Ferrari’s German driver Sebastian Vettel made it perfectly clear in a press conference, what he thought about the new radio rules that have been introduced by the FIA for this weekend’s race in Hungary.
After the Silverstone race and the Nico Rosberg ‘gearbox-gate’, the FIA have moved to clarify radio rules for the Budapest race. Situations akin to Silverstone, the driver can now come into the pits to get the problem corrected with team help over the airwaves. This has left the 4-time world champion far from impressed with the handling of the regulations:
“[It’s] complete bullshit. I think all the radio issues we had are a joke,” Vettel said ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix
“I looked at the race after and I found, as a spectator, it was quite entertaining to hear the driver a little bit panicking on the radio and the team panicking at the same time.
“I think it was an element of human being in our sport, which arguably is very complicated and technical.
“I think it’s the wrong way. There’s a lot of boring stuff on the radio that got banned – so I don’t see the point.”
Vettel went on to further question the desired output from the FIA’s radio rules:
“If you want to change it, you should change the cars,” he said. “I’ve no problem – let’s go back to V12, manual gearbox, two buttons, one for pit speed limiter and one for radio, just to confirm that we’re coming in. And other than that, not much electronics to look after – which, there’s no point then to memorise all the things.
“I think all the buttons we have on the steering wheel today are there for a reason – it’s not like ‘ah, yeah, we can build buttons, let’s put them on the steering wheel’.
“If you look at the 1995 steering wheel, for example, or speak to a lot of the experts that are still around in the paddock, what they’ve raced with, it was a lot simpler cause the cars’ technology was simpler.
“It’s nor our – as in the drivers’ – mistake that the cars are so complicated these days that they need a manual and a steering wheel full of buttons to operate it.
“I think we are going a little bit in the wrong way – so I think it’s bad and we should just go back to being able to say what we want.”
Lewis Hamilton had his race compromised in Baku due to the radio rules, questioned the purpose of switches if they can’t use them:
“As far as I aware it was about driving aiding and switch changes from the guys who know all the systems, which the FIA have brought into action,” he said. “So giving us these actions and dashboards and now not allowing us to be told to change those is a little bit odd.
“But at the end of the day I have to do my job the same way.”
One thing is for sure, a return to V12 engines would be accepted by everyone… well nearly everyone!
He’s right. With the new rule, it sounds as though the team will have to bring a car into the pits to tell the driver his brakes are overheating and he might crash if he doesn’t back off a bit. That’s nonsense.
If the aim is to make the cars simpler, then why not just alter the rules so that only certain aspects of the cars systems can be adjusted during a race. Who needs 59 engine modes? Surely 2 will do – “normal mode” and “rev the carp out of the engine for 2 laps to get past someone” mode.
I’m one who wouldn’t want to see the return of V12s. I like simplying the current system and relaxing in season development rules but I’ve been a fan of small but very powerful, efficient, and torquey engines for years and quite admire what the new “power units” are capable of. I do like Seb’s other recommendations. I suppose the incredibly detailed management the drivers have to do now is interesting from getting the maximun performance out of a car using modern technology but I don’t think it’s road car relevant as to be something that’s needed for R&D. Simplifying the chassis (less downforce or more ground effects for downforce), increase mechanical grip, keep the semi-shift (I wouldn’t even mind CVT, which Williams Renault experimented with back in 1993 if I recall correctly), and simplyfing the hybrid engines might bring more parity and decrease the costs of the sport though the top teams always manage to find ways to spend massive amounts of green.