Christian Horner says he is happy the radio ban in Formula One has been lifted.
Whilst the ban has been lifted on radio communications between teams and their drivers, during the race the teams will still not be able to communicate with their driver at all on the formation lap to avoid coded messages about clutch bite points being fed to the drivers as they line up on the grid.
Horner is confident despite the ban being lifted we are still unlikely to hear any coaching or procedure talk with most drivers now very familiar with the hybrid technology and what needs to be done for the cars to run at their optimum potential.
“I think it was one of those things that ran away with itself and got too far,” Horner told Motorsport.com.
“And when you’re getting into a situation where you’re having to consult with the race director about whether you can deliver a message about the safety of a car, that’s wrong.
“The restriction was brought in because in 2014 the complexities of the cars with the power unit regulation change was such that it was felt that the drivers weren’t driving the cars, but the engineers were.
“But a lot of that has been ironed out. The cars are much more operationally friendly now.
“F1 is a team sport, and I think it’s something that we’re depriving the fans of, for them not to hear the interaction between the driver and the team. I think some drivers will talk more than others.”
“The radio ban was introduced largely to cut back on coaching, which many fans did not like.
“The problem is what do you differentiate as coaching? I think that’s where the debate ended up yesterday. Rather than teams talking riddles or codes, have it open, be transparent.
“Broadcasters don’t have to broadcast all of it. But it all should be available.”
Horner was quick to insist the Red Bull team had not been censoring their communications at any stage.
“No, but there were a couple of teams that did. There was a technical directive that said it wasn’t allowed.”
“Personally, I’d like it to go a step further – I’d like to have the communication between the team managers and the race director available, so if there’s a complaint raised from a team about another team or another driver, why not make that available as well.”
