“Bottas, what a driver”: 2017 Italian GP radio highlights

2017 Italian Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso took a swipe at Valtteri Bottas after being lapped by the Mercedes driver during the Italian Grand Prix.

Here are the team radio highlights from the race.

The drivers took their places on the grid.

To Ricciardo: “So when you stop at the back of the grid I’ll see you there.”

To Stroll: “OK boxing this lap, through the pit lane, no start.”

“Check the drinks before you get to the grid.”
Stroll: “Yep, drinks are OK.”

To Hamilton: “So one percent. Look for the boys. You can hop out there.”

“Verstappen: “Is it OK to leave the recharge on?”
“It should be OK but be careful with the brake temperatures.”

Hamilton: “Grip felt pretty poor.”

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Hamilton kept his lead at the start while Esteban Ocon took second place off Lance Stroll.

To Stroll: “OK go race, use the overtake when you need.”

To Hamilton: “Ocon 1.5.”
To Ricciardo: “Torque four, front brakes are hot.”
To Bottas: “Pack is a bit on the low side, don’t use overtake for the moment.”

Max Verstappen tangled with Felipe Massa at the chicane.

Verstappen: “What the [censored by FOM] is he doing. He just pushed me off the track.”
“Copy, Max.”

“Esteban in P3, 27.1, 0.4s faster, he has clear air.”
Perez: “Copy I’m trying to protect the tyres.”
“Even small lift-and-coast is good.”

To Stroll: “OK Lance we need to cool the right-hand side of the car for engine temps.”

To Verstappen: “Hamilton last lap was a 26.3.”

To Ericsson: “OK Marcus target lap time low 28 if you can, keep pushing.”

Raikkonen: “Do I have damage on the car because I have absolutely no downforce when I turn in?”
“No issues on the data.”

To Ocon: “Try to use Vettel’s DRS if you need it.”
To Ocon: “So that should be the end of the fast cars coming through.”

2017 Italian Grand Prix in pictures
Alonso: “The upshifts are terrible.”
“OK understood Fernando we are looking into it.”

To Stroll: “Raikkonen behind now has DRS. We’re on plan. Everything is OK.”

Raikkonen: “I think we should try to go on the other tyres as aggressively as we can.”
“I know it’s tough Kimi but we’ve got to get as close as we can to the cars in front to do that.”

Jolyon Palmer and Alonso crossed paths at Spa and the pair clashed again at Monza, Palmer cutting the Della Roggia chicane to keep his rival behind.

Alonso: “Turn four, Palmer cut the chicane.”
“We saw it on the video and we’ve informed the race director.”

Alonso: “Guys I’m sorry but we need to do something.”
“Default zero three.”
Alonso: “And the Palmer thing should be a no-brainer.”

“Massa’s our next target, he’s on his own, might be vulnerable.”
Ricciardo: “I like them vulnerable.”

“Vandoorne: “I’m going to have blue flags any moment.”
“Stoffel it’s not blue flags you’re racing these cars.”

To Hamilton: “Go strat mode nine, use strat six for overtaking backmarkers.”

Verstappen: “One of my earpieces is broken.”
“Understood.”

Alonso: “What a joke, the five seconds, what a joke.”

To Palmer: “We need to box the car to retire. We have an issue with the car.”

Ricciardo: “Keep the wing where it is.”

Alonso wasn’t impressed with Bottas
Alonso laughed after Bottas lapped him.

Alonso: “Bottas, ha, what a driver. How much time he lose in the blue flag for not waiting? Amazing. Any gap, we are racing with anyone for the rest of the race?”
“Fernando, Stoffel has retired. We’re racing Sainz ahead, he’s on 21-lap-old primes. Gap is 14 seconds.”

“Fernando, Palmer has retired.”
Alonso: “Karma.”
“Palmer has retired, Palmer has retired. Ahead of Sainz there’s also Kvyat, Hulkenberg fighting for position so may come back towards us.”
Alonso: “Are we quicker?”
“At the moment similar pace though their tyres are much older.”

To Ricciardo: “OK mate Raikkonen is on his own, he’s vulnerable again, let’s get him.”

Ricciardo passed Kimi Raikkonen and set off after the other Ferrari.

To Ricciardo: “Nico job mate. Next one up the road is Vettel. Vettel is a little slow, I think you’re going to catch him.”

Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen clashed.

“Magnussen: “What is he doing, pushing me off the track?”
“We saw it.”
Magnussen: “That was crazy guys.”
“Copy, reporting to Charlie.”
“Magnussen: “Guys I’m serious if that’s allowed, it’s crazy.”
“We understand. Fully covered by television.”
To Ricciardo: “You will catch Vettel on the last lap.”
To Hamilton: “You are not in your Safety Car window.”

To Alonso: “Ricciardo will be lapping us shortly, he’s plus four, he’s chasing Vettel.”

Hamilton took the chequered flag first, becoming the first driver this year to win back-to-back races.

To Hamilton: “Get in there Lewis, get in mate. Just a walk in the park.”

“On turn one, there was no further action from the FIA on that.”
Verstappen: “Honestly I really don’t care any more.”

To Ricciardo: “OK Daniel nice job P4, mode 23 fail. Good pace at the end on soft.”
“Understood, good recovery, cheers boys.”

“P3, Sebastian, well done bravo.”
“Grazie ragazzi. The last 15, 20 laps after I went off something was wrong so that’s why I went up and down on engine.”

The full race radio transcript will be published later this week.

2017 Italian 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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39 comments on ““Bottas, what a driver”: 2017 Italian GP radio highlights”

  1. Cry baby Alonso, pfft! It’s his own fault that he keeps making moronic decisions regarding team selection.

    1. It’s still odd that Toto and Lewis don’t want Alonso in the team.

      1. Not really. Who would want someone who moans and complains over team radio all the time. And I thought Jensen was bad. As phenomenally talented as Alonso is and as amusing as these messages are for us, I cant help but feel that all these team radio messages are hurting him even more.

        1. I think he was joking.

          And let us not forget Alonso costed 100M to McLaren Mercedes and DQ from championship last time around.

    2. Name a bigger partnership than Honda McLaren

      1. I can name more successful ones! “Big” has nothing to do with it.

        1. Well, mclaren honda was actually successful… with senna and prost!

  2. Alonso: “Karma.”
    As usual Alonso was providing some entertainment in other a boring race.

  3. The Haas drivers are by far the most annoying guys in the grid…!

    1. Indeed. Both of them actually not belonging on the grid.

  4. I can’t quite understand what is Alonso referring to in the Bottas “incident”. Did he think Bottas overtook him in a wrong place or what?

    1. Alonso was just being sarcastic

    2. It reads to me @kaiie as if he thought Bottas was needlessly aggressive and could have eased past him somewhere a bit later.

    3. He is just practicing one liners for next year, when he is in the booth.

  5. “Karma” priceless. Such a shame he has to drive that wheel barrow

      1. Buuuuuurn

    1. After seeing what Red Bull are doing with the Renault PU I’m really looking forward to Alonso in the McLaren-Renault next year.

      1. Agreed, it’s not the best PU out there , the Renault , but it sure spanks the Honda for speed ……..
        I think Alonso will stay

  6. Alonso, what a bitter, angry shadow of his former self.

    1. No. He’s one of the all time greats, wants to win, and wears his heart on his sleeve. I assume you would prefer him to be restrained, the politically correct type – just biding his time and driving for a paycheck. Sorry to disappoint you.

      1. Some of these snowflake f1 fans would have a go at Alonso for using the wrong fork in a Restaurant. Wish theyd stick to Twitter with that t#t @philsolocomb the BBC keep quoting.

      2. I assume you would prefer me to be restrained, the politically correct type – just biding my time and writing comments for entertainment. Sorry to disappoint you.

        1. Dude you’re a guy on an internet message board. He’s one of the greatest drivers in the world. You can be however you want but so can he. I’m with Hans, give me fire and fury over meek mild mannered sponsorship robots any day of the week. This sport is lacking in personality enough as it is these days.

          1. I wasn’t trying to compare myself to Alonso; I was just being facetious.

            Note that I haven’t at any point said that he should change, that he should shut up, that he should restrain himself or be a “sponsorship robot”. Those are all words that you and other commenters have put into my mouth. Perhaps my comment about him being a shadow of his former self was a bit much but if you don’t think he’s angry or bitter then I wonder if we’ve been watching the same sport.

    2. He’s always being like that, even when he was winning, don’t you remember his comments against Ferrari? The hubris was insufferable.

  7. “Vandoorne: “I’m going to have blue flags any moment.”
    “Stoffel it’s not blue flags you’re racing these cars.”

    Aww, all those penalties and the pitstops put him in a fight with these guys where he didn’t expect to still be in it.

    And then he had to box due to MGU-K failure.

  8. Speaking of “Karma” ,Verstappen ( who complained about the contact from Massa but, had no problem with driving Magnussen off the track) again suffered a set back .
    Will he ever learn ?

    1. Well, he should at least learn to give Massa plenty of space, he always needs it. Took Hamilton a fair time to discover that too.

    2. To be fair, Magnussen just got a bit of Karma of his own.

      You get Karma! And you get Karma! Everyone gets..sorry, wait. Palmer, no Karma for you, just bad luck.

  9. Lol Alonso talking about Karma. That doubt he sees the irony in that even though Karma has been coming down pretty hard on him since his involvement in “McLarengate” and “Crashgate”.

  10. Talking about McLaren, now I hear from the TV broadcast that Honda may go to Torro Roso again and Renault to McLaren…?
    Not a bad solution if you ask me.

    1. Especially if Honda develop and RedBull switch the main team to Honda in a year or two to become the official Honda works team. Meanwhile the Renault works team rise up the grid as well and McLaren is just a customer unable to win again.

      McLaren does all this just to keeps Alonso. .. They lose the works team status, lose $100m sponsor money from Honda (which will now go to Red Bull/Toro rosso) pay $25m a year to be a Renault customer and all that for the privelage to pay Alonso $30 a year?!! I really don’t get what they’re doing.

      1. Their performance payments from FOM were up 20 million this year mostly thanks to Alonso’s heroics.previously He could potentially earn
        his salary if Honda just catch Renault in power.

  11. Only RB can veto the engine deal for McLaren.

  12. I like Alonso but he’s a bit of a knob on the radio sometimes.

  13. Alonso is a disgrace.

  14. Alonso is the only F1 driver with any character (flawed maybe), but at least he makes an otherwise generally boring procession worthwhile on occasion

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