F1 and the crackdown on team radio communications

[seaqnmac27]

Hi. i have attached a link to an article on www.autosport.com http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115997
that relates to the crackdown on radio communications between the driver and team and the FIA's statement that the driver must drive their car alone and unaided. Now as Joe average motor sport viewer, I feel that if a team has "fixed" the car from the pits or from their home base while the driver is on track then that is clearly a false result.
Now I could be wrong her, but my reading of what Toto Wolff and Christian Horner are saying is that their inability to discuss technical issues is a safety issue.

"It is also a concern for safety. How do you not want to communicate with a driver whose steering wheel doesn't show anything anymore?"

This appears to me to be an inconvenience, rather than a safety issue.

[928]

jeez there was me thinking a steering wheel was for directing the car. but no, I was wrong it is for comms.

[rogered]

jeez there was me thinking a steering wheel was for directing the car. but no, I was wrong it is for comms.

my steering wheel has comms also. Its a round button in the middle and used to convey messages to others

[928]

you have time to play with your horn when racing?

[gokiwi]

Some say playing with your horn aid's concentration......

you have time to play with your horn when racing?

[rogered]

you have time to play with your horn when racing?

only racing between traffic lights

[928]

you need a girlfriend me thinks or a serious chat with your wife

[Allan]

Back in the good old days when men were men and racing cars had just three round dials.................

[stirlingmac]

I think it's a good thing..I find it annoying how in the Supercar coverage the commentators are listening in to the team radios and broadcasting all the info. It makes for good entertainment I suppose but I enjoyed the old days with pit boards and shut up and drive what you've got!!

[seaqnmac27]

You can be fined here fined here in Queensland for using your horn in public. . . Stirlingmac, I could not agree more, a little like the selective use of coverage , like where a team gets penalised because their pit stop happens to be shown live so you see their wheels spinning where it may happen in others but its not televised, or F1's use of the blue flags where its been taken to mean one thing but international laws mean something else, or is that just my understanding, or putting our a safety car for circumstances that should be covered by double waved yellows. Maybe I am just wingeing, Maybe I should be English. . .

[stubuchanan]

Hi. i have attached a link to an article on www.autosport.com http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115997
that relates to the crackdown on radio communications between the driver and team and the FIA's statement that the driver must drive their car alone and unaided. Now as Joe average motor sport viewer, I feel that if a team has "fixed" the car from the pits or from their home base while the driver is on track then that is clearly a false result.
Now I could be wrong her, but my reading of what Toto Wolff and Christian Horner are saying is that their inability to discuss technical issues is a safety issue.

"It is also a concern for safety. How do you not want to communicate with a driver whose steering wheel doesn't show anything anymore?"

This appears to me to be an inconvenience, rather than a safety issue.

Response so far suggests that the forum in general doesn't give the proverbial rat's arse for Formula One.

Go back 50 years or so and pit crews held out pit signals to their drivers - i.e. "+5 Clark" or "-2sec Stewart" or just plain "finger out".
Is this to be banned?

Obviously fly-by-wire systems controlled from outside the car are undesireable, and the degree of system-cheating in F1 is, at the very least, no less than the general level in the European Community, but a complete ban on communication would surely end up in more devious methods of cheating.

On the other hand, a change to a completely no-communication system might sort out the men from the boys, Some teams or drivers might be found seriously lacking if they actually had to think for themselves and earn their money.

Stu

[briteyes]

I think this whole Pit to car communication has got way out of hand.
I have no problem with data loggers that can be anylised after the race but it is OTT when a pit can tell a driver where he is slow. The claim of Safety is just rubbish, if that were the case then the only real issue would be overheating tyres and that communication could go through a race control net. The mention of overheating brakes is just Bull, If someone is driving in such a way that the brakes are overheating and he will not make the end of the race, Tough.

Grow some Balls and drive what you have got. This might sort the men from the boys.

[Allan]

There is one very important use for radios and that is for the engineer to tell the driver how great he is and stroke his ego and for the driver to tell the pit crew how wonderful he (the driver) is at the end of the race.
On a more serious note I have never been a fan of any verbal communication between the crew and driver (pit boards are ok) nor have I seen the need for information transmitted from the car to tell the crew what is going on with the vehicle while it out on the circuit. If the driver is worth his eye watering salary the he should be capable of describing to his crew what is wrong with his car or what needs to be done to improve it. I know many of us older fellers hark back to the good old days when drivers could do this and that's the way it should still be. I also have doubts about data logging.
If you really want to get me going we could discuss rally pace notes.

[Bryan]

Russell Brockbank cartoon - I have another in a book at home about "plain English" pitboards, with a Ferrari mechanic holding a board reading "Enzo say you bloody crazy!"

[928]

I think this whole Pit to car communication has got way out of hand.
I have no problem with data loggers that can be anylised after the race but it is OTT when a pit can tell a driver where he is slow. The claim of Safety is just rubbish, if that were the case then the only real issue would be overheating tyres and that communication could go through a race control net. The mention of overheating brakes is just Bull, If someone is driving in such a way that the brakes are overheating and he will not make the end of the race, Tough.

Grow some Balls and drive what you have got. This might sort the men from the boys.

you got it in one boys driving fast cars need to have their ego stroked every 5 minutes or they forget what they are doing. Think about finishing a race by managing the tyres, fuel, brakes, and race as well, impossible to the modern F1 rider