From Daniil Kvyat swearing to Fernando Alonso despairing, it was business as usual on the team radios during the Canadian Grand Prix.
A series of frustrations raised Kvyat’s ire, which grew so great his engineer warned him to mind his language at one point. First his car failed to get away on the formation lap, then he was unable to regain his correct grid position at the start, incurring a penalty.
The stewards botched his penalty which meant Kvyat had to serve it in two parts. And his misery was capped when a wheel nut problem left him stuck in the pits. That cost him so much time the team decided to retire his car.
Meanwhile Fernando Alonso was doing his best to keep his McLaren in a strategically strong position due to his car’s obvious weakness on the straights. The Honda’s lack of grunt was exacerbated by a headwind on a blustery day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
It was a straightforward race for Lewis Hamilton who won as he pleased. On the way he kept tabs on Sebastian Vettel’s progress, though his race engineer was eager to keep his own race the subject of their discussions.
Even before the mid-point of the race it was clear a row was brewing at Force India. After the drivers diverged on strategy Sergio Perez, who had led early on, was anxious for updates on how his team mate was getting along.
When Esteban Ocon appeared behind him and began lobbying for a switch of running order so he could make a bid for the podium, Perez was unwilling to co-operate: Even when his team offered to ensure he got his position back if Ocon was unable to pass the car ahead.
The pair had a feisty exchange on the final lap and Ocon revealed his displeasure at his team mate’s driving.
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2017 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Lap* | Driver | Message |
---|---|---|
PR | To Fernando Alonso | Fernando we think Magnussen and Wehrlein on prime tyres. Everyone else on option. That’s what we think. |
FL | From Daniil Kvyat | There is no any anti-stall. Clutch failure guys. Yep, OK, I go. Can I recover positions until the Safety Car? |
FL | To Daniil Kvyat | Copy, copy. |
2 | To Kevin Magnussen | OK the situation looks promising. You and Wehrlein are the only cars on the reverse strategy. Really promising. |
3 | From Felipe Massa | Unbelievable. I have no idea what’s happened, man. Somebody just pushed me completely. |
3 | To Fernando Alonso | Kvyat had a problem. He was late leaving the grid. He will try to recover his position by Safety Car one line. |
3 | From Fernando Alonso | He didn’t. He was behind me. |
3 | From Fernando Alonso | I mean, what they are doing? What crazy start, you know. They need to calm down. |
3 | To Lewis Hamilton | So you now control the pace, remember the restart. |
6 | From Sebastian Vettel | Check the aero numbers, front-left. Seems I have quite a lot of understeer. There’s little grip on the front-left. There seems to be an issue. I think I have damage on the front wing. |
6 | To Sebastian Vettel | Yeah the front wing, we see a big loss, so we need to box and change it. |
6 | From Sebastian Vettel | Maybe we can delay that, stop a little bit… |
6 | To Sebastian Vettel | There is a risk to damage the car and it is too dangerous, so box now. |
7 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | OK Stoff that’s a good start to the race. Now let’s settle in, use the tow if we can. |
8 | From Romain Grosjean | Grosjean fumed at Sainz. What, what a mental guy. What was that? Box, I think I’ve got damage on the front wing. What a mental guy. Twice he hit me. Mental. |
8 | To Romain Grosjean | OK box now we’ll change the front wing. |
9 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK mate so let’s push now. Make a good gap to Perez behind. |
9 | From Sebastian Vettel | Vettel’s car had bargeboard damage. I think I lost some piece of the front wing again. Check the numbers. Something came off before braking for turn three/four. |
12 | To Sergio Perez | How has the car balance been for aero balance, Checo? |
12 | From Sergio Perez | I’m comfortable with it. Just struggling with the wind and traction, traction is quite poor. |
13 | From Kevin Magnussen | There is a Ferrari cap under the bridge into turn eight, can they remove that? |
13 | To Kevin Magnussen | A Pirelli cap you said? OK understood, reported. |
16 | To Marcus Ericsson | OK Marcus. Palmer is much slower than you on these tyres. We need to close the gap. |
16 | To Daniil Kvyat | Danny, box for drive-through penalty. We have a drive-through penalty. We were not in front of Alonso before the… |
16 | From Daniil Kvyat | Ah, [censored by FOM] sake. |
16 | To Daniil Kvyat | Just push Danny, we’ll see what we can do. |
19 | To Sergio Perez | Push, use everything from the tyre. |
19 | From Fernando Alonso | Will be difficult to defend on the straights so think about the strategy if we can. |
19 | To Fernando Alonso | Understood. At the moment we’re still thinking Plan A around the target stop lap. |
19 | From Fernando Alonso | OK there is a lot of headwind on the straight so if you are leading it’s difficult to keep the position. |
19 | To Kevin Magnussen | This is absolutely awesome. Keep fighting like that. |
20 | From Nico Hulkenberg | That’s a good idea to pit [unclear]. |
20 | To Nico Hulkenberg | Roger that, Nico. |
20 | From Nico Hulkenberg | This message did not immediately follow the previous reply. What a [censored by FOM] idiot! |
21 | To Fernando Alonso | Cars immediately behind are Ricciardo, Perez, Raikkonen, all of whom have pitted. The nextcar that’s a threat to us is Magnussen. He’s plus 8.9 but we are pulling away from him. |
23 | To Fernando Alonso | And Fernando please avoid short-shift third to fourth. |
23 | From Fernando Alonso | Where, where I’m doing that? |
24 | From Lewis Hamilton | OK Lewis so we’re thinking soft tyre for next stint. Ricciardo is on it now. He’s doing a 17.0. |
24 | To Lewis Hamilton | This tyre’s lasting really well now, though. |
24 | From Lewis Hamilton | OK Valtteri’s in the pits now, he’s going to the soft, we’ll have a look at it. |
25 | To Kevin Magnussen | Pace is really good. |
26 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK mate you’re doing a good job. Let’s keep it smooth. |
27 | To Fernando Alonso | OK Fernando this pace is good. We’re looking at Plan A plus five. |
27 | From Fernando Alonso | You are not giving me useful information. I need the pace of Magnussen. I need other things. |
27 | To Fernando Alonso | Magnussen is still plus 7.7. We are matching his pace. He’s doing 18.2s as well. |
28 | From Fernando Alonso | I don’t think the prime is a good tyre. Raikkonen is pulling away too slowly. Same as Vettel, catching us too slowly. |
28 | To Fernando Alonso | OK understood, we’ll have a good look at the data. |
29 | From Sergio Perez | How is Ocon doing? What is Ocon doing? |
29 | To Sergio Perez | Ocon stayed out. He’s in free air. You’re still in his pit window and pace is very similar to him. |
32 | From Lewis Hamilton | Small vibration from a lock-up. |
32 | From Esteban Ocon | Getting less grip now. |
33 | From Romain Grosjean | The super-softs are not working today. That’s why we’re struggling with the grip. |
33 | From Daniil Kvyat | What a [censored by FOM]. [Censored by FOM]. |
33 | To Daniil Kvyat | Copy Danny, copy. Watch your word as well, please. |
34 | From Fernando Alonso | Embarrassing power with this mode. |
38 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | We’re going to go longer. |
38 | From Stoffel Vandoorne | OK. |
40 | To Lewis Hamilton | So Vettel is a 16.4. He’s on 32-lap-old super-soft tyres. Currently sitting P7. |
40 | From Lewis Hamilton | Guess he’s doing a two-stop? |
40 | To Lewis Hamilton | We think everyone is definitely on the one-stop. |
40 | To Sebastian Vettel | Keep pushing. Are you at full speed? We are considering plan B. We pit stop soon. |
40 | From Sebastian Vettel | Yeah I’m at full speed. The tyres are pretty worn. Quite a lot of sliding. |
41 | To Fernando Alonso | How’s the front wing level? |
41 | From Fernando Alonso | Try less to get some traction. |
42 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Box this lap, Kimi. We’re going to try something. We’re going quali tyres. We’re going to be close with Alonso on exit. We’ll need to push on exit. |
43 | From Daniil Kvyat | Did Alonso stop yet? |
43 | To Daniil Kvyat | No, he didn’t. |
44 | From Sebastian Vettel | Do we believe the other cars have to stop? |
44 | To Sebastian Vettel | No, they don’t. |
45 | To Stoffel Vandoorne | Car behind is Stroll. Hold up Stroll if you can. |
46 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK so Seb is staying out. He’s going to try and overtake those Force Indias. We just keep going as we are. Good pace. |
48 | From Lewis Hamilton | What position is Vettel in? |
48 | To Lewis Hamilton | So Vettel back in P6. |
48 | From Lewis Hamilton | Is he coming through the pack? |
48 | To Lewis Hamilton | Negative he’s still on used super-soft tyre. |
48 | From Lewis Hamilton | Do you think he’s going to make it to the end on those tyers? |
48 | To Lewis Hamilton | We’re not sure how he’ll get on but your level of management is excellent. |
48 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK Daniel how are the tyres at the moment? |
48 | From Daniel Ricciardo | Just really hard to lean on them. Just feels very much like it’s on top of the surface. Just trying to manage. |
48 | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK Daniel understood. If you can sustain this level of pressure for a bit, Perez will start to struggle again. So keep it smooth, keep it clean. |
48 | From Daniel Ricciardo | Yep understood. |
48 | From Sergio Perez | What else can I use? |
48 | To Sergio Perez | Checo with energy we’re full deploy, that’s everything. |
48 | To Kevin Magnussen | Come on junior, push, give everything. |
50 | To Valtteri Bottas | Magnussen has got a blue flag. |
50 | From Valtteri Bottas | He’s not moving over. |
50 | To Valtteri Bottas | Copy that. |
50 | From Sebastian Vettel | Do you think we will get them at the end? |
50 | To Sebastian Vettel | Yep we think so. Should catch them and have eight laps to battle. |
50 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK Seb is in this lap. K1 both straights. You will be in front though. K1 both straights. |
52 | From Esteban Ocon | I can probably pass Ricciardo. |
52 | To Sergio Perez | Checo, Esteban is pushing, saying he can overtake Ricciardo if given the chance. So do what you can. |
52 | From Sergio Perez | Yeah, Ricciardo will deg off in a couple of laps. |
53 | From Sebastian Vettel | How are we doing? |
53 | To Sebastian Vettel | You are the fastest car on track. Keep pushing like this. |
54 | From Daniil Kvyat | I had some strange vibration in the engine. Exit of turn three. |
54 | To Daniil Kvyat | Box Danny. You will have a ten second penalty. Don’t worry, we are still fighting for P10. |
54 | From Daniil Kvyat | What for? |
54 | To Daniil Kvyat | Don’t worry. Ten second penalty. Box box. |
55 | To Daniil Kvyat | Stop the engine, Danny. |
55 | From Daniil Kvyat | I stopped the engine. |
57 | To Sergio Perez | Checo at the end of this lap we would like to give you three laps to attack Ricciardo. Otherwise we will have to switch. Ferraris are closing. |
57 | From Sergio Perez | It’s a waste of time, man. Ricciardo is degging off. I want the chance to overtake him. I mean, let us race, man. Please. |
57 | To Sergio Perez | Checo the plan is we want to attack before the Ferraris arrive behind us so we are on that plan. If we switch and Ocon couldn’t get past we would switch back. |
57 | From Sergio Perez | Ricciardo, I want the chance to go into the lapped cars. Just leave me alone now. Give me the chance now. We will pick up some traffic. There will be an opportunity. |
58 | From Jolyon Palmer | Very weird feeling from the rear, there. |
59 | To Romain Grosjean | Wind has changed. Crosswind from the left into 13. |
60 | To Daniil Kvyat | Box Danny box. We will retire the car. Wait a second and switch off. Sorry for that. |
60 | From Daniil Kvyat | [Censored by FOM] hell, guys. |
60 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK Kimi you know the score. The front of this group is the podium. Let’s try and push on. |
62 | To Sebastian Vettel | Very good lap. Keep pushing like this. Ricciardo lap time 16.8. They are struggling. They report they are struggling, Ricciardo, Perez comms. |
62 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK Kimi so when we get within DRS we’ll have engine five and OBR will be available. But it’s important to catch quickly. |
62 | From Kimi Raikkonen | Yeah what’s wrong with my brakes? Keep losing the bite. |
62 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK we’re checking on data. |
64 | To Daniel Ricciardo | Doing a relly good job, mate. Keep it smooth. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | I have a BBW fail. What can you do. |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | What can I do? |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | I’m going to get back to you. DDC seven on. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | Still system is failing. |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK let me see what we’re going to do next. It may have come back, Kimi, just try this corner. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | No it’s not. |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK it seems the recovery is not working. I’ll get back to you in a second. Keep going as you are if you can. So DDD four zero on. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | It’s still not working. |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | So DDA four two on. And can you push OBR button to on, push the OBR button, it’s important. And DDA forty-two on. |
64 | From Kimi Raikkonen | Raikkonen also swore in Finnish. So is it four D or forty-two? |
64 | To Kimi Raikkonen | Forty-two, Kimi. |
67 | To Esteban Ocon | So keep pushing up to Perez, he will be in trouble soon. |
67 | From Esteban Ocon | Vettel cut the track. |
67 | To Esteban Ocon | Vettel cut the track. So push now he’ll have dirty tyres and he won’t have DRS. Use your energy. |
68 | To Kimi Raikkonen | OK Kimi we’re just going to be nursing this car home until the end. |
69 | From Fernando Alonso | Engine. Engine blow-up. |
VL | To Lewis Hamilton | Nice work Lewis. Excellent race, mate. Walk in the park for you today. |
VL | From Lewis Hamilton | Hamilton: Fantastic job guys. Well deserved. Great points for the team. Well done to Valtteri as well. |
VL | To Valtteri Bottas | Great job Valtteri. That’s P1 and P2. First one-two of the season. |
VL | From Valtteri Bottas | Thank you guys, we all deserve the one-two. Really good job. Thanks for the car, guys. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | OK mate that’s it nice job P3. |
VL | From Daniel Ricciardo | Holy [censored by FOM] that was busy. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | Yeah you had a bit on there mate. Very good. Very solid. No mistakes. Very consistent. Good pace. Nice job. |
VL | To Daniel Ricciardo | Well done Daniel really good drive. Not a single mistake. Well done. |
VL | From Sebastian Vettel | Ah was one lap too little. I should have got past Perez the last before. Ah, you lose a lot when you follow so close. I don’t know what Ocon was doing. He was moving quite a lot under braking. Was a bit hairy. Nice race, nice recovery. But I think the car deserved more today. Start was actually OK but Bottas was a bit kamikaze considering how dirty and slippery it was. But that’s how it goes sometimes. |
VL | From Sergio Perez | Good job guys. |
VL | To Sergio Perez | Well done Checo. God job . Well done. |
VL | From Sergio Perez | At the end I had no front-left tyre. Couldn’t defend from Vettel. |
VL | From Esteban Ocon | He cannot do that. He moved at the last moment, what is this? Dangerous. This is not fair, guys. I mean he cannot do that. It’s not fair racing at all. |
VL | To Esteban Ocon | Copy that. You’ve done a good job. |
VL | To Kimi Raikkonen | Sorry for that Kimi. Obviously we knew you were pushing hard. |
VL | To Nico Hulkenberg | OK Nico good effort. P8, not a bad result. Well done Nico. |
VL | To Lance Stroll | Great job. P9. Seventeenth to ninth. Good job. |
VL | From Lance Stroll | Yes. Finally a point! Better late than never. Thank you guys. That was a good race. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | Chequered flag. P10. Thanks for staying with it. Good job. |
VL | From Romain Grosjean | Good job guys. Yep, that’s the whole race on one set of tyres. Really struggled at some places. Got better to the end. Great strategy, good job. Surprised the car is still going straight though. |
VL | To Romain Grosjean | Understood. The wind was moving around a lot but the information was not matching what you felt? |
VL | From Romain Grosjean | No. |
VL | To Jolyon Palmer | That was the chequered flag, Jo, you’re P11. Good race, good pace. |
VL | From Jolyon Palmer | [Censored by FOM] sake. |
VL | To Kevin Magnussen | Well done guys. Congrats on the points. |
VL | From Kevin Magnussen | Good job Kevin. It’s Guenther. Good job. You helped us get this point. Thank you. |
VL | To Marcus Ericsson | OK Marucs that’s it. P13. Well done. I think that’s the best we could hope for straegy-wise and pace-wise. The lap time was not bad. Well done. |
VL | To Stoffel Vandoorne | We finished 14th. Finishing order Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Vettel, Perez, Ocon, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Stroll and Grosjean. |
VL | From Stoffel Vandoorne | Yeah difficult race with fuel saving and then what happened at the restart with Magnussen. Completely put me off so I lost a lot of position and pace 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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Canadian Grand Prix data
2017 Canadian Grand Prix
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Hamilton takes first Driver of the Weekend win of 2017
- Canadian GP rated highly despite no fight at the front
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix Star Performers
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sean
14th June 2017, 13:26
Vittu!
Jere (@jerejj)
15th June 2017, 8:45
+1
Dennis (@dennis65)
14th June 2017, 14:19
Wonder what Verstappen said when his car broke down :)
@F1-liners (@f1-liners)
14th June 2017, 15:59
[censored by FOM] ;)
Blakk76
14th June 2017, 16:58
Nothing, his radio was shut down because of power failure too
MacLeod (@macleod)
14th June 2017, 17:24
He said the radio went also black otherwise he would be on the top of swearing. (said Max himself)
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
14th June 2017, 14:39
Can someone make sense of Alonso, lap 28? “I don’t think the prime is a good tyre. Raikkonen is pulling away too slowly. Same as Vettel, catching us too slowly.”
OOliver
14th June 2017, 14:43
Alonso felt he still had good life in his tyres.
sumedh
14th June 2017, 14:48
Prime refers to Supersofts here. He is commenting that Raikkonen and Vettel’s pace is nothing special. He felt he should be put on the soft tyre at his pit stop.
E. Morales (@killer)
15th June 2017, 2:07
Who was Ocon complaining about (VL)? Seb or Checo?
Rea
15th June 2017, 2:39
Initially it was reported as a message to his teammate but many publications have revised it and now say it was about Vettel’s move.
Selbbin (@selbbin)
15th June 2017, 6:49
I believe it was Vettel when passing him, forcing him off the track.
kanan
15th June 2017, 12:45
Vettel did not push him off track. That’d get him a penalty for one thing anyway, and also you can see Ocon had space during that overtake but did not want to bail out of it and left it too late, so he had to go off track to bail in the end.
Also, it was about Perez moving under braking.
erikje
15th June 2017, 10:36
look again at the moment Ocon tried to pass Perez.. i can see his anger there. You defend like that against a opponent but not your teammate.
kanan
15th June 2017, 12:42
It is NOT about Vettel. James Allen reported that it was about Perez moving under braking. He saw him at the airport and they talked. But Sky and some other British press still trying to make something else out of it.
Evil Homer (@)
15th June 2017, 13:39
I think it was a good quick piece of PR work from Force India, he made the comment about Checo but they quickly realised the fall out for the team and all said it was about Vettel. May have been a good de-brief to be a fly on the wall.
Rea
16th June 2017, 0:59
Thanks for correcting the misreport. Since the press changed their story naturally I assumed it was a firsthand information from Ocon himself. Wow, talk about spinning a narrative!
Scuderia-Racing-Or-Ping-Pong (@)
15th June 2017, 7:46
Grosjean reacted VERY MENTALLY ANGRY, you know!
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
15th June 2017, 12:32
Kvyat is very hard to like. His consistent use of poor language really puts me off. Hey every now and then I would understand, we all do don’t we? But with him every other word a F word. And he’s got zero charisma too.
kanan
15th June 2017, 12:47
I NEVER do. But that won’t put me off anyway. So I’d say your comment is full of how YOU see things and it’s not an all inclusive sentiment.
RossoToro (@)
16th June 2017, 12:16
I am actually starting to like him more every race, he’s funny and direct, not worried about some fake image most of these drivers are trying to uphold and his driving is getting better and better, slowly closing the gap with his teammate.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
17th June 2017, 12:41
@pmccarthy_is_a_legend
I don’t like it when drivers use poor language all the time but his luck has been awful this season.
But I understand Kvyat’s frustration in Canada. He wasn’t at fault for his issues at the start and he asked if he could recover the positions. The team said “copy, copy” so he assumed he could. He then got given an incorrect penalty. The stewards should have left it at that. Even if is doesn’t cost a driver more time than if they got giver the correct penalty to start with, it is nonsense that they should have to serve the rest of it later. It must be so frustrating for Kvyat when he asked if he could do what he did. Then gets given the wrong penalty, then another to add up what he missed. What drivers wouldn’t kick up a fuss with that?
I do actually like Kvyat’s personality too. He was very funny when he was speaking in the drivers briefing at Monaco asking if “the yellow trampoline” could be removed and replaced with a solid wall like it was 20 years ago! :D That was quite amusing.
Bob C.
15th June 2017, 13:45
I am really warming to Guenther Steiner as the unsual humane F1 boss. At the VL he comes on the air, not to berate a driver (MAG) who threw away likely points by a slightly silly lapse of concentration, but to encourage him for then being able to help the team.
As someone who teaches for a living and knows the value of helping people to get up again after making dumb mistakes, that to me was the highlight of the transcript.
Evil Homer (@)
15th June 2017, 13:49
I think that with a lot of the drivers that swear a fair bit English is usually their second, or in many cases third or fourth language, so they probably don’t know they are doing it or others may find it offensive. (FOM don’t have to broadcast these messages either).
Funny one was when Vettel dropped the F-bomb on the Podium and DC apologising for him- Vettel didn’t get it so poured some Champaign over DC’s head :)
DonSmee (@david-beau)
15th June 2017, 17:49
For Jolyon, seeing the chequered flag is like a victory!
regs (@regs)
15th June 2017, 23:45
That’s just a little portion of all radio transmissions.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
18th June 2017, 23:23
Kyvat uses gutter talk because he is driving in the gutter. Maybe if he was winning he would behave.