x being in mode y has been setup wrong by the engineers”

        Is there any evidence at all that that’s what happened? As opposed to Hamilton himself entering the wrong setting? Neither he nor Rosberg began the race with their engine modes incorrect. At some point both Hamilton and Rosberg were in the “wrong engine mode”, and both were able to correct it eventually, Rosberg being quicker than Hamilton at doing so.

        if the situation had been reversed and Hamilton won (with a grand slam) while Rosberg complained that he couldn’t figure out his engine settings, I can’t help thinking the reaction of fans and the press would have been sharply different.

        1. “Neither he nor Rosberg began the race with their engine modes incorrect”

          No it was specifically stated on autosport that Hamilton’s issue came from the mechanics, not a change he himself had made.

        2. “Nico was in the more fortunate situation that he did a switch change just before, which kind of led him on the right path. So within half a lap he went back into the right mode. Lewis because he didn’t have that right path, it took him a while to figure it out, 12 laps. And this is what for sure affected his race.”

          Quote from Toto himself. Nico changed mode before the error began so he knew which mode change caused it. Hamilton began the race in the problematic mode so didn’t have the knowledge of which mode was causing the problem.

          People that irrationally dislike one driver or another will find a way to paint their favourite driver in the best light while casting criticism on a driver they don’t like and Hamilton being a very polarising driver gets both extremes of that. Hamilton had a bad weekend through his own fault, but that’s not the topic of discussion. Regardless of which driver this happened to it’s just a silly technicality.

    10. The perplexing issue surrounding the entire Lewis radio ‘saga’ is simply through no fault of his own, his car was setup in the wrong mode and literally no driver would have been able to know what to do under the current rules. Why this has devolved in to comments about Lewis’ lack of preparation, track walks, or his overall lifestyle choices really baffles me.

      1. It’s probably because LH himself recently spoke about doing very little sim time, and not finding track walks particularly useful. His detractors are not pulling that stuff out of thin air, and will use it to support arguments even if they don’t relate to a specific issue or incident. Happens with most drivers I would say.

        1. And what is wrong with what Hamilton said when it is the truth. After you gain experience and considering the practice sessions etc there isn’t really anything much to gain from the sim, especially if you are in the same team for a while.
          Track walks truly are useless on how you drive the F1 car. The track has no relation to the thing you walked on when you take it in an F1 car. Is a completely different experience.

          All this things would have been more useful if F1 had immediate race with no practice no nothing. But as it is such things aren’t really giving any driver doing them any advantage.

    11. They should keep the ban on pit to car radio as it is but allow unrestricted car to car communications. Drivers can then help each other.

    12. “these drivers, they complain too much”, quote Lewis Hamilton at Baku, 2 days before complaining about the radio bans.

      1. Is it not possible for you to make a distinction between Hamilton complaining about drivers saying circuits are too bumpy, and Hamilton complaining that the team cant help him fix his machine?

        PS – now that the radio bans have effected other people, they are now speaking about it, which is funny because a couple of days ago in the press conference in Austria, drivers where disagreeing with Lewis that they don’t have a problem with not being informed of technical issues with the car : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/125131/perez-crash-prompts-new-radio-ban-complaints

        I said at the time, wait until a technical issue affects someone they have an vested interest in, see how their opinion shifts :]

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