F1 Pit Radio

[pistonheadforum]

Hello,

Anybody know anything about this? Can you listen in with a scanner, is it encrypted, can the teams listen to each other?

I know that F1 media have a feed, but I wondered if there was any benefit in bringing a scanner to the races to hear some of the chatter between teams/marshals?

Thanks in advance.

[StevieBee]

I think you'll find that it would be easier hack someone's mobile phone calls!

They were running high-end encryption back in the early 90s and I assume it's even more secure now.

[thegreenhell]

I'm pretty sure that all the teams listen to all the other teams' communications. Also, isn't there an audio channel on the F1TV app that's just pit radio?

8.9 Driver radio
Other than authorised connections to the FIA Standard ECU, any voice radio communication system between car and pits must be stand-alone and must not transmit or receive other data. All such communications must be open and accessible to both the FIA and broadcasters.

[TheDeuce]

StevieBee said:

I think you'll find that it would be easier hack someone's mobile phone calls!

They were running high-end encryption back in the early 90s and I assume it's even more secure now.

This times a million.

It's digital, no chance of hearing anything other than binary white noise via a scanner in this day and age.

[BJR18]

The teams all listen to each other. in fact the larger outfits have a team of people listening and transcribing radio messages and feeding this into the strategy group.

[Sandpit Steve]

It’s an encrypted radio system, but with the driver feeds accessible to media and teams. You’re not going to be able to hack it, as a random punter at the track. The F1TV app will have everything though.

[pistonheadforum]

Thanks for this.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to just rock up and be all "Breaker, breaker, try going faster through the corners". For sure it's all encrypted if they wanted it to be secure (and that's before we even talk about any pit-car data systems if they are not outlawed) but I did wonder if there was an FIA rule that said the teams could listen to each other.

I suspect that a full on GP weekend has all sorts of interesting radio traffic (civil aviation, marshals, short range PMR etc) which I think would be interesting for the technical F1 and radio nerd.