F1 radio ban 101: What is and isn't allowed

[bigbadbrother]

Adam Cooper

The FIA's Charlie Whiting has sent the teams a further technical directive clarifying what can and cannot feature in pit to car radio conversations from the Singapore GP onwards.

The document confirms that a lot of technical information will also be banned from appearing on pit boards.

In some instances, regarding tire and brakes, the ban has been postponed until the Japanese GP.

In addition the FIA has specifically targeted “any message that appears to be coded.”

The FIA has confirmed that the restrictions “apply at all times the car is out of its garage during the Event,” which means all practice and qualifying sessions are included.

Messages not permitted (either by radio or pit board)

Sector time detail of a competitor and where a competitor is faster or slower

Adjustment of power unit settings

Adjustment of power unit setting to de-rate the systems

Adjustment of gearbox settings

Learning of gears of the gearbox (will only be enforced from the Japanese GP onwards)

Balancing the SOC or adjusting for performance

Information on fuel flow settings (except if requested to do so by race control)

Information on level of fuel saving needed

Information on tire pressures or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese GP onwards)

Information on differential settings

Start maps related to clutch position, for race start and pit stops

Information on clutch maps or settings, (ex. bite point)

Burnouts prior to race starts
F1 teams concerned radio ban may lead to botched starts

Information on brake balance or BBW settings

Warning on brake wear or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese GP onwards)

Selection of driver default settings (other than in the case of a clearly identified problem with the car)

Answering a direct question from a driver (ex. “Am I using the right torque map?”)

Any message that appears to be coded

Messages permitted (for the avoidance of doubt)

Acknowledgement that a driver message has been heard

Lap or sector time detail

Lap time detail of a competitor

Gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race

“Push hard,” “push now,” “you will be racing xx,” or similar

Helping with warning of traffic during a practice session or race

Giving the gaps between cars in qualifying so as to better position the car for a clear lap

Puncture warning

Tire choice at the next pit stop

Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tires during a race

Tire specification of a competitor

Indication of a potential problem with a competitor’s car during a race

Information concerning a competitor’s likely race strategy
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Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions

Safety Car window

Driving breaches by team driver or competitor (ex. missing chicanes, running off track, time penalty will be applied, etc.)

Notification that DRS is enabled or disabled

Dealing with a DRS system failure

Change of front wing position at the next pit stop

Oil transfer

Wet track, oil or debris in certain corners

When to enter the pits

Reminders to check for white lines, bollards, weighbridge lights when entering or leaving the pits

Reminders about track limits

Passing on messages from race control

Information concerning damage to the car

Number of laps remaining

Driver instructions from the team to swap position with other drivers

Test sequence information during practice sessions (ex. aero-mapping)

Weather information

Pit to retire the car

[bigbadbrother]

Adam Cooper

The consensus among the drivers is that the new FIA restrictions on radio usage will not have a major impact.

While acknowledging that they would now be busier, in that they will take more responsibility for things like monitoring fuel usage, they don't expect it to affect performance.

“I don't expect it to have a huge impact on the race itself and the weekend preparations,” said Fernando Alonso. “In our case at Ferrari we never used the radio for any performance reasons, or something like that, just to control temperatures, to talk about traffic, decide strategy, so as I said it won't have a big impact. The other teams, I don't know exactly how they use the radio. Talking about the general rule itself, there's a lot of media attention, like the FRIC ban, but then the final impact on the race results was not anything special, and I think here it will be similar.”

“Well, obviously we don’t speak a lot on the radio in my case usually, when there are no issues,” said Kimi Raikkonen. “But obviously it might get quite complicated if there are some problems with the car, and you have to change certain things to try to finish the race. I don’t know how the rule goes at those times. Obviously it makes it more complicated for us, but it’s part of the game so it’s OK.”

“I don’t think it’s ideal that they, suddenly from one race to another, they change it dramatically that you cannot get certain calls,” said Sergio Perez. “But it doesn’t influence it much. I don’t see it as a big deal, it’s something that we as drivers need to get more used to. We will have, definitely, more information and we’re going to be a bit more busy throughout the race to basically try to keep everything under control – fuel loads and engine modes, all that kind of stuff. I don’t see a problem to get used to, it’s just a dramatic change from the last race to this one.”

“I don’t mind it,” said Jean-Eric Vergne. “I think it will be more or less the same as before. I like to do things by my own and many times this year I changed the settings before my engineer told me, so yeah, I will be a bit more lonely on the radio – but it should be fine.”

[bigbadbrother]

Adam Cooper

As expected, Thursday’s meeting of the F1 sporting regulations group has led to an easing of the restrictions given by the FIA to the teams earlier this week.

The meeting, which covered other future rules issues as well, gave the 11 team managers a chance to air their views to race director Charlie Whiting.

It was agreed that the restrictions on technical conversation-related routine running of the cars would be difficult to implement at such short notice, so the focus has moved to any chat which directly relates to driver performance, such as advice on gears, lines, and braking points, and comparisons with other drivers.

That still addresses the main reason for the ban, which was to counter the widespread feeling that modern drivers get too much help.

The FIA’s Charlie Whiting has emphasised that the easing on radio restrictions was done in the interests of fairness, because some teams would be more affected than others by a short term change.

The main problem is that teams use one of two dashboards, one of which carries less information than the other. The teams affected can ‘upgrade’ for 2015.

“We believe a driver should drive the car alone and unaided,” said Whiting when explaining the restrictions. “He shouldn’t be told that he’s going a bit too deep into this corner, should take a tighter apex on that corner. It’s for him to decide, not for his team to tell him how he’s comparing to his teammate, for example, so that’s the basis of it.

“It was becoming apparent that more or more was being done for the drivers, and quite simply that is at odds with article 20.1 of the regulations. We felt that this should extend to both car performance and driver performance related parameters, but when one looks into it in more detail it became quite clear that some teams will be at a disadvantage compared to the others, not just in their know how or ability to react in the short term, but also with hardware choices that were made a year ago, for example.

“I think you are familiar with the two types of dashboard that are available to the teams, one would simply show a great deal more than the other. In the interest of fairness we felt, with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to introduce it in two stages, which is what we’ve done.

“The plan is to make it more far-reaching, to take in the technical elements of it as well, the technical assistance that drivers are getting about the performance of the car as well. It will inevitably be more complex, but I think that is how the sport is. I think it is going to be very hard to make it simpler, unless one was to remove radios from the car. Very simple. But I think that might not be very well received.”

Whiting said that eight people are listening to radio when the cars are running. Regarding possible penalties he said: “It’s not for me to say what the penalty will be, because it’s a matter for the stewards of course.

“What I would do is report to the stewards a possible contravention of Article 20.1, who would then decide what the penalty would be. I think it would have to be a sporting penalty, as opposed to a monetary one. If it happened it might be, I emphasize might be, a five-second time penalty for example, if it happened in practice it might be a grid position or something like that.”