McLaren Reverse Radio Policy?
For me, the most interesting thing about yesterday’s qualifying session, was hearing a radio conversation between Lewis and his engineer, while he was on an out-lap.
Prior to this weekend, the McLaren team have routinely refused permission for their radio traffic to be heard whilst either qualifying or the race is in progress - although on occasion the humble television viewer has been privy to a few words on a slowing down lap, post action.
Various arguments have been put forward defending the unnecessary restriction (most relating to Ferrari similarly encrypting their voices), but given that Renault recently won two World Championships in a row without feeling the need to resort to such tactics, this attitude is pretty much indefensible.
This weekend though things have apparently changed for the better. We can probably assume that the Woking team’s sudden change of heart is related to the qualifying debacle in Hungary. McLaren faced unprecedented public uproar that could have been avoided, if only they’d made their radio traffic available.
It’ll be interesting to see if today’s experiment is to be repeated. Then all we have to do is convince Ferrari to do the same, and the F1 world will be a better (and more informed) place.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:32 pmClive said:
I’m not so sure that it’s a good idea for us to hear the engineer/driver conversations at all. Does anyone remember the race where Senna lost a gear or two but succeeded in disguising that fact from Prost, thereby ensuring that Prost did not speed up in an attempt to catch him? With our nosy modern ways, wanting to know everything, we’d have heard the initial complaint from Senna when the gears disappeared and Prost’s engineer would have been on the blower to him immediately.
It’s really none of our business what the engineer and driver discuss during the race and it could easily affect the outcome. If we’re that interested, let the teams release edited tapes afterwards - that should satisfy our curiosity, legitimate or otherwise.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:27 pmme said:
couldn’t disagree with you more on this one.
as discussed previously, the complexity of Formula 1 these days means that television doesn’t even begin to paint the whole picture.
as ross brawn pointed out earlier in the year, fans are being sold severely short, and open radio transmissions are only the beginning.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:19 pmClive said:
As a blogger myself (and therefore hanging on to the information revolution by my fingernails if nothing else), I can understand why you should be on the side of more and more information, Sidey (may I call you Sidey? It seems less weird than calling you Me, if you know what I mean). But there must be a limit somewhere, surely.
I have no doubt that, when he made those remarks, Ross was missing the information cascade that he gets during a race - but he should remember that there is relevant info and info overload. How many fans would truly understand some of the stuff Ross is used to interpreting? And why should they? F1 already requires a substantial commitment from its fans and offers a steep learning curve before it can begin to be understood. Let’s not complicate it any more than is necessary.
Okay, the radio broadcasts would not be incomprehensible to the public but it still seems to me a step too far. Consider what would happen if all team/driver radio conversations were instantly available to the viewer. Would not the teams stop using that form of communication for anything other than the usual congratulations at the end of the GP? There is no way they would allow anything of real significance to be said over the radio.
So you would end up with pretty much what you have now - you hear what the team want you to hear. And meanwhile we have made life more difficult for the teams by forcing them to find other ways of reporting important information between engineer and driver.
Let them have their secret radio convos, that’s what I think.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:48 pmme said:
i’ve been called worse
i’m the absolute opposite, i’d rather have all the information that brawn has, but then have the option to filter some / all of it. nascar actually does something along these lines already.
keep in mind all teams apart from ferrari and mclaren allow public access, and the details coming from renault this race were fantastic.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:15 amClive said:
I agree with you completely on the excellence of Renault’s openness to the public this season. And for that reason alone, I know I should give in gracefully on this one (it doesn’t help that I recall using the opposite argument in other discussions on the same subject ;))…
So I will.
Not that my decision will make Ferrari and McLaren any more open, of course.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:35 pmlou said:
I would personally love it if we could hear just some of the radio convos from Mclaren and Ferrari. As we do at the moment with Renault, Honda, and Red Bull.
Its always great that during a race, or quali you can listen to the radio convos. Last race was a great example of how you can get to know what the drivers and the engineers are thinking.
For example Hamilton in quali, Kov being told that he was faster than Hamilton, and Baracello being told that Button was faster than him, to which he replied ‘Don’t make me laugh.’
Radio convos make watching F1 on the TV just a bit more enjoyable. They enable you to understand just that little bit more about how the drivers feel the car is handeling, if anything is wrong with the car, if the engineers think that the driver could push harder in certain sections or if they think that it is possible for them to overtake the car in front.
It all adds up to a more interesting experiance of an f1 race.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pmme said:
agreed lou.
it would be fantastic if they were available alongside “live timing” too. so you could jump in and out of them as you pleased.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:44 pmlou said:
Me, that would be brilliant!