Team radio ban

[anfield5]

On the surface this is an excellent rule, driver should drive the cars, not the engineers. The way things are going drivers could be replaced with an x=box controller.

As many have already pointed out though, teams are devious and they will find ways to imbed coded messages into other messages.

Does anyone know what the stewards will do if a team is guilty of breaking these new radio rules? Race disqualification and a public flogging might work.

[Mark]

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has provided the teams with a detailed list of the types of pit-to-car radio messages that will and won’t be allowed from this weekend’s 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix onwards.

It follows last week’s directive which advised that any radio transmissions including information related to the performance of the car or driver would be considered a contravention of Article 20.1 of the sporting regulations. This states that "the driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.

The move follows recent media scrutiny about the amount of information being given to drivers by their race engineers, particularly in terms of how they can gain lap time.

Among the message types now banned - either by radio or pit board - include information about a competitor’s sector times, information on the level of fuel saving needed, any coded messages, and answering a direct technical question from a driver such as "Am I using the right torque map?"

Certain message types, such as information on tyre pressures and temperatures and brake wear and temperatures, will only be prohibited from the next round of the championship in Japan in order to give teams time to adapt to the changes.

The full list is as follows:

Message types allowed
- 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.
- Tyre choice at the next pit stop.
- Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
- Tyre specification of a competitor.
- Indication of a potential problem with a competitor's car during a race.
- Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
- Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions.

Message types not allowed
- 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 Grand Prix onwards).
- Balancing the SOC [state-of-charge of batteries] 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 tyre pressures or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards).
- Information on differential settings.
- Start maps related to clutch position, for race start and pit stops.
- Information on clutch maps or settings, e.g. bite point.
- Burn-outs prior to race starts.
- Information on brake balance or BBW (brake-by-wire) settings.
- Warning on brake wear or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix 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, e.g. "Am I using the right torque map"?
- Any message that appears to be coded.

[schmenke]

...- Any message that appears to be coded.

[Bagwan]

They'll use the FIA EMD (Enigma Machine Detector) for those codey bits .

They'll also be hanging cameras off the foreheads of all the race engineers , to catch those tiny but tell-tale shifty looks they display when they are being naughty .

[Tazio]

I just thought of a good coded message. If a race engineer tell a pilot driving a car that is normally at or near the sharp end:
"Koba' is faster than you" , it means shut you car down it about to go pop!

[ShiftingGears]

No more Hammer Time!

[Tazio]

Actually, Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone claimed the credit."I was the one who started it off, yes. The drivers are all happy it's gone," said Ecclestone, referring to the end of all performance-related messages between the pit wall and the drivers

"Maybe he [Ecclestone] spoke to the drivers from the ’80s,
who do not know what it is like to drive these cars," said Felipe Massa."The cars are very complicated [and] if the settings are wrong, you cannot do two laps before the car fails," he explained. "If it stays like this, there will be a big fight in the drivers' briefing."Sergio Perez agreed. "It's not great they have made such a big change from one race to another," he said.World champion Sebastian Vettel said the drivers might struggle to manage the complicated charging of the cars' on-board energy recovery systems."That's why we have so many people in the garage," said the Red Bull driver. "They're not here to have a nice time and have a couple of beers. They're here to do a job

I figured Felipe would whine the loudest.
Personally I'm for the rule change, but agree with Perez, changing mid-season is stupid, but not a surprise, because this is Bernie's MO.

[truefan72]

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has provided the teams with a detailed list of the types of pit-to-car radio messages that will and won’t be allowed from this weekend’s 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix onwards.

It follows last week’s directive which advised that any radio transmissions including information related to the performance of the car or driver would be considered a contravention of Article 20.1 of the sporting regulations. This states that "the driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.

The move follows recent media scrutiny about the amount of information being given to drivers by their race engineers, particularly in terms of how they can gain lap time.

Among the message types now banned - either by radio or pit board - include information about a competitor’s sector times, information on the level of fuel saving needed, any coded messages, and answering a direct technical question from a driver such as "Am I using the right torque map?"

Certain message types, such as information on tyre pressures and temperatures and brake wear and temperatures, will only be prohibited from the next round of the championship in Japan in order to give teams time to adapt to the changes.

The full list is as follows:

Message types allowed
- 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.
- Tyre choice at the next pit stop.
- Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
- Tyre specification of a competitor.
- Indication of a potential problem with a competitor's car during a race.
- Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
- Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions.

Message types not allowed
- 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 Grand Prix onwards).
- Balancing the SOC [state-of-charge of batteries] 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 tyre pressures or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards).
- Information on differential settings.
- Start maps related to clutch position, for race start and pit stops.
- Information on clutch maps or settings, e.g. bite point.
- Burn-outs prior to race starts.
- Information on brake balance or BBW (brake-by-wire) settings.
- Warning on brake wear or temperatures (will only be enforced from the Japanese Grand Prix 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, e.g. "Am I using the right torque map"?
- Any message that appears to be coded.

This new rule is just ridiculous
drivers should choose their level of information and then deal with it

that being said, the list of banned communications is also dubious
the onse highlighted in bold are IMO too important to be on that 2nd list
also, with all the electronics and complicated nature of the cars, feedback is important and if something goes wrong on some system, is the driver supposed to fully comprehend the 27 different engineering options to resolve the problem on the fly????

it is just ridiculous.
It is as if the fIA think these cars have the level of complexity of a 1980 lotus. or even a 2001 car
there is a reason it takes an entire team of engineers to support each vehicle.

Drivers are busy enough driving the cars at breakneck speeds, dealing with traffic and doing what they can, now they are expected to have a phd level of comprehension to operate them effectively on their own
it is just ridiculous knee jerk reaction to some stupid pundits and some excessive messages by one or 2 drivers.
I bet you that the rule goes away in 2015

[Big Ben]

Apparently they've decided to postpone the banning of some type of messages for 2015. The messages that advise the driver on how to drive are still to be banned right away. IMO they should stick just to these kind of messages for the following years as well.

And speaking of rule changes, the are considering dropping the double points next year. There's still some sense left in them maybe.

[AndyL]

Some details here:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...4/9/16360.html
They've shifted from a ban on messages about driver or car performance to just a ban on driver performance information. Which sounds sensible enough but it's still a potential minefield of disputes and arguments.

It looks like it will now be illegal to say "go easy on the throttle on the exit of turn 3," but will be legal to say "the tyres are getting too hot on the exit of turn 3," which hardly seems any different. And they're not allowed to tell them to use the overtake button, but if they are still allowed to tell the driver about changing engine maps, then that one seems hard to police.