Is the Radio Complaint Becoming F1's Version of Diving?

RasputinLives

No passing through my dirty air please
Contributor
Today I watched the Monza Grand Prix and was throughly enjoying the fight between Jenson Button and Sergio Perez until afterwards we hear a radio message from Perez which states "Did you see what he did too me?" Which, I have to admitt, slightly tainted the whole thing for me.

This is not the first time this has happened this season. The mighty Alonso/Vettel duel at Silverstone was also spoiled for me by both drivers constantly complaining about the other. This in something that is increasingly been creeping in to F1 for a while now and I'm not especially happy about it.

The problem is that all the drivers are now fully aware that race control are listening to the radio broadcasts and so are using it to try and influence any sort of steward decision and in this day and age where every track incident has to have a good guy and a bad guy its highly effective way of gaining and advantage on the track.

Whether its the cry of "look at him on track limits" or "you can't race like that" it seems the reactions are increasingly more calculated to gainer a racing advantage. Thats without even bringing in to play the 'double bluff' radio call of pretending to be shocked about something when you've actually done something wrong (Buttons classic "whats he doing" at Canada 2011 springs to mind).

For me this trend is becoming an annoying spread of gamesmanship and I'm linking it to the phenomenon of diving in Football. Every one does it and its now seen as part of the game. Do we want that from F1? I ceratinly don't and would hope other fans share my view.

How do we stop it? Well we could isolate the stewards from the radio calls so they are of no influence but that might be a safety issue or we could start penalising drivers if they make an appeal that is mot judged to be correct. It all might seem harsh but they'd certainly stop doing them.

I can't say I'm 100% keen on either of those ideas but the 'tactical' radio messages trying to get other drivers penalties annoys me more.

Am I alone in this irritation? Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop it?
 
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Funny, I was only a sentence or so into the article when the Button incident sprang to kind. There's definitely become a level of gamesmanship involved but I suppose that's just how it is. As Galahad says, as long as the stewards are wise to the tactic it's not a big deal other than for the titillation of the crowd.
 
Similarly the constant coaching from the pit wall telling the driver how to drive is really annoying. I know these cars are complicated but if the "best drivers in the World" can't drive them for 2 hours without having to be told every lap where to go faster or slower the they shouldn't be in the car, should they?
 
It's pathetic. Radio should be car to pit only and complaints by radio from the driver should cause the stewards to discount the incident.
 
I don't care if the team talks to the driver by radio telling him what to do I just don't need to hear it that's all, so a simple solution to the problems of drivers using it as an aid to try and gain a racing advantage by moaning is.

STOP BROADCASTING IT ON TELLY it adds nothing to the racing experience anyway, I'm sure if some voyeuristic nerd wants to listen in on team radio he or she could scan for the transmission signal..
 
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I thought people wanted drivers to be more human instead of robots? Isn't complaining and getting emotional, you know, human?

It's pathetic. Radio should be car to pit only and complaints by radio from the driver should cause the stewards to discount the incident.

And then what if there's something wrong with the car that the driver is unaware of? You know, something that coud potentially be dangerous?
 
Josh

What sort of dangerous?

If it's just that they risk blowing their engine, or running out of fuel, then these are skills that a driver learns.

If it's that there is something dangerously wrong with a suspension component, then it would be fairly straightforward to write a computer programme to analyse the sensors, and if there's something broken, a red light to come on in the cockpit, telling the driver to pit.

If I were in charge, there would be the following indicators for the driver:

  1. Fuel gauge (analogue)
  2. Rev counter (analogue)
  3. Red indicator light to indicate that something is wrong with the car, and the driver must immediately return, slowly, to the pits.
None of these need any interference from the team.
 
Not to go off at too much of a tangent but the bloke on the podium for Merc (other than the drivers) is the one who programs the launch control system - bet he would have been popular with Hammy if he hadn't won. Now, firstly, aren't these illegal? Secondly, let the driver work out where the bloody clutch bites either with his hands (if we must have flappy paddle gear changes) or with his feet, using a pedal to the left of the brake.

I know F1 is a technical sport, these are prototype cars, yadda, yadda, yadda but the amount of input the driver appears to put in to the car these days is becoming less and less and then they fail to steer it properly round the corners and run into one another. No more "Torque map 3" or "setting B6 until the end of the race". Perhaps if they weren't nancying about with all the dials and buttons on the steering wheel they could keep the thing on the track so we didn't have to have miles of tarmac for when the poor dears get it wrong.
 
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