Formula 1 teams will face a restriction in the amount of radio communication done between driver and team personnel as early as the next race in Singapore.
The FIA have focused the restriction of team radio through the imposing of a ban on radio messages relayed to the driver that has a primary aim of aiding the driver’s performance. With the governing body further enforcing a rule in the technical regulations that stipulates:
“The driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.
The enforcement of the rule was officially rubber-stamped by a technical directive issued to the teams from FIA race director Charlie Whiting, writing:
“In order to ensure that the requirements [sic] of Article 20.1 of the F1 Sporting Regulations is respected at all times we intend to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”
Drivers, by cynics, have been labelled “puppets” as various car performance factors, including tyre wear and cornering speed, are constantly monitored by team personnel on the pit wall and simply adhere to the team personnel’s orders on how to manage the car and thereby assist on-track performance.
This is believed to be one reason for the sport’s declining television viewing figures as a driver’s skill-set is subsided by having the information regularly provided to them when driving, rather than working out the car’s shortcomings themselves.
It is reported by German publication AMuS that the directive will be active beginning from Singapore next weekend, with the FIA also looking to include in the ban messages on advising drivers on which buttons and switches to use on their steering wheel.
