“It looked like Valtteri jumped the start”: Austrian GP race team radio highlights

2017 Austrian Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel wasn’t the only driver who was suspicious about how quickly Valtteri Bottas got away in the Austrian Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo also suggested the pole sitter had jumped the start.

Here are the team radio highlights from Sunday’s race.

Although race control advised the teams they faced a “60% chance” of rain during the race, none materialised.

To Ericsson: “12 minutes to go. Still no rain clouds visible on the radar.”

2017 Austrian Grand Prix in pictures
A first-corner collision triggered by Daniil Kvyat wiped out Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso.

“Fernando any damage?”
Alonso: “Yeah, a lot, a lot of damage. I don’t know why they pushed me so much.”

Meanwhile Valtteri Bottas’s pursuers raised questions about his remarkable getaway.

Ricciardo: “I’m sure it’s alright but it looked like Valtteri jumped the start.”
“OK we’ll pass it on.”

“Kimi is 4.2 behind Ricciardo.”
Vettel: “Any update on his jump start?”

To Perez: “Tyres are good. Hamilton on super-soft struggling with rears.”

To Hamilton: “Front-left brake is climbing. Do what you can do to keep it cool.”

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Kimi Raikkonen came under pressure from Hamilton but wasn’t happy about how the lapped drivers were conducting themselves.

Raikkonen: “Not any more [censored by FOM] difficult place he might let me past, middle of the braking.”
“Copy. Very bad.”

To Raikkonen: “OBR is available again if you need it. Overall pace is good Kimi.”

Mercedes eventually decided to pit Hamilton and Ferrari found themselves unable to protect Raikkonen’s position.

Hamilton: “I’ve got to get by, guys.”
“Brakes are good. Box, box, do the opposite to Raikkonen.”

“And confirm boxing this lap Kimi.”
Raikkonen: “OK.”
“Stay out. Lap mode race. Hamilton would be close so we decided to stay out.”

Raikkonen: “I can’t take this one. If it’s a solid blue he needs to [censored by FOM] move out of the way.”

Hamilton: “The rear end doesn’t feel good.”
“Last stint balance looked like it came together.”
Hamilton: “Got far too much front wing”

At first Hamilton made little progress gaining on Ricciardo, but that soon changed.

To Ricciardo: “Hamilton behind 8.9. He’s not quick.”

Hamilton: “Is everything OK? Am I being investigated?”
“Negative, that’s for Vandoorne. Raikkonen is not a threat at the moment.”

“Doing a really good job there Valtteri. Just keep us informed on tyres.”
Bottas: “Yeah there’s not much left in the tyre.”

To Bottas: “Kimi has not stopped yet. Don’t need to take any risk with him. Vettel is three seconds behind.”

Hamilton: “Is it getting windier?
“Wind picking up a little bit in strength, just a couple of KPH. Keep something in the bag for later.”

An unimpressed Carlos Sainz Jnr retired after struggling with power unit problems from the start.

Sainz: “What a glorious race.”
“Sorry for that. Nothing much to add, quite frustrating. Despite the problem you did good.”

Hamilton continued to indicate he was dissatisfied with his car, but from lap 53 he increased his pace and was quicker than Ricciardo more often than not.

To Raikkonen: “Hamilton 8.9 in free air, he’s seemingly degging off on his qualis. Good lap Kimi, half a second quicker than Hamilton.”

Hamilton: “We’re struggling out here.”
“Copy. We’ll have a look at options.”

To Ricciardo: “Hamilton still isn’t quick. He can do 8.4s. Still four seconds behind you. You’re doing a good job.”

To Bottas: “Caution turn ten kerb loads, a couple of laps ago we saw a high one.”

Raikkonen: “That [censored by FOM] idiot is moving in the braking area and I am forced to go on the marbles.”
“We’ve spoken with Charlie.”

Hamilton launched his bid to pass Ricciardo for third but couldn’t quite make it.

Hamilton: “Some blistering on my front tyres.”
“Yeah should be nothing to worry about. Ricciardo at 8.2, gap 2.3.”

Hamilton: “I need everything now.”
“You have a couple laps going at it so use it when you need.”

“You do have overtake available.”
Hamilton: “Just leave me alone now Bono.”

To Ricciardo: “OK mate this is the last lap, this is for the podium. Get your elbows out.”

“Yes! Great job, really good job!”
Bottas: “Yes! Yeah guys. Thank you. Feels good. Car was amazing.”

The full race radio transcript will be published later.

2017 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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12 comments on ““It looked like Valtteri jumped the start”: Austrian GP race team radio highlights”

  1. About a Jump start..
    Austria 2015

    21 June 2015 – Marcus Ericsson has been handed two penalty points following his false start at the Austrian Grand Prix.

    Ericsson jumped the start and was duly handed a drive through penalty, along with two further points on his Super Licence.

    So if given it would have ruined his race.

    1. I seem to recall this. He jumped, stopped, and actually got away worse than anyone else. Really stupid one :P

    2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      10th July 2017, 20:29

      It is true though that he so clearly moved quite a bit before anyone else. Even though he stopped as he realized he’d done this. The fact that he managed to stop again pretty much proved it must have been waaay to early if he had enough time to realize he’d done that and put on the brakes. As it was so obvious that he did jump start, even though he cost himself, I have to say the penalty was fully deserved. What Bottas did was barely any advantage at all. It was withing the rules and he just had a better start than others.

  2. Vittel is a bloody stool pigeon !!!

  3. The only time SV has quick reactions on it’s the radio to complain. His normal reaction time is not even quick enough to stop from ploughing into the car ahead at 60km.

    1. The irony

    2. LMAO

      He might be a heck of a driver but he’s a natural born whiner.

      1. He learned from Horner.

  4. In international athletics (particularly 100 & 200m) there is a rule stating that no one can have a reaction time under 0.100 of a second. Most people have a reaction time of 0.200 – 0.300, the IAAF have ruled that anyone under a tenth of a second has already started to move as tests have shown that there is a difference in the repsonse time of some one who has already started to move and someone who is reacting. (In essence what they are saying is that someone under a tenth of a second has gambled on the gun going off and is already “moving” as the gun sounds giving them a better reaction time than normal).

    Bottas was 0.200 so hes fine, but maybe the same rule could be applied to F1? Although to be fair i’m struggling to say how many false starts there are in F1 over the last decade because after all there’s a big difference between a 100m sprint and a F1 GP distance.

    1. No, Bottas would have had a reaction time of -0.003 seconds or so if measured by the IAAF – they would have a sensor on the clutch paddle like they have a pressure sensor in the starting blocks, and would have realised it was moving before the lights went out. 0.201 seconds was the time from lights out until the sensor on Bottas’ car had moved the prescribed (but undisclosed) distance.

      Best reaction times are well below 0.2 seconds though, often even below 0.15 seconds. 0.3 would be very slow.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        10th July 2017, 20:35

        I read somewhere that Hamilton apparently had a 0.005 second reaction time to the lights going out in Monza 2014 that was measured on the same sort of sensor as Bottas’s here. That is a fair bit below 0.201 isn’t it? But as the FIA have explained, it is a risk drivers are allowed to take, but if what they do is not within the limits, they will get punished. Hamilton and Bottas clearly were not beyond the limits so they got away with it.

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