Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have shown their support for the FIA’s decision to limit radio communication which enhance the on-track performance of a driver.
Last week saw the FIA rubber-stamp a set of technical directives that impose a ban on the relaying of radio messages that assist a driver’s performance during a race weekend, with the directives being in effect from the Singapore Grand Prix onwards. The directives also include bans on messages given via the LED screens on the steering wheel of most cars as well as via pitboards.
When asked about it at a commercial event for Mercedes, Rosberg acknowledged the challenge it poses to the drivers and spent a full day conducting simulation work in preparation for the change.
“I think can make it a lot more interesting also because it used to be like 100 per cent communication a while ago, now they’re only allowed to tell me like 20 per cent of stuff now. So it’s a massive change.” said the German, who leads the championship by 22 points from team-mate Hamilton.
“Yesterday at the factory in Brackley I was in the simulator, all day, practicing these different procedures and everything because I have to remember a lot more also. But I really think it’s good.”
Rosberg went on to explain that having no performance-enhancing communication would result in greater decision-making from the drivers when racing.
It’s up to us to make sure that we get to the end of the race with the fuel. It’s up to us to make sure we’re battling individually with our boost positions and things like that,” the German driver continued.
“For example, there was a race earlier on in the season where I was behind Lewis and trying to overtake and his engineering team did a great job because whenever I ramped up my boost, they told him and then he just did the same. So we were always in the same boost position and so I could never have a difference.
Hamilton also echoed Rosberg’s views of making the racing more “pure” and more calculating for the drivers, as well as hoping it was a step back into his days of karting.
“I hope so. I remember way back from when we were in karts, the cool thing in karting [is] you don’t have any data – or we didn’t back then. So no one could ever see where I was quick.” Hamilton commented.
“Maybe that’s a little bit more of a step in that direction because now you have so much data you can see everything, everything I do, any trick that I have. Every driver in every team will see that from his team-mate, but hopefully this is one step in that [other] direction.
“When you’re out there you’re always looking after tyres and you’re trying to find the perfect balance and sometimes you don’t always have the perfect balance in terms of how quick you’re going through each corner, you’ll be losing a bit of time here and there and you’re not completely aware of it. All you know is the gap’s diminishing. So that’s why you sometimes ask for help from your engineers.”
