Revised Radio Restrictions

REVISED RADIO RESTRICTIONS PUT IN PLACE

    The FIA have tightened the rules on radio restrictions following Nico Rosberg’s ten second penalty after the British Grand Prix.

    Not only will the restrictions now apply whenever the car isn’t in the pit lane, but drivers must be given a message to come into the pits if they receive any indication of problems with the car.

    The rules that came in at the start of the year state that teams can inform drivers of a “critical problem” with the car, with failure “imminent and potentially terminal”. The change removes the “critical” aspect, but drivers must be instructed to come into the pits to solve the problem.

    The rule now reads: “Indication of a problem with the car. Any message of this sort must include an irreversible instruction to enter the pits to rectify the problem or to retire the car.”

    Item three of the list of permitted messages has also changed. What was previously “information concerning damage to the car” is now “information concerning damage to the bodywork of the car”.

    Also changed is item four. This now reads:

    “Instructions to select driver defaults. This must be for the sole purpose of mitigating loss of function of a sensor, actuator, or controller whose degradation of failure was not detected and handled by the on-board software.”

    When the rules apply has also changed. When the rules came in at the start of the year, radio restrictions started when the car left the garage. This has been relaxed, with restrictions only applying when the car isn’t in the pit lane, with the exception of the slow down lap after the end of the race.

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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Increased Radio Restrictions - What's Allowed?

With the new radio restrictions coming into play in Melbourne, drivers may have felt more alone than ever in the car. For some – the now iconic “leave me alone, I know what I’m doing” springs to mind – this might be a welcome relief, but a lot of people, both on and off track, fear the restrictions might have gone too far.

The driver must drive the car unaided, say the sporting regulations. Well, what does that actually mean?

There are now 31 things the drivers can be told from the pit wall whilst they’re in the car. And that’s pretty much it. Those are listed below.

The FIA brought in these restrictions to make sure the drivers get as little assistance as possible from their engineers back in the garage, following the technical advances that have been brought in over the years. They say this will make the driver more in control of his own race.

Whilst almost everyone wants drivers to be drivers and not puppets for the engineers – well, maybe not the engineers who stress over what the driver needs to be doing to win the race – a lot of people think the restrictions may have gone too far, with Red Bull’s Christian Horner saying the clamp down is bad for the fans and Mercedes Toto Wolff saying it will lead to more errors.

However, Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting told Autosport the restrictions is the only way to stop the “intolerable level” of coaching from the pit wall.

“The main point is the driver should be doing things. He should be driving the car and he should be doing the things a driver is normally expected to do.”

What can they say?

1. Indication of a critical problem with the car

2. Indication of a problem with a competitor’s car

3. Instructions as to when to pit

4. Marshaling information (flags, race start aborted, etc.)

5. Make the driver aware of wet track, oil, or debris in certain corners

6. Instructions on swapping places with other drivers (whether the driver wants to hear this or not is another matter…)

7. Acknowledgement that a driver’s message has been heard.

8. Lap or sector time information

9. Lap times of a competitor

10. Gaps to a competitor

11. “Push hard”

12. Warnings about traffic

13. Gaps between cars in qualifying to help them get into a better position for a clear lap

14. Tyre choices

15. Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres

16. Tyre specification of a competitor

17. What a competitor’s likely race strategy is

18. Safety car window

19. Driving breaches by the driver or a competitor

20. Notification of DRS disabled or enabled

21. Dealing with a DRS system failure

22. Change of front wing position in the next pit stop

23. Oil transfer

24. When to enter the pits

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

26. Reminders about track limits

27. Passing on messages from race control

28. Information concerning damage to the car

29. Number of laps remaining

30. Test sequence information during practice sessions

31. Weather information

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring

No copyright infringement intended