Will the radio ban help Lewis?

[RYH64E]

The easiest way to enforce it is to ban pit to car radio completely, fit a nice big fuel gauge to the car and let the drivers work the rest out for themselves.

[HDM]

Chrisgr31 said:

To an extent the radio announcements actually improve the show in my opinion.

This is a very good point, being able to listen in does give the viewer a better experience than having to purely rely on the quality of the commentary (depending on which coverage you watch)

[zac510]

I think to use codewords would be cheating in an exceptionally un-subtle way, akin to just cutting a chicane at full speed. There's such transparency on radio communications these days that doing so would be a publicly unpopular move even if difficult to prove.

Different to a flexible wing where it passes the actual technical test, the vagueness of the codeword, following public probing to find out what it is, will be a discouragement.

[andyps]

I'm not really sure what problem this is trying to solve, but it probably comes back to the less committed F1 TV watchers who don't really worry about all the technical stuff and aren't interested in that element. They could hear that drivers are told what to do and therefore think that they aren't capable of doing it themselves. What I hear is that the cars have got much more complicated in terms of capability and the information regarding that complexity is available to the engineers on the pitwall (via the team HQ from telemetry and mega amounts of statistical analysis) so for the driver and team to have the best chance possible there has to be communication to the driver and the simplest way of doing that is over the radio.

I don't know how long F1 cars have had two way radio but it is quite a few years, however if we go back to the 70s for example, the cars were much simpler and the driver simply had to go as fast as possible and couldn't change much, they maybe had fuel gauges (I really don't know) and that was it other than the obvious monitoring gauges a sporty road car would have. That info was available to the driver only, the team wouldn't get it, so there was nothing the team could say other than the gaps which were conveyed through the pit boards. Great at the time but it just doesn't work now.

One implication could be some of the team strategists and engineers based at the factory losing their jobs as their output during the race can't be utilised - that maybe extreme but what are they needed for?

I'm all in favour of it being down to the driver, but this is sledgehammer to crack a nut which isn't even edible in my view.

[lbc]

If Nico is is asking his engineer to tell him what to do, then Nico would be better employed at a supermarket.

I can see more coded messages coming into play, so the radio ban will be difficult to enforce unless coded messages are banned.

Lewis does not need to consult Google while he is driving as much as Nico, so this ban should help him.

[TheArchitect]

Limit pit to car to safety and 'retire the car' type messages only. Rely purely on boards at trackside for pit to car comms. Car to pit/race control should be free for all.

[zac510]

andyps said:

I'm not really sure what problem this is trying to solve, but it probably comes back to the less committed F1 TV watchers who don't really worry about all the technical stuff and aren't interested in that element. They could hear that drivers are told what to do and therefore think that they aren't capable of doing it themselves.

The FIA were quite clear that this was about solving the spectators perception of the drivers. I don't think it's that people think the drivers aren't capable; they just think it makes them sound wussy or like puppets and even committed watchers too think it makes the drivers sound wussy. You hear it on the forum here often (who are not less committed watchers) when people say "Give them manual gear shifters etc and make the drivers *work*!" This is exactly that; to make the drivers work, or as I prefer to call it, giving them a chance to mess it up (and hoping they grasp it!)

On the matter of complexity, sure the cars have got more complex but cars haven't grown organically to be complex. They're designed, by humans. Humans made them complex and having radio has facilitated them to be adjustable by the puppet on the wheel.
If anything this rule change will likely make the cars simpler as the teams frantically try to simplify steering wheels and automate via control algorithms to reduce the amount of things the drivers needs to concentrate on or the amount of things he can inadvertently set incorrectly.

[mattikake]

I hope the radio ban is just the start.

Could Article 20.1 of the Sporting Regulations – which states that “the driver must drive the car alone and unaided”, also be applied to telemetry? I'd love to see drivers driving by the seat of their pants. F1 is the pinnacle, it should be hard enough to separate the Alonso's from the Vettel's (men from boys ).

Mind you, could article 20.1 be applied to semi-automatic gearboxes, DRS, and anything else we think takes away the skill from the driving/racing?

[davepoth]

This will play into Mercedes hands for the next race or two IMO - solely because they have an enormous LCD screen on their steering wheel. That means they'll be able to reconfigure the display to show all of this extra information fairly quickly. Red Bull will have an issue since they only have a weedy thing out of an alarm clock from the 1980s on their dashboard. I guess they'll all scramble to get better information displays on board ASAP.

[Crafty_]

Maybe, to be honest I think the LCDs can already display pretty much anything you need to know BUT its a case of working the damm thing, some of the steering wheels have say 40 buttons/switches/dials, some of which are multi function - no way anyone can remember it all. What race was it that Lewis got an instruction to press a series of buttons/switches and he replied on the radio "I've never heard of those settings" ?

I reckon we might start seeing simplified steering wheels that have reduced functionality but are easier to use/remember.

[suffolk009]

Agent Orange said:

Fully expect Williams to announce that due to contractual issues Massa will not be driving the remaining races and Rob Smedley will take his place.

Good one.

[ivanhoew]

pop down to breakers , buy up all old prius dash's and flog to Williams just down the rd at grove ?

[skinny]

So engineers can't suggest ers modes... What about during the frequent issues? Are we going to see drivers limping around trying to figure out how to reset their systems?

And how is a driver supposed to know their brake temperatures etc to adjust bias.

I'd be up for more broadcasting of comms - rather than the boring stuff like box box box or push. There's quite a lot of complex stuff that goes on unbroadcast and if viewers were exposed to this they probably wouldn't think that drivers were ballast just being told what to do.

[eps]

skinny said:

So engineers can't suggest ers modes... What about during the frequent issues? Are we going to see drivers limping around trying to figure out how to reset their systems?

And how is a driver supposed to know their brake temperatures etc to adjust bias.

I'd be up for more broadcasting of comms - rather than the boring stuff like box box box or push. There's quite a lot of complex stuff that goes on unbroadcast and if viewers were exposed to this they probably wouldn't think that drivers were ballast just being told what to do.

It's more the comms 'you need to take a different line in turn X' that they are looking to stop and also detailed info. on how much braking and precisely where time is being lost on track, whilst in a race. They can of course go over this in between on track sessions, but then it's up to the driver to execute. The practice sessions will become even more important to drivers.

As always F1 has started to see a benefit doing this in terms of lap time and therefore started to do this as standard operating procedure. One does it and benefits, ergo they all start doing it.

[Europa1]

Can they also ban the whingeing from drivers about the person they are racing "sir, sir, I saw Rosberg Junior step over the white line - report him to the headmaster"

[otolith]

Agent Orange said:

Fully expect Williams to announce that due to contractual issues Massa will not be driving the remaining races and Rob Smedley will take his place.

Says no radio - would an engineer gaffer taped to the bodywork count as a movable aerodynamic device?

[KarlMac]

Surely they'll just install a box they can transmit too with LEDs for each of the warnings? Red/amber/green for fuel/brakes/aero/etc...

Or would this be covered by the rule change?

[Agent Orange]

otolith said:

Agent Orange said:

Fully expect Williams to announce that due to contractual issues Massa will not be driving the remaining races and Rob Smedley will take his place.

Says no radio - would an engineer gaffer taped to the bodywork count as a movable aerodynamic device?

Massa will be asking Frank to get him one of these for the next race.

[zac510]

KarlMac said:

Surely they'll just install a box they can transmit too with LEDs for each of the warnings? Red/amber/green for fuel/brakes/aero/etc...

Or would this be covered by the rule change?

That is already banned by a different rule that stops pit->car data transmission (Article 8.5.2).

But, that data does not need to go from the car > pits > car. Brake temp can stay just within the car and show up on an LED panel for the driver.

[London424]

ash73 said:

Speedy11 said:

From https://twitter.com/tgruener who works for AMuS

@tgruener said:

F1 FIA race director Charlie Whiting answers urgent questions about new radio rules for Singapore. AMuS (German): ams.to/Rb

F1 Not allowed anymore: Info about tyres/brake condition, fuel consumption, engine maps, ERS mode, fuel mix, diff settings. #NewRadioRules

F1 Also not allowed: formation lap instructions to prepare race start - burnouts, gearbox sync, bite point, brake/tyre temps

F1 Still allowed are informations & instructions regarding traffic, pit stop timing and team order.

Excellent news, a step in the right direction! I'd like them to ban it altogether, apart from safety car notifications. They should also ban driver signals via telemetry (happy switch) imo.

I think there are going to be some fun and games next weekend (or lots of additional detail needed) and I'd rather they sort the initial races with warning and fines rather than penalties.

The formation lap instructions I've got no issue with, let the driver figure it out on it's own.

But surely the pit stop timing thing is directly linked to how the tyres are performing? Especially if they want to change strategy during the race. Or will it just be a case of the team saying..."stay out X laps longer...we know you can do it"?

I'm also guessing we will see more retirements with this if teams can't communicate how to work round something...unless that's allowed?