Kimi Raikkonen says the new restrictions on what teams can tell their drivers on the radio could make it more difficult to manage technical problems during races.
“Obviously we don’t speak a lot in the radio in my case,” said the Ferrari driver, “usually when there is no issues”.
“But obviously it might get quite complicated if there’s some problems with the car and they have to change certain things to try to finish the race so I don’t know how the rule goes on those times.
“It makes it more complicated for us but it’s part of the game so it’s OK.”
Sergio Perez added it had been a surprise to see the rules change so dramatically between races but expects drivers will be able to cope with it.
“I don’t think it’s ideal that suddenly from one race to another they change it dramatically that you cannot get certain calls,” he said. “But it doesn’t influence much – I don’t see it as a big deal 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,” he added.
“But it’s something I don’t see a problem to get used to, it’s just a dramatic change from the last race to this one.”
Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson pointed out that those teams who use the smaller of the two available steering wheel information screens would be at a disadvantage.
“For us as a small team it’s a bit more trickier because our steering wheel, we don’t have a big display, a lot of the other teams have a big display so they can show a lot of stuff on this, whereas we have a very small one.”
“So it will be a bit more tricky but I like the idea,” he added. “I think it’s good to make us drivers a bit more in focus.”
But Jean-Eric Vergne expects it will be “more or less the same as before”.
“I like to do things by my own. Many times this year I changed the settings before my engineer told me. So I will be a bit more lonely on the radio but it should be fine.”
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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
18th September 2014, 11:59
If only Kimi had ask.fm account it only has two answer:
No, but it’s part of the game so it’s OK
Yes, but it’s the same for everybody so it’s OK
-Classic Kimi-
bull mello (@bullmello)
18th September 2014, 12:11
Kimi
That is funny.
He does make a good point about when there are problems and not really knowing what communications are allowed.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
18th September 2014, 12:13
You’ve got me one minute to early :D
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
18th September 2014, 12:12
“Obviously we don’t speak a lot in the radio in my case,” said the Ferrari driver,
EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th September 2014, 12:27
Kimi for the win! :D
Can we have a list of teams using the smaller screen? I think Red Bull uses the smaller one too.
Yoshisune (@yobo01)
18th September 2014, 12:40
Red Bull, Williams, Force India, Lotus and Caterham. I think that’s all of them.
Jack (@jmc200)
18th September 2014, 12:41
Mercedes, Ferrari, Sauber, Marussia, McLaren and Toro Rosso use the big screen, the others the old one – I watch the Canal+ on board videos a lot…
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
18th September 2014, 12:47
I wonder why those teams chose to run the smaller one. Surely, the bigger one was already an advantage even before the radio ban.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
18th September 2014, 13:07
@fer-no65 The bigger one is not only larger but also heavier so there is a specific disadvantage to running it (also for Red Bull who fit it to the car rather than the wheel there may not be space for the larger display).
As always it’s a compromise between size/weight versus the benefits of using it. In this case clearly a lot of teams thought that there was little benefit to be gained since the drivers had no need to monitor the car’s parameters and they were generally only concerned with lap and sector times, revs and gear (all provided on the smaller display). Given the sudden change in rules this might well tip the balance for some of those using the smaller ones.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
18th September 2014, 20:36
@jerseyf1 good point !
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
18th September 2014, 20:15
Hearing that during a meeting today the teams put forward some opinions on these radio restrictions & as a result there will be some sort of compromise drawn up.
Messages telling drivers about altering settings will be allowed again with only the specific advice about how to actually drive the cars to be banned.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
18th September 2014, 20:19
It seems that when drawing up the original ban the complexities of these new cars was not considered & the teams were able to prove in the meeting today that without the ability to give drivers feedback on settings there woudl not only be real safety concerns but also additional cost with some systems more prone to failing.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
18th September 2014, 22:52
@gt-racer Makes sense… but it’s more worrying that that wasn’t realised when drawing up and announcing the rule change at first..