‘Race director, look at the race please’: Mexican GP team radio highlights

2017 Mexican Grand Prix

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A furious Fernando Alonso repeatedly demanded race director Charlie Whiting give Romain Grosjean a penalty during the Mexican Grand Prix.

Here are the team radio highlights from the race.

Lewis Hamilton found his seat was a bit hot for comfort but soon has something else to worry about following his first-lap tangle with Sebastian Vettel. Meanwhile Alonso was one of only two drivers to start the race on the super-soft tyres.

Hamilton: “My seat is roasting. Make sure you cool it next time. It’s so hot.”

To Alonso: “Fernando, tyre info: The only other prime starter is Grosjean. The rest options.”

Mexican Grand Prix in pictures
Hamilton: “Flat tyre.”
“Copy copy Lewis box box.”

Daniel Ricciardo started well but his race didn’t last much longer.

To Ricciardo: “OK Daniel nice job you’re now P8.”

“We’re going to box this lap.”
Massa: “I don’t believe it. Really?”
“Yep box now.”

Verstappen: “Simply, simply lovely.”
“Ah simply mate.”

Ricciardo: “Issue I think with the turbo.”
“Fail 1 fail.”
Ricciardo: “I think it’s drained all the battery.”
“Yep. We’re looking at it mate, keep pushing. OK Daniel box this lap. Switch off. Sorry about that mate, we’ll have a look at it.”
Ricciardo: “OK I’m jumping out.”
“Yes mate. You did a very good job mate, it was a good first few laps, sorry about that.”

Hamilton: “Did he hit me deliberately?”
“Not sure, Lewis.”

Alonso was desperate to get ahead of the only other driver on the same strategy as him.

Alonso: “OK Grosjean cut turn 14, he needs to give the position back place.”

Alonso: “Yeah we need the position immediately because he changed the race. Very clear.”
“Understood, Fernando, we’re working on it.”
Alonso: “Yes, please, the position. Please. Please. Race director, look at the race please.”
“We have reported him to the race director. We will get back to you. Plan A looking good.”
Alonso. “Please. Please is very clear. I am losing the race here.”
“Fernando mate we’re still trying. Concentrate.”

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Vettel clashed with Felipe Massa.

Vettel: “Seriously, are we developing auto scooter here? It’s fun to push the other guy off the track?”

To Gasly: “OK try to stay close to him and exploit his overtake on Grosjean.”

“OK Stoffel we’d like to let positions, let Fernando have a go.”

Alonso: “Maybe I can get the Sauber?”
“OK Fernando we’ll swap positions.”

Hamilton: “Just to get past these guys is difficult.”

Hartley: “Bit slow out of five.”
“Copy that Brendon we are looking.”

Nico Hulkenberg and Brendon Hartley joined the growing list of Renault-powered retirements.

Hulkenberg: “Loss of power,”
“Understand Nico we are de-rating. That’s why we need B51 on.”
“PU9 position five urgent.”

“Fail B3.”
Verstappen: “I think I did it wrong.”
“You’ve not activated anything Max. It’s not urgent.”

To Hulkenberg: “Stop the car Nico. The car is not safe. You need to get out by climbing onto the front and jumping off.”

Hamilton: “Feels like the tyre isn’t going to last.”
“That’s not a concern for us Lewis, we’ve got alternative plans.”

Hartley: “Losing power.”
“All OK, all OK.”
Hartley: “Losing more power,”
“Stop the car in the same place.”

Hamilton and Vettel continued to climb through the field but Vettel realised he had too much ground to make up.

Hamilton: “How far behind am I?”
“29 seconds to Vettel. Vettel on ultra-soft.”
Hamilton: “How am I further away?”

To Hamilton: “Vettel currently P7. His best-case scenario is P4. That’s not enough for him.”

To Vettel: “Very good pace, keep pushing like this, hang in there.”

Ocon: “Are they going to catch me before the end?”
“Yes, they will.”

To Ericsson: “OK Marcus we have blue flag for Raikkonen. We need to be careful because Gasly is right behind Raikkonen.”

“Kimi 23s in front. Kimi lap time 23.0.”
Vettel: “How many seconds, you say?”
“23.”
Vettel: “Oh mamma mia. It’s a little bit too much”

Sainz: “The car is pulling to the right on the straights. I don’t know if we are losing aero parts or something?”
“Box box.”

Verstappen: “Was that the fastest lap?”
“Yes.”

Alonso: “What do you think he went off on the track overtaking or he was OK?”
“It was good racing, fair racing.”

To Magnussen: “Hamilton is now P9, four seconds behind, come on boy.”

Hamilton wins his fourth world championship title
Max Verstappen won but ninth place clinched the championship for Hamilton.

“Get in there Lewis! Champion of the world!”
“Lewis this is Toto. Not the race you wanted but who cares? Four time-world champion.”
“Niki, Lewis. Thank, thankyou, thankyou. Four time thankyou.”
“Well done mate. Vettel’s going to have to work harder than that if he wants the championship off you.”
Hamilton: “I’d like to say a big thanks to everyone in this team. What you’ve done in the last couple of years is remarkable and I’m just so grateful for all your hard work this year. God bless you.”
“Thank you Lewis mate. Great to have you in the team.”
Hamilton: “Never give up.”
“Hey Lewis it’s Neymar. I’m happy for you bro for the championship. Winning!”

The full race radio transcript will be published later this week.

2017 Mexican Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “‘Race director, look at the race please’: Mexican GP team radio highlights”

  1. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    30th October 2017, 17:49

    Vettel: “Seriously, are we developing auto scooter here? It’s fun to push the other guy off the track?”

    F1 is probably turning into ping-pong or auto-scooter racing.

    1. And according to Verstappen (some races ago) it can also be bumper-cars… ;)

      1. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
        2nd November 2017, 15:32

        That was British GP.

  2. I see why people may think that team orders and radio comms are part of the entertainment but a quick read through these transmissions will show you how drivers have made themselves mere pawns in the F1 game. I’m sorry but I’ve simply lost respect for the teams & drivers. I think Kimi had the right idea. “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing”. Just my opinion but I cannot believe current F1 drivers think they have done a good job with this amount of in-race coaching.

  3. I really am loosing my respect for Alonso. Trying to find errors with other peoples driving when they are actually often not doing anything wrong.

    I’m not totally certain here but I thought he got a penalty for ignoring blue flags recently. Vandoorne certainly has got these and that doesn’t make the McLaren pair look very good if it is the case that Alonso got them too. People often complain about what Massa does in relation to blue flags, but he keeps out of trouble and maybe knows what the limits are. The only other driver recently to get a penalty for blue flags was Gutierrez last year. This really makes Alonso look bad here.

    1. Yes and whinging about it too. A man of his calibre…

    2. There’s nothing wrong with him asking the pitwall what they thought. He clearly didn’t know, because he asked if it was OK.

    3. FlyingLobster27
      31st October 2017, 13:41

      With comments like that, Alonso should be looking to football for a second career, not sportscars. I’m betting that the backmarkers at Daytona are going to drive him crazy.

  4. Why wasn’t Vettel punished for hitting Lewis, either he is as bad a driver under pressure as I think he is or else it was deliberate. Also did race control forget about his off track undercut of massa? They noted it but then didn’t follow up later to explain a decision as far as I remember.

    1. Classic first corner racing incident. Could have happened to any-one

      1. Paolo (@paulsteward40)
        31st October 2017, 9:55

        @mayrton He hit Max with front wing in previous corner and then hit Lewis with same front wing following corner. Twice in two corners with same front wing? Of course it’s a classic racing incident……not in the slightest bit rattled LOL

        1. It’s pretty sure it was deliberate.
          Come on, it’s a four time champ we are talking about.
          He knew his race was compromised and lost his mind. Again.

        2. @paulsteward40. I am not a Vettel fan (to say the least, I think he is one of the most overrated drivers all time because is is single gifted; he’s quick but less gifted in traffic) but surely these things happen first corner. Clipping Max was minimal and the impact with Hamilton was also caused by Verstappen not exciting the corner as quick as Hamilton (but blocking with an excellent track position), subsequently HAM needed to release the throttle a bit which enlarged the impact of Vettel

          1. It doesn’t matter if this things happen first corner. On other circunstances, the driver got a penalty for ruining someone else’s race. “Causing a colision” like they say.

          2. I agree with you and will add that everyone is missing to look to the right hand side and ee Bottas right there, he only go to the right just after the touch of Vettel on Ham. It’s cleary a first corner incident, both are.

    2. We will never know if the steering action towards Hamilton was to correct the drift or to deliberate attack him. Only the internet will keep alive for years to come about that.

    3. Having part of the wing knocked off by Max probably didn’t help…

  5. The king of Radio this week is Max, when he is told to slow down to go to Bottas lap time…and he kinda do the same time as the lap before, and the last coment, about doing a corner cutting…to get 5 min penalty and make race more interesting…priceless

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