FIA issue a further clarification on the team radio clampdown

Yesterday, the FIA issued yet another clarification on its radio clampdown ahead of the Singapore GP after teams and drivers raised concerns about the ban as it previously stood.

When announcing its decision last week to stop the flow of radio messages concerning car and driver performance, the FIA then sent teams a second directive comprehensively listing what can and cannot be said starting this weekend.

However, the F1 teams raised their concerns about the scope of the ban at a meeting on Thursday and, in a further update issued by the governing body ahead of first practice for the Singapore GP, the FIA have confirmed the restrictions have been eased. While a ban will still be imposed against driver coaching, radio messages will be permitted relating to car performance.

The updated list of messages not permitted by radio or pit board now includes:-

– Driving lines on the circuit. – Contact with kerbs. – Car set up parameters for specific corners. – Comparative or absolute sector time detail of another driver. – Speeds in corners compared to another driver. – Gear selection compared with another driver. – Gear selection in general. – Braking points. – Rate of braking compared to another driver. – Rate of braking or application of brakes in general. – Car stability under braking. – Throttle application compared to another driver. – Throttle application in general. – Use of DRS compared with another driver. – Use of any overtake button. – Driving technique in general.

The update comes after some drivers suggested yesterday that certain types of message relating to the management of F1's hybrid power units should still be relayed.

The concern was that without these messages, components such as the car's ERS battery and rear brakes (which are now controlled by brake-by-wire systems and frequently adjusted as the battery charges) might be damaged or overheat, causing retirement or even an accident.

Although items like 'balancing the SOC (a battery's state of charge) or adjusting for performance' and 'information on brake balance or BBW (brake-by-wire) settings' were listed as banned, both Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa have said that drivers should be kept informed in case problems arise.

Relaying information on fuel consumption is another area that has escaped the ban for now, although Vettel said that this wasn’t a particular area of concern. Vettel stated the following:-

'The main difficulty is not necessarily stuff like the fuel because it's simple to put up a certain target to follow [on the car’s dash]. But in terms of managing the components, and the way they work with each other, it will be very difficult for us.'

Many pundits and fans would understand Vettel's perspective. It is easy to inform the driver of their fuel target, but managing the components is going to be difficult without adequate communication between the driver and his engineer and also between the driver and his team. As Vettel says it will be extremely difficult as they adapt to the new regulations but all they can do is do the best that they can this weekend and see how the new changes will affect them in Singapore.

Vettel added that the new, more complex, hybrid cars are “not as simple as managing KERS in the past. If that was the case then the radio ban's not a problem. Vettel added the following:-

'But it could be a problem if you want to manage the state of charge throughout the whole race. That's the reason we have so many people in the garage.'

Vettel makes a valid point here and if you need to change the charge throughout the race due to a problem on the car due to safety issues or overheating issues, you have to speak to the people in the garage who are best placed to resolve the issue as quickly as they can and inform the driver of what it is happening.

Massa went even further and stated in his interview with the media the following:-

'In some areas it's fine. The team tells you not to use the tyres so much in corner five because you're using them too much compared to your team-mate. This is okay, this is not a problem.

'But you have so many things in the car that we're doing – because if you don't do [them] maybe you put too much temperature in the rear brakes because the battery gets too high and you just put fire in the car. Maybe you can have a big accident. We don't know what the temperature is for the battery, we cannot see. We don't know that.

'There's a very complicated power unit in the car which is not related to the driver. If you're not using the right settings, forget it. You'll not do two laps.'

From what Massa has stated in his interview, it would seem that he is of mixed opinion of the new regulation changes. As for what he says about managing the tyres, then I understand why the regulation has been enforced. As this information helps the driver and also helps to improve over the course of a single lap. But I do feel like Massa that if the battery gets too high, then they need to be told of the situation and also be able to communicate with the team in order to keep an eye on the issue and also resolve the problem quickly.

And for safety reasons, I feel that communication on issues such as what Massa has described needs to be allowed into the regulations or at least factored in and allowed in situations like this. But overall, the FIA to me keep on adapting these regulations as and when they receive feedback on them. And that is understandable as they will need feedback in order to fully enforce the regulations and make them watertight as we head into the 2015 season.

But it seems that the FIA is still learning about how best to clampdown on the team radio communication as they are going along. However, the FIA for me still need to inform everyone of how they enforce the regulation if it is broken by any team or driver, but nothing has been released about that just yet. And this could be all a loophole a team needs to test the regulation fully and I hope that does not happen this weekend.

I wouldn't be surprised personally if we see once again after Singapore this weekend the FIA issuing a further clarification on the team radio clampdown. I really hope that we learn of the penalty that will be issued if the regulation is broken soon, but I feel we will only learn this when the regulation is broken and that is not right.

But we shall have to wait and see what happens this weekend and I really hope that everyone will respect the new regulation and we will not see controversy regarding this matter, I really do.