Has it all got a bit much?
Image c/o James Moy Photography
The FIA has moved to ban, with immediate effect, radio communication between pitwall and driver during a Grand Prix which is “related to the performance of the car or driver.”
This is a fairly substantial shift in regulation, and comes in the midst of the first year of an era of total re-education for the modern Formula 1 driver, as issues such as driving within a fuel flow limit and “coasting” have led to an increasing stream of information from team to driver over the manner in which the car should be driven.
As broken this morning by my colleague Adam Cooper, the teams have been informed of the following by FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting:
“In order to ensure that the requirements [sic] of Article 20.1 of the F1 Sporting Regulations is respected at all times we intend to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”
Article 20.1 states that “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.”
As such, the recent flow of radio messages detailing when a driver should brake, what gear he should be in and when and to what extent he should be using the throttle, had been called into question. Quite apart from seemingly being at odds with Article 20.1, from the perspective of external impressions of the sport, these messages were seemingly starting to give over the view that the drivers were simply puppets being told how to drive fast, rather than the gladiatorial beacons of Derring Do which their predecessors, all arms and elbows, had been.
Whiting also confirmed that teams would not simply be able to get around the issue by sending information electronically to the driver, one must imagine via messages to the steering wheel screen.
“We should also remind you that data transmission from pit to car is specifically prohibited by Article 8.5.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations.”
It remains to be seen exactly how the FIA will police this new regulation, or indeed how deep it will run. Pitstop strategy and safety issues will still, we believe, be permitted to be broadcast, and if so this in itself leaves open interesting avenues.
For while one imagines it will now be illegal to tell a racer how he should be driving the car, will it also be illegal to broadcast information over tyre temperature, brake temperature or any number of other variables brought to light by the many Terabytes of telemetry gathered in each Grand Prix? Afterall, such information is key to race strategy. Such information may also be born of safety.
If a driver may not be told how to drive the car, then perhaps it will be legal to deliver this type of information, but without the requisite advice on how the driver might wish to resolve the issue.
Unfortunately, due to the wording of the regulation change, it is open to tremendous interpretation. What does this directive cover? Surely any and all pit to driver communication concerns performance. Does that mean that all radio communication is outlawed? If strategy and safety is permitted, then what will that cover? No matter what is resolved in the meetings which will have to take place in Singapore before the five red lights go out, debate will no doubt rage over what is and is not permissible and how one gets around the concept of coded messages. It seems almost ridiculous to ask, but will it now be illegal for Mercedes to tell Lewis that “It’s Hammer Time”?
While mid-season rule changes are never advisable, in this case I think that, in its intention at least, it’s a good idea. For while strategy is a key part of modern day Formula 1, and radio communication now a key tool in the narrative of any F1 broadcast, the idea that racing drivers are being instructed how to drive on a corner by corner basis can only take away from the belief that these men are the best of the best.
David Beckham never wore an earpiece, for Sir Alex Fergusson to tell him when Ryan Giggs was open and unmarked on the opposite flank and to advise on the exact moment to execute a 35 yard floating cross-pitch pass to him. Johnny Wilkinson had to rely on picking grass and watching how it floated in the air to determine wind direction and velocity when he was taking his trademark rugby kicks.
It should be left to a racer’s instinct to know how to drive.
To paraphrase a world champion who despises the over-use of modern day radio in Formula 1… leave them alone. They should know what they’re doing.
UPDATE: Since writing this piece the FIA has clarified what is and is not permitted and it seems as though the only messages now held as legal are those regarding traffic, pit stop timing and team orders.
Frankly, this seems akin to using a sledgehammer to remove a tooth. For while the concept of putting the driver back into focus may have been the objective, the outcome will be tantamount chaos created by a hastily and ill-conceived cover-all solution to a complex issue.
The directive covers all sessions, not just the race. So we must now assume that even using the radio to talk to the driver while he’s in car in between runs in practice is now prohibited. Any and all information regarding the operation of the car and of how a driver might improve his or his car’s performance is off limits by radio. Pitboards will come back into favour, and one would imagine, a complex system of hand signals or perhaps some quick sign language lessons for the relaying of information in the pits during practice and qualifying.
What is more likely is a ridiculous and convoluted system of coded messages, thus putting the sport and it’s drivers even further out of touch with reality. Something this change was supposed to resolve for the better.
If this directive simply covered the issuing of driving instructions such as when to brake and what gear to use, as it seemed at the outset, it would be a tremendous positive. What we’ve got instead puts Formula 1 in the dark ages, and behind even it’s most grass roots and basic entry level feeder series.
The Buxton Blog 
I HATE the idea of restricting team radio as its one of the best features of the TV broadcast & one of the things I love been able to listen to as it.
I also hate the idea of any ban on car to pit telemetry as again been able to see that telemetry data on the TV broadcasts is something I love seeing.
I also don’t get the complaints about drivers been told how to improve there lap times, Or how to better manage the tyres/fuel etc…. Its a team sport & this sort of thing has been going on since team radio was 1st introduced & its the same sort of thing that goes on in every category.
By banning that, Team radio or telemetry your just knocking F1 a few steps down when compared to other categories.
Regardless of what info there getting from the teams its still down to the drivers to drive the cars, They can be told to brake later into a corner but its still upto them to actually brake later & make it work for laptime rather than lock-up & go off.
This radio clampdown could have a massive negative effect on things with drivers pushing less as there unaware of what the tyres are doing (The Pirelli’s are difficult to get a feel for remember) or unaware of how much fuel they will have at the end resulting in them running out (As we saw in the 80s).
Not to mention that a driver been told where to find time could actually improve the racing by helping him catch a car ahead & produce a battle.
F1 is a team sport, Yes the drivers are the one’s out there driving the cars but if the team can see from telemetry or the timing data that a driver is losing time in a specific sector/corner then for the benefit of the team why should they not be allowed to tell a driver where he’s losing time. If by doing that it allows a driver to find that time & be more competitive which gives us a better race then why is it seen as such a negative?
The drivers are still the one’s driving the cars, Even when told where there losing time the drivers are still the one’s who have to go out there & put the data into practice by braking later, carrying more speed & getting on the throttle sooner. By been told he needs to brake later into turn 1 or whatever Max Chilton is not suddenly on the same level as Hamilton, Its still down to driver skill to figure out how to improve where there told they need to.
It happens in other categories so why should it suddenly be banned in F1 just because everyone within F1 want to ignore the real reasons why many fans have turned off or been unable to afford to tune in to begin with.
There’s also nothing stopping teams from just relaying messages via the pit board.
Why are you the only person who knows what he’s talking about regarding F1?
So basically were going to get much less of an already underused feature (Team radio), Wonderful 😦
It also looks to me as if this team radio clampdown is something a lot of fans are against based on fan comments i’ve read on several websites/forums i am a member of.
The radio isn’t being banned and we will still get to hear lots of communication between the team and drivers. What we won’t get is ‘You can afford to brake 5m later into T5’ or ‘Take a wider line like your team mate’. The drivers should be working that out for themselves. Imagine a football manager telling his players, via an earpiece, where to pass the ball and who is going to make a run…Let them do it themselves!
Of all the crap foisted upon fans of the sport this season this by far is the worst. The FIA looks like school children coming up with this. This really is a mess overall.
That’s weird, because over the past 2-3 years, the number 1 complaints (other than the tyres) from fans has been that the drivers are told how to go faster (go wider out of T1) and it ruins the sport for many fans. I think what everyone wants to see is drivers working out for themselves how to go faster, not for the engineers to work it out and tell the drivers where they aren’t finding time.
Well said, Will! Let them race.
J
If I want to watch some dude in a car out banging laps by himself, I’ll go to my local club races. Pit access is easy, drivers are happy to talk and there’s no Bernie.
I watch F1 because I want to see the bleeding edge of technology – these cars are so fast, so complicated and so close to each other that a modern F1 driver faces sensory overload similar to a fighter pilot in a dogfight – for 2 hours straight. That’s why it’s a team sport. That’s why F1 recruits the best and brightest engineers. Winning at this level should be about more than having a good day, its about the culmination of thousands of manhours pointed towards a single goal.
The driver has always been the final arbiter of how the car gets driven, eg “Lewis, stay 2 seconds behind Nico”. I think a world where the drivers can focus on driving rather than solving engineering puzzles is a better world. It’s certainly a safer world. The race engineers are there because HUDs aren’t; they can filter the chatter of a dozen specialist engineers into a succinct message and deliver it when it’s the most useful and least distracting.
This is another example of how FOM has failed us fans, and gone off on a lark without asking the fans what we want. It solves a problem that doesn’t exist, while causing more and more confusion among the less experienced fans the sport needs to attract. As long as fuel, watttage, etc is metered and limited, the complexities of the sport will be beyond a casual viewer’s immediate understanding. Radio chatter is used by skilled commentators to provide this crucial background information.
The radio messages are also the only time we fans get to hear the real driver. Any other time, the driver is carefully handled by their PR attendent and sincerely spews the party line to anyone who asks. The radio chatter makes the stress and difficulty of the cockpit real, and gives us fans some real insight into the character of the drivers. If the FOM wants to make the drivers the star of the show, a good first step would be MORE access to the drivers, not less.
I’m a HUGE F1 fan. I spend thousands of quid on the sport every year: attending races, buying merchandise, magazine and online subscriptions, etc. I spend hours every week going over F1 news. Most of my friends, I’ve met through F1. But I’m afraid that if the FOM keeps going in this direction, I will have to give up on the sport. But then, at least I’ll have more time for local club racing…
Suggest you give up on the sport pal, you obviously have no idea what F1 is about. Cutting edge technology: yes, fastest cars: yes, talented drivers most able to cope with aforementioned: soon hopefully. Most of the stuff over team radio is either complaints about other drivers (whingeing) incapable drivers asking for advice on how to drive (embarrasing) or red herrings designed to wrong foot other teams about pit stops etc (lies) and has absolutely zero to do with personality.
Also, it’s F.I.A. and not F.O.M that have put this forward, different entities entirely as you should know given your huge investment.
I think it is time for this to happen. The race is being run from the pit wall not the track!
Ridiculous, Its a team sport & the team should be allowed to help out to get the best result for the team.
The team are allowed to give drivers data overlays to compare & improve in the pits so why not be allowed to give that data in real time.
I’m growing tired of this over-regulation & utterly stupid rules & decisions.
F1 is dying as quickly as my interest in a sport i once loved. This is just one more decision in a long line to speed up that process.
Ridiculous decision!
I just hope teams quickly come up with ways around it so that it can go the way of the equally dumb team order ban.
Hi Will, nice blog. I’d just like to say thats the best news I’ve heard all year. Now the drivers will have to learn how to drive and the engineers will have to design cars that last for the whole race.
Shame for Nico Rosberg though, he’ll have to cope by himself for a whole race rather than just sitting in a fast car going fast whilst pressing the buttons he’s told to press and shame for Seb Vettel, as he’ll have to learn how to overtake rather than whingeing to Charlie and trying to drop people in it whilst blatantly ignoring track limits himself.
All that’s left is to ban telemetry as well and they’ll save a fortune in ‘staff monitoring telemetry costs’ and we might actually get decent, worthy drivers in well designed cars winning races again… just like it used to be.
Not as bad as double race points.
Alas, I find myself and old fart who happens to want to see the driver solely responsible for his performance in the race, that being said, I believe there will be an almost impossible task of trying to enforce the ban as it is now worded, which will mean of course more controversy and accusations of coded messaging,
The FIA has been attempting for years to limit the cost the teams are presently experiencing, yet no one seems to consider the obvious….illiminate any car to pit telemetry, which would decrease the engineering staff present at each race. The data could still be stored on the car and downloaded after the race for use in increasing future performance. I think it would be vastly more interesting to see the driver attempt to interpret all the data available on his own while driving in the race.
Obviously, this is a minority opinion.
Nope, I think many people who have spent many years watching F1 will completely agree. I don’t care if I’m an old fart too as long as we get back to racing cars racing and racing drivers driving.
Let me ask you this Will, do you think David Beckham could be as good if he couldn’t even see his own shoes and most of the time the ball? Do you think he instinctively knows how to reach Nicky Butt, Gary Neville, etc. if he can’t see where his teammates are standing? No, the only way is when someone who can see where his teammates are relative to David to tell David how and where to shoot. He knows how to shoot and he knows that instinctively just like a driver knows how to comply to the suggestions made by the pit wall.
Having said that you do raise some good questions and I’m very curious as to what F1 is going to decide about what kind of messages are allowed and which are not allowed.
Just one last question, it is known that all teams use a beep system to tell the driver when it’s the best moment to shift gears… is this tool still allowed?
It’s just pretty much like the anti teamorder rule was. Not really possible to punish anyone.
What will be allowed if no information to improve performance of the car can be transmitted to the car. Will it still be allowed to instruct the driver to fail a sensor? Will it be possible to tell the driver to reduce the load on the tire or anything tire related because it is obviously a safety issue if your tire gets to hot/cold. So I guess in the next few races we will see many randomly punished because they overstepped some virtual boundary.
Here’s something to think about when looking at potential gray areas.
Messages relating to Fuel usage & Tyre wear/temperature.
After all messages relating to strategy are still allowed & could messages telling drivers to save fuel or to manage the tyres in certain corners or to work to raise/lower tyre temperatures not be considered a part of the strategy decisions?
And as we have heard from teams/drivers over the past 4 years, These Pirelli tyres are very difficult to get a proper feeling for which is why they moved towards using so much extra data on tyres to begin with from 2011.
It seems to me that if the data comes from the car this should be available to the drivers. Temps, fuel levels etc, it should all be on the steering wheel screen, which RBR does not have HA!
I guess interpretation of the data is the real issue, the driver does not get an interpretation if they just get a direct reading of the the tires or brake temps etc.
I think the FIA’s spirit is trying to eradicate these silly messages, however they’re having to go to these kind of links as F1 teams are the masters of exploiting loopholes.
links? Lengths*
Thank goodness, its about time. I will have to respectfully disagree with mr buxton about this turning into a coded message a thon. Charlie will be monitoring this very carefully and anything out of the ordinary will be punished. If the brakes are hot or fuel is low there will be a warning system on the dash and it will be up to the drivers to remember the pre race instructions on how to resolve these issues. I rather like the drivers being in control of the race rather than the pitwalls. More errors will happen, which is more exciting for us the viewers. Drivers will be in control of how much fuel they need to race, and to finish.
There not even going to be able to warn drivers about the condition of the brakes or about slow punctures etc…
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/316066/q-a-with-the-fia-on-team-radio-restrictions/
i can see more drivers running out of fuel now & ending up with worn tyres as well.
this will be a very bad thing for the racing, which has been great so far this year.
Surely that’s better for the racing, if the drivers are actually having to work out how to use the car rather than having the engineers tell them?
Not if there all running out of fuel or tyres as we used to see regularly in the 80s when teams didn’t have the radio & telemetry on fuel/tyre wear.
Giving the drivers info on where there losing time to other cars helps in the races as it gives us more battles & likewise drivers been informed on fuel/tyre use ensures drivers don’t use too much fuel & then have to go into cruise mode whihc will hurt the racing.
Despite all the complaints about drivers been helped we have had some great racing over the past few years, Some of the best i’ve ever seen over the 35 or so years i’ve been watching f1 so it was clearly not having a negative effect.
This will be impossible to police. They can develop all kinds of code words and phrases to get around it. Much in the way a drug dealer converses over phone lines.
Totally agree Will.. well put. There are far too many radio transmissions in total right now to be able to broadcast them all anyway. Typically we seem to end up with the relatively insignificant ones anyway.. Monza for instance, we had to hear from the commentary team (BBC) that Rosberg didn’t want to know Hamilton’s pace compared to his own. IMO, that was a pretty significant radio message and should have been broadcast.
But regardless, enforcement will be interesting no doubt. And likely to cause some clusters to begin with.
Let’s all thank ROS for Exceeding Track^wCommon Sense Limits with the *pssht* “Driving advice?” calls.
THANKS NICO.
IMO, this is great development in theory, but they need to go the full measure and ban ALL radio transmissions – pit board only. Have an team emergency channel to communicate an imminent failure (which would require at least a trip down pitlane) and a global race direction channel to warn of unsafe track conditions. The half measure, as Will alluded to, is just going to make things more convoluted and esoteric…
Anyone who watches current MotoGP (or classic F1) knows how vastly superior and refreshing it is to watch pilots out on track, alone with their thoughts and managing the race by themselves without pit perch micromanagement, responding to cues from the machine only. If they need to simplify/streamline the in-car management systems available to the driver then that would be an additional, positive knock on effect. Why not wait til 2015, and sort this properly?
F1 is team sport, no debate…but the actual on track racing needs to be the domain of the driver alone…
Just a point regarding the displays based on some comments i’ve seen around the net.
The teams cannot develop there own displays or put there own information on the displays. They only have 2 types of display available & both come with the MES ECU as standard & can only display what the ECU allows it to display & thats the same for every team.
The new for 2014 LCD display-
http://www.mclarenelectronics.com/Products/Product/PCU-8D
The older LED display still used by a couple teams-
http://www.mclarenelectronics.com/Products/Product/PCU-6D
Anyone using the LED display will be unable to add an extra display to show fuel usage, tyre temps/pressures etc…. They will be restricted just to the information available on that LED display which is pretty basic.
It is also not necessarily as easy as it sounds to make the switch to the new LED display as whatever display is selected by each team/driver is built into the basic cockpit/wheel design pre-season with the wiring loom layout done depending on where the display is mounted (On the dash or on the wheel).
If a team decides its driver will need the LCD dash they will have to design a new wheel, Totally change the button/switch layout & perhaps the size/shape of the wheel to accommodate the larger display & in some cases also alter the wiring loom to move the display location from the dash to the wheel.
This year’s Mercedes wheel with the LCD display-
Williams wheel without the display, Older LED display is on the top of the dash-
Lotus wheel with LED dash-
If they wanted to bring in this restriction they should have waited until 2015 so that teams could work the larger display into there cockpit/wheel layouts better & so that the ECU software & displays could be upgraded to give additional information as some of the info drivers will need isn’t even available on either display.
Well put as usual Will. But isn’t it time for Charlie and Co. to set the rules up for the beginning of the season and stick to them?
I would not make that change. Keep the radio.
Love the blog!! Great job. Do you think that Fernando will stay at Ferrari with all the change in the team the the loss of Santander CEO? He is the most desirable driver.
What concerns me is the guise under which this is being enacted. “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.” So why aren’t messages about traffic illegal? Or when to pit? Surely those things involve “driving the car”. If we really want to address the low-level driving info such as brake temps, when to take a wider line, etc., let’s address the root cause and eliminate the telemetry that makes these messages possible. This way there’s no ambiguity…nobody has the data. Or if we want to use the data to continue to advance the sport, which I agree with, the FIA can record the data through secure sensors and make it available to teams only after the race so that it can’t be used tactically. I personally don’t appreciate this mid-season meddling.
Not for the first time a directive, which is just a clarification of how the TD will advise the stewards on how they could interpret a regulation, seems to have only a tenuose connection to the reg. I agree with the interpretation that the pit should not be instructing the driver HOW to drive, but its difficult to say that passing information or data to the driver by radio is a breach of the reg without also banning pit boards – they are logically the same its just that you can pass more info faster over the radio. If they really want to limit the use of the radio in this way then they should come up with a new regulation and use the time before next season to get it correctly worded. It should ban other forms of comms – after all what would stop a team from buying space on the electronic hoardings around the circuit to pass messages to the driver.
They will be applying this lunacy during practice and qualifying too. So drivers will probably, oh hell certainly, end up in the pits more often to get/give feedback to the engineers. I’m sure this will totally help the issue of getting paying customers to the track. Nothing like extended pit time to encourage a festive day at the track. Yes, there has been some excessive communication. But as Will said, it’s using a sledge hammer for tooth extraction.
I think this is a good idea. However, I’m an old fogey type who still foolishly likes to get into my car and actually drive someplace myself. That’s old-tech. We’re going to have to embrace the new technologies that are becoming available.
The times are changing. It won’t be long before none of us will actually drive a car anywhere. We’ll step into transportation pods and everything will be done for us. Safely. Automatically. We won’t have to do anything.
Racing, which is dangerous, unnecessarily wasteful and expensive, can be done on sophisticated simulators for the enjoyment of all.
Again, I think it’s a good idea. Let the drivers race low-tech and enjoy it while you can. I know I will.
To be fair, I respect their motive – trying to cut down on the intense live coaching that really erodes the differential in talent levels of drivers. Stopping the constant guidance on breaking points, apex points etc is a very good thing. But preventing warning on safety matters like brakes and tires is clearly stupid.
How will this play out? Teams will threaten to have tire temps, pressures, brake temps, etc, all displayed in the cockpit so the driver can monitor them directly, but highlight the huge safety issue this will present. Then the FIA will acquiesce and agree to what they should have done in the first place – information on status of the car is ok – fuel usage, brake and tire temps – all ok to convey. But what you can’t do is tell the driver what to do about it. Or tell him how to drive. This could in fact make for a better spectacle – much more suspense around whether a driver is managing to deal with the issue. Fuel will be interesting.
Interesting timing of the change. Mid season rather than a change for 2015. Seems like they see trying to help Lewis. Especially when combined with doing nothing about double points.
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Will, what about the ‘pips’ the driver hears for things like DRS, gear changes, sector times etc?
Surely these things are an outside aid to the driver.
I’ve mentioned these on another blog already but three points. First, in principle it is a good idea to give more control back to the driver, so in principle I agree. Second, however, is that I think it would be better to give more thought to the issues, and therefore to introduce it at the start of next season rather than with immediate effect.
Alternatively, and this is my third point, surely there is a much simpler solution? Rather than some sort of difficult-to-police “you can say A, but you can’t say B etc.”, why don’t you simply restrict the number of times the radio is used during a GP race (e.g. 5 times per driver)? I guess FIA have this sort of info because if they didn’t know when the radio was being used they wouldn’t be able to transmit them on the world TV feed. Moreover, you might see some creativity between the teams as different outfits choose to relay different messages; an indication of different teams’ priorities.