European Grand Prix 2016, Baku - Race 8/21

We have no idea how many settings and options that would mean having to know. They already simplified the wheel for him because he was struggling having too many switches/dials/controls.

I'd prefer them to remove 90% of it or let them be told. Then again in the old days he just wouldn't be able to fix it and go slower or retire.

The tech is much higher these days, and managing it is a huge part of the job. In an era where driver input is supposed to be marginal I'm all for making the driver are more responsibility.
 
So I've just finished watching it on catch up as I'm on holiday and was partaking in Father's Day stuff when it was on live. I managed to avoid seeing the result all day, part of which was spent in the second lounge in the holiday home on my iPad trying to entertain myself without seeing the result. (Away from everyone else in case some scrote on the TV told me or the news invadvertedley came on on the TV they were watching)

I now feel robbed... That was so boring. :( I honestly thought it was going to be a good race or that we'd get some safety cars but no. Just endless DRS overtakes in the same place. Lewis must definitely be kicking himself after yesterday's mistake. And the whole farce with the settings. Maybe he should know what every setting does and how it affects everything or maybe he shouldn't. Either way it would be a lot better for the audience if they just tell him what to fix. At the end of the day they are driving around a pretty technical piece of machinery and I doubt most would've been able to fix the issue themselves. (Except vettel because he's a teachers pet/swot :D)
 
So the reason Nico was able to fix it was that he started the race in the lower power mode and at some point tried to select the higher. He found that this caused the derating so was able to switch back. Lewis started in the broken mode so had no point of reference to turn to.

I guess the deficit was small enough that it didn't warrant a pit stop to fix it, but how much the distraction cost Lewis (and that he let himself get so distracted was his own fault) isn't clear. I don't see any harm in letting the team fix technical issues over the radio, so hopefully there'll be a rule clarification to stop this happening in future.
 
Was a boring race, cars too far apart in terms of pace, track was good and had the opportunity to be a good race as well.. Hopefully next year! As for the Hamilton saga, saying he needs to study up on the wheel is stupid as its not going to be a case of knowing each switch, I should imagine its combinations of settings in different modes, not a simple switch flick!
 
I think Hamilton sums it up pretty well himself:

LH said:
"The radio ban was supposed to stop driver aids and this wasn't a driver aid, it was a technical issue.

"It was dangerous, just looking at my steering wheel a large proportion of the lap, all the way down the straight just looking at my wheel and all they can tell me is it's a wrong switch position."

If Kimi said more that two words per interview, he may have articulated something similar.

Surely they can adjust the rules and differentiate between driver aids, and solutions to technical issues - or are they worried the teams will start trying to get around the rules with sneaky codes?
 
the radio ban was retarded in the first place, but most people supported it for some reason.
with the odd reason that radio calls were replacing the driver. very odd. Done nothing but decrease the racing.
 
I wonder if Lewis would have lost less time had he come into the pits and had the mechanics actually tell him the issue. Or does that come under the radio ban also?

Anyway, it's daft. If it was a one off then maybe you could forgive it, but Kimi, Lewis and Nico have all had issues recently and when the top drivers can't compete fully, why are we even here?
 
Watched the race last night after Cosford airshow, was tired but I thought it was a good race, particularly enjoyed seeing the cars on the pits straight jostling for position with DRS and slip stream, great fun to watch and some great overtakes.

The circuit isn't as boring as I thought it would be at all.
 
With Lewis having problems with the settings for his engine - what did he say before the race ... something along the lines of not needing to use a simulator because he doesn't learn anything from it... ? Do they not use those types of settings in the sim then incase of power loss scenarios with the car?
 
With Lewis having problems with the settings for his engine - what did he say before the race ... something along the lines of not needing to use a simulator because he doesn't learn anything from it... ? Do they not use those types of settings in the sim then incase of power loss scenarios with the car?

I can't really imagine this one off scenario being something they'd use a simulator for. Has any driver had anything similar in the past since the new engines were introduced?
Maybe they will now, but the chances of something like this are happening are so small I can't imagine it's something they spend time on.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing and all that.
 
People need to remove the specific driver from the situation and look at it for what it is:

A number of drivers were prevented from racing to their full potential because their engineers were banned from telling them how to correct an issue with their car.

Is that what we want F1 to be?

Like dannyjo said, either have complicated cars that they can have assistance from the team to run, or simplify the cars so they can be run by a single person and ban the team from helping. Don't mix the two.

When these rules were first suggested they made the drivers responcible for managing their fuel usage in cars that didn't have fuel gauges!
 
I agree, I don't want to see drivers turning into engineers. If the car isn't running at it's optimal performance a driver shouldn't have to be working out which setting is causing it or be hindered by it.

By all means ban radio comms on the other things - like where a team mate is braking into a corner or how he is getting more speed on a certain part of the circuit, but not all that engineering side of it.
 
Could he not have, in theory, radioed there was an issue with his steering wheel and at his pit stop, have them replace his steering wheel with one with all the 'correct' settings already selected?
 
Could he not have, in theory, radioed there was an issue with his steering wheel and at his pit stop, have them replace his steering wheel with one with all the 'correct' settings already selected?

Yes. But this was a 1 stop race and he had already made his stop.

It would only work if the issue was with the position of a physical dial too. If it was a menu setting controlled with multi functional buttons then changing the wheel wouldn't have affected it (i.e. the setting was set in the software within the car rather than on the wheel itself).
 
I think Hamilton sums it up pretty well himself:



If Kimi said more that two words per interview, he may have articulated something similar.

Surely they can adjust the rules and differentiate between driver aids, and solutions to technical issues - or are they worried the teams will start trying to get around the rules with sneaky codes?
That said, if doesn't make it dangerous unless the driver chooses to do so. I doubt he wasn't aware of what was going on around himself whilst he was faffing with the wheel.

They should just bin off the radio ban as it makes for too much moaning. If the drivers didnt have to worry about conserving stuff, then it wouldn't actually be needed. That said, the team shouldnt be saying, you need to brake later into that corner to the driver based on what his team mate is doing.
 
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