2017 Spanish Grand Prix team radio highlights: Race

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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Ferrari considered giving Sebastian Vettel a fresh set of tyres after he was passed by Lewis Hamilton in the second half of the Spanish Grand Prix, but decided against the move.

Here are the team radio highlights from the race.

Felipe Massa had his first tangle of the race with Fernando Alonso at the start.

L2 Felipe Massa: “I touched my corner, I don’t know if I have a problem. I think I have a problem. Puncture.”
“OK, copy that, box.”

L4 To Stoffel Vandoorne: “Pace is good Stoff you’re matching Magnussen, he’s P8.”

L4 Nico Hulkenberg: “I think I could go faster but the dirty air is crazy.”

L7 Lewis Hamilton: “It’s not easy to keep up with him.”

L10 To Valtteri Bottas: “Valtteri, the most important thing at the moment is if we can pick the pace up.”

L10 To Jolyon Palmer: “Try to pick up the pace a bit Jo if you can.”
“I’m pushing.”

Lewis Hamilton’s pave prompted Vettel to make an early pit stop.

L12 To Lewis Hamilton: “This is a critical time of the race, Lewis, give it everything you’ve got.”

L15 To Fernando Alonso: “And 100% pace.”

L19 Lewis Hamilton: “Can give it more if you need, but…”

L21 To Valtteri Bottas: “So currently thinking target plus eight.”
“Yeah I can do plus eight but it’s going to be really slow. Front-left is going.”
“Copy message.”

L24 Lewis Hamilton: “Is this a longish or short stint? Let me know.”
“This is a long stint, we’re going to be target plus 15. Valtteri has stayed out, Vettel tucked up behind him at the minute.”

L27 To Sebastian Vettel: “Very good lap, keep it there, keep your head down.”

L28 To Stoffel Vandoorne: “How is the tyre? Is this pace sustainable?”
“It’s OK. The rears are going away but we have tyo see. I’ll try my best.”

L30 To Daniel Ricciardo: “OK for info starting to get more tailwind now now heading into turn four.”
“Thanks for the heads-up on the wind.”

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L31 Nico Hulkenberg: “The Sauber will be a problem.”
“Yep we need to pass that car.”

L33 To Lewis Hamilton: “25.5, he’s coming up on five backmarkers.”

This didn’t work out well for Vandoorne
Massa’s car was undamaged following further contact with Stoffel Vandoorne

L35 Felipe Massa: “Well unbelievable he pulled the car over on me man. That’s crazy.”
“Yep understood. Everything OK with the car?”
“I don’t know. Felt a bit strange.”

L35 Stoffel Vandoorne: “I crashed with Massa. Sorry.”

L35 Daniil Kvyat: “Yeah it’s way too slow the Safety Car.”

L38 To Nico Hulkenberg: “OK you pulled one second on the cars behind, there, good job.”

L39 To Daniel Ricciardo: “OK Daniel it’s yellow turn five and six, Bottas has stopped on track. He is on the track sideways. Caution turn six.”

Hamilton got ahead of Vettel, but the fight wasn’t over, and Ferrari briefly considered ‘Plan C’.

Lewis Hamilton: “I’ve got to get a distance away from him. He’s going to be quicker at the end.”

To Sebastian Vettel: “His tyres might be overheating,”
Sebastian Vettel: “That could have happened a few laps ago when he was behind me.”

L50 To Fernando Alonso: “Option and prime are closer in pace than expected. So we think Plan A still.”
Fernando Alonso: “If I have blue flags soon maybe we can take benefit.”

To Sebastian Vettel: “How about switching to Plan C?”
Sebastian Vettel: “I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to be using his tyres all out.”

To Pascal Wehrlein: “Pascal we got a five second penalty. The gap 3.7 seconds so we have to push to stay ahead of Magnussen.”

L55 To Daniil Kvyat: “OK Wehrlein still have five seconds penalty. Now they have opened the gap, we are above. We need to close the gap.”
“OK, leave me alone now.”

L55 To Romain Grosjean: “You’re half second quicker than him first sector, we’re still struggling in the third sector.”
“OK mate at the moment it’s the best I can do.”
“OK dude understood.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Why does it have to be Massa all the time?”
Felipe Massa: “I think he must be afraid of me.”

L63 To Nico Hulkenberg: “Scenario two please Nico.”
L63 Nico Hulkenberg: “Really? It’s not the right time now.”

A thrilled Hamilton took his second victory of 2017
Hamilton took the win while Pascal Wehrlein was satisfied with eighth in spite of his penalty.

To Lewis Hamilton: “Get in there, Lewis. What a race mate. That was an awesome drive.”
“Guys, what can I say, fantastic job this weekend. Thanks you so much. Strategy was on point, pit stops, just all weekend. Really appreciate all the hard work, and back at the factory.”
“Thanks Lewis, awesome drive today mate, really good moves.”

To Sebastian Vettel: “And P2 Sebastian. Strong race.”

To Daniel Ricciardo: “Nice job mate that’s P3. Good driving today.”
“Thanks guys. Honey badger will take what he can get. Cheers.”
“Well done mate. Looked a bit lonely out there. Hopefully we’ll see more of the opposition in the coming races. Well done.”

To Pascal Wehrlein: “P8 at the end Pascal. Great race. Super.”
“Good job. This was [unclear] with the car. Thank you very much. Perfect strategy. Woohoo!”
“Only talk to us when it’s important! Great race.”
“Just a shame about the pit stop but I was too late. I expected already something.”
“Yep no problem. Was a good job to beat Magnussen and the group behind.”

To Daniil Kvyat: “Very good job, I’m very happy about that point.”
“It’s two points, no?”
“Yeah it is.”
“Thanks man, I am proud of you.”
“Yep very good. I’m really happy. So the gap unfortunately was a bit too at the end. Wehrlein pushed at the end and opened the gap up. Never mind.”

Felipe Massa: “Yeah OK. Very unfortunate, guys. So not so much to say. Again we lost a lot of points.”
“Yeah we did. Given what happened to the cars in front, absoutely no reason why we couldn’t have finished fourth today. But on to Monaco. A whole different challenge.”

To Lance Stroll: “OK so another finish. A tough race, unfortunate at the end there. But another finish. Well done.”
“The medium was not working I just couldn’t push. I don’t know why. The whole race I had no grip.”
“There was a group of five or six cars, Wehrlein, Kvyat, Grosjean ahead. During that stint on the medium we were gaining on them three or four tenths, then levelled out. It was pretty even”

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

2017 Spanish 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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17 comments on “2017 Spanish Grand Prix team radio highlights: Race”

  1. Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
    16th May 2017, 15:34

    Yes, well done Lance, another finish, great job.

    I despair.

  2. “The whole race I had no grip.”

    Ahhhh so THAT explains it! For a second there I was beginning to think he’s just not quick enough…

  3. To Jolyon Palmer: “Try to pick up the pace a bit Jo if you can.”
    “I’m pushing.”

    That must have felt demotivating.

    1. I don’t think he can faster, clearly to be replaced soon.

  4. Enjoying all the calls to drive faster :)

    1. digitalrurouni
      16th May 2017, 18:13

      Pretty much this. And the tires are so much better in terms of allowing drivers to push. Thank god!

  5. L7 Lewis Hamilton: “It’s not easy to keep up with him.” If I remember correctly Lewis was able to keep up with him similarly to what Sebastian did in Melbourne not like Monza ’15 when Lewis raced into the distance

    To Sebastian Vettel: “His tyres might be overheating,”
    Sebastian Vettel: “That could have happened a few laps ago when he was behind me.”

    To Sebastian Vettel: “How about switching to Plan C?”
    Sebastian Vettel: “I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to be using his tyres all out.”

    I personally take Lewis radio with a pinch of salt, he certainly knows everyone’s listening so why not through them a bit off track

    1. Nonsense, the Ferrari was massively quick early doors and neither Mercedes had an answer. A deep breathing Hamilton dug hugely to stay remotely in touch and credit to him.

      1. Deep breathing and throwing off the competition aren’t mutually exclusive. I personally wondered if Hamilton was trying to be slick when he mentioned his tires were over over heating after passing Vettel. If a driver can, why not add a little uncertainty into the mix?

        1. I think he mentioned over heating to get Vettel to push with slower durable tyres to be destroyed so he cant have an answer… proof? ham did best lap 1 lap before finish… doesnt sound like he was using his tyres or they were over heating :)

          i bet he was trying a bait to 2 secs distance gap to destroy vettel’s tyres to be shot off while trying an impossible dream… but he saw the bluff hence they may be so 2 laps ago while trying to pass, dont think any more… plan c to match ham’s bluff.. :) good stuff… get in there…

          1. The reply from Vettel showed that he wasnt using up his tyres hence he didn’t bother with plan C.

            Vettel’s awareness in the cockpit is second to MSC, no one on this grid can read a race like he can from the cockpit!

          2. Vettel noted that Hamilton wasn’t using his tyres because he did open a gap right away after the overtake, but then lift. Mercedes was initially going for a 3 stop and changed their minds as they already had track position.

            With much faster tyres and not pulling away it was obvious he wasnt pushing.

            I saw it at the moment. Vettel did too. It’s much easier to manage tyre life if you can push and then lift for a while and the guy behind is using tyres so slower that if he gets near, you still can get away.

            Mercedes blew Ferrari out of the water on this race, strategically. It was Ferrari’s race to lose and they did lose it.

  6. To Vettel: “keep your head down.”

    …mmm, but with the head down, he can’t see the road ahead. :D

  7. Sebastian Vettel: “Why does it have to be Massa all the time?”
    Felipe Massa: “I think he must be afraid of me.”

  8. So far, no communication from the team or from Hamilton, to Bottas for him to hold up Vettel in the second stint.

    1. if it was not picked up for broadcasting during the race, it will not be on the ‘full’ transcript later.

    2. Bottas was fighting for position at that point, they were in different strategies, but surely you don’t expect drivers in different teams to let their rivals pass? They might have reinforced it, but there is no need for communication there, it’s red? Don’t let it go, it is that easy…

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