Valtteri Bottas got ’emotional’ and Romain Grosjean went from fuming to singing. Here’s the team radio notes from final practice and qualifying.
Third practice
Friday had been difficult for Grosjean and Saturday got off to a poor start as well.
Grosjean: “OK so I’ve got a lot of understeer. I want you guys to check the data. A lot of understeer.”
“Understoor, box now.”
“That was plus 0.5, how did the balance feel then?”
Grosjean: “I can’t tell.”
To Ocon: “Esteban we should do two cool down laps before pushing.”
To Ocon: “Front left brake temperature is a bit low at the moment, you may find it pulling slightly.”
To Hamilton: “2% shallow on that last start.”
To Kvyat: “Maximum focus on your tyres. You know what to do. Track is clear. In front of us is Stroll on a push lap. Big gap behind.”
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“Do you want to do another lap?”
Hulkenberg: “No.”
“OK. Focus on recharge please. Kvyat seven seconds behind.”
Things went from bad to worse for Grosjean.
Grosjean: “[Censored by FOM] mate the guy was absolutely not on an in-lap. It screwed me over. OK so I’ve got a lot of oversteer. I don’t know what’s going on. We need to change the front wing. Something’s not right.”
“OK so Mag and Kvyat behind out-lap. I’ll just talk about it with the guys here.”
Grosjean: “I just did a CSL for you, check everything you can. But it’s something not going right
“Understood.”
Grosjean: “Come on, what is Mag doing? Come on guys. Bloody hell.”
“Bottas…”
Grosjean: “Yeah well basically…”
“Understood.”
Grosjean: “We need to do a better job. Max completely screwed me over on that one.”
“Understood. So we can box right now and change to the other wing.”
To Verstappen: “Daniel behind on a timed lap.”
Grosjean: “OK I crashed the car. I don’t know what to say, mate, there’s something not going right.”
“Understood. Raikkoen arriving to turn four now. The car is safe.”
To Ricciardo: “The other difference was apex speed turn six.”
“Understood.”
To Magnussen: “There is a tail wind in corner four, pretty gusty.”
Stroll: “I made a mistake in 13. The rear is just impossible to cope with. And the headrest is moving, it’s not secured.”
Did you say the headrest is loose?”
Stroll: “Yep, headerst is loose.”
“Copy that. Have to box, then.”
Qualifying
An error at turn one forced Grosjean to abort his first lap and change his tactics.
Grosjean: “Aaargh!”
Ocon: “What is happening with DRS?”
“Yeah we’re looking into it. Do you switch it on and off? Or do you just switch it on – what does it do?”
Ocon: “I switch it on and it doesn’t open, so I try many times”
“Romain we will have time to fuel for two total laps if you want a back-off lap on the next run let me know. Let me know.”
Grosjean: “Back off lap, OK.”
“Yeah so you can back off and push again if you have an issue.”
Grosjean: “Yeah, OK.”
“Yeah we’ll do that.”
The Ferrari drivers had different experiences with traffic. Kimi Raikkonen was on his second run in Q1.
“Track is clear behind you.”
Vettel: “Thank you. Keep me updated if there is another one coming.”
Raikkonen: “That [censored by FOM] Force India was blocking me.”
Carlos Sainz Jnr was on course to reach Q2 when he suffered a power unit failure.
Sainz: “[Censored by FOM] hell.”
“Sorry for that, Carlos. Was a very good lap.”
Sainz: “Yeah I don’t care.”
Alonso: “A little bit less power this run or it was the wind?”
“We’ll investigate and get back to you. Yellow flags to turn 14.”
Grosjean burst into song prematurely.
Grosjean: “Well if I don’t get the chance to do it because we’re not in Q3: ‘Happy birthday to you Pup, happy birthday to you…’ Yeah my singing is bad.”
“It’s beautiful, he’s weeping with joy.”
“OK we are through something you’ll get a chance to get your tune.”
Grosjean: “Oh ho!”
“OK do you want a used run or just one run?”
Grosjean: “One run.”
“Understood, OK.”
To Bottas: “Confirmation, ignore the left-rear, the right-rear is the one that’s working.”
Raikkonen: “Still struggling like crazy with the understeer. Especially at the last corner. Also turn 11.”
To Hamilton: “Ignore front-left tyre temp. Verstappen’s the car ahead. Pretty slow on his out-lap. Ten seconds.”
“So that is pole position Valtteri, that is pole position. Bloody good.”
Bottas: “Woo! That’s my first one, guys. Thank you.”
“So remember to keep an eye on that delta. really good job.”
Bottas: “Thanks guys, really happy. Let’s enjoy it for one minute and have a good one tomorrow.”
“Exactly.”
“You know for a moment there you actually showed some emotion I was quite impressed, well done.”
Bottas: “Haha.”
Max Verstappen was unhappy with Felipe Massa.
“OK box Max, confirm.”
Verstappen: “Yeah I got screwed with Massa. The rear tyres were too cold to prepare the lap.
“Yep seen that. Hard luck mate it was a good session otherwise. Good job. Slightly harsh but that’s how it goes. You are P6 behind Kimi P5, Daniel P4 pipped you by a tenth, Sebastian P3, Bottas P1.”
“Yeah it’s a very good effort though Max. We’re still in good shape you can overtake here and we’ve got good tyres for tomorrow so well done.”
Verstappen: “Yeah it’s a shame. I don’t know what he was doing, he just jumped in front of me. Can’t change it.”
“Exactly focus on tomorrow now, get a good start and go from there.”
“P4. Nice job, good lap.”
Ricciardo: “Enchante. OK it must’ve been close”
“It was pretty tight, mate. So you found a good improvement on your last lap, four-and-a-half tenths. Max went a little bit slower. You beat Raikkonen by two-hundredths. He’s just behind you in P5. Verstappen you put a tenth and a half into.”
Ricciardo: “OK. Understood. Thanks guys.”
“OK Lewis that’s P2. Valtteri two-hundredths ahead. He found time on his second run.”
“Great job, that’s a really good lap. Hulkenberg has just got ahead of us so we are P8.”
Massa: “OK, thank you guys.”
2017 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Vettel voted Driver of the Weekend for the fourth time in six races
- 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
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- 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix Star Performers
Gigi
16th April 2017, 1:02
I love these radio calls. I refuse to pay for this in F1 app. Live timing should also be free with sector times. F1 can improve fan engagement by not nickle and diming fans.
Rick (@)
16th April 2017, 7:26
The app purchase is easily the cheapest option of all, apart from visiting F1fanatic of course. A monthly tv subscription is generally more expensive after just two months, while the app works for the whole season.
It also gives you a lot of other extras such as live commentary, ability to pause and start either to sync up with live tv or when viewing it on-demand later on, it shows you all tyre stats and much more. I’m starting to sound like an advertisement, but just wanted to point out that I don’t think it’s expensive at all. A night out with your mates will cost you more.