Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2014

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2014The development which settled the 2014 drivers’ championship for good was captured in a series of team radio messages in the middle of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Nico Rosberg was already in a weak position as far as the championship was concerned having fallen to second place at the start, but the ERS problem which developed on his Mercedes shortly before half-distance killed off what remained of his championship hopes.

As his car slowed, Rosberg urged his team to find a way to limit the damage so he could be in a position to finish fifth and take the title if Lewis Hamilton retired – but it was to no avail.

Meanwhile Hamilton was increasingly worried about suffering the same fate as Rosberg. At one stage he told his team not to “turn my car up” as he was concerned about reliability.

This is potentially confusing as pit-to-car telemetry which would allow a team to make changes on their car has been banned for several years. However a subsequent message indicates Hamilton had been told to change a setting on his car, and he may simply have been unsure of its effect.

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Fernando Alonso didn’t think much of the new arrival to the grid, Caterham’s Will Stevens. It wasn’t clear from the broadcast what led Alonso to remark that Stevens had a “lot to learn” – as the two were racing for position and the Caterham driver wasn’t obliged to let Alonso through.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button had some kind words for their teams as they prepared to part company (though Button’s rumoured departure remains unconfirmed). But if Alonso had any parting words for his Ferrari crew on the radio they weren’t broadcast.

Another driver who got hot under the collar was Nico Hulkenberg, who exchanged some terse words with his race engineer after a questionable penalty, but was happy with his evening’s work by the time the flag fell.

By then Hamilton was assured of the championship and Mercedes had invited a special guest onto the pit wall to celebrate. Paddy Lowe wasn’t sure how to introduce Henry Mountbatten-Windsor – better known as Prince Harry – and before handing over a headset asked him: “Who shall I say you are?”

Hamilton was also told to switch to the mode ‘driver default 44’ – which caused the image below to appear on his steering wheel display:

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2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript

Lap* From To Message
PR Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Track’s going to drop in temperature in you think the next 10 or 15 minutes or so?
PR Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton So the track is two degrees [C] hotter compared to this time yesterday. But because we ran – this time on Friday – but because we ran the [super-soft] later, it’s actually more like six, seven degrees hotter.
PR Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Hamilton plans what turned out to be a superb start, which got him ahead of pole sitter Rosberg from second on the grid.
Sitting here it actually feels like more of a slope than usual. Shall I point left?
PR Jock Clear Lewis Hamilton Very slightly wouldn’t do any harm, yeah.
PR Ayao Komatsu Romain Grosjean OK procedures, just one static bite point for the formation lap start. After turn 19 we go to scenario six. And from the Safety Car line oen we either do four burn-outs or as many as possible. And on actual race start, no static bite point.
PR Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Ricciardo is advised how to tweak the brightness settings on his screen for low-light conditions.
OK if you want to change the brightness [unclear], now’s the time to do it, if you want to turn the brightness down it’s multi 12. Think you ran multi 12 position 10 in Singapore.
PR Marco Schupbach Adrian Sutil We have the two Red Bulls, the two Force Indias, Magnussen, Vergne on [soft]. The rest on [super-soft].
FL Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Brakes are cold.
FL Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Feedback on the start.
FL Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington RPM dropped low but grip is very high, felt very good.
FL Bernadette Collins Jenson Button All gears are good, warm the brakes. Purple C2 position 11. Yes that’s good, thank you Jenson.
FL Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez Doing a good job with the brakes and tyres.
FL Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo The Red Bull drivers started from the pit lane, Ricciardo in front of Vettel, having been excluded from qualifying.
Drive straight to the pit exit. When you stop, make sure you can see the red lights at the pit exit.
1 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Race has started, watch for the green light.
1 Sergio Perez Gianpiero Lambiase Vergne pushed me out.
1 Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez OK, give it back, Checo.
2 Kevin Magnussen Mark Temple I’ve got suspension damage. Right-front.
2 Mark Temple Kevin Magnussen And we’ll box this lap, have a look.
2 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK just think about the tyres. Right front graining possible and then rear degradation.
2 Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez Just push up to Hulk, we don’t want to lose the DRS train.
2 Mark Temple Kevin Magnussen And Kevin we’ve checked everything out, it all looks OK to us.
3 Marco Schupbach Adrian Sutil Come on mate, keep pushing.
4 Marco Matassa Daniil Kvyat Tyre phase.
4 Daniil Kvyat Marco Matassa Still OK to stay with Ferrari.
4 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Great start. Red Bulls not making great progress. We are aiming at target lap.
5 Valtteri Bottas Jonathan Eddollls Small graining, rear tyres.
5 Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie Struggling with the traction compared to them at the moment.
5 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo OK, understood.
5 Fernando Alonso Andrea Stella Alonso has just passed team mate Raikkonen which is likely to have given him first call on strategy.
L’ho passato [I have passed him], In this lap.
5 Andrea Stella Fernando Alonso Ok, these tyres are going, pit now, box.
6 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Alonso has pitted. How’s the tyre?
6 Jenson Button Tom Stallard Starting to grain the front right.
6 Tom Stallard Jenson Button OK Jenson we’re box this lap. Push now.
7 Jonathan Eddollls Valtteri Bottas Mode seven, this pace is good, keep it up for another couple of laps.
8 Jonathan Eddollls Valtteri Bottas This is great. All other cars pitting are in traffic. This is where we’re going to make our day.
9 Fernando Alonso Andrea Stella After his pit stop Alonso emerged in 18th position behind newcomer Stevens.
Who is this Caterham?
9 Andrea Stella Fernando Alonso It’s the new boy. A lot to learn for him.
9 Fernando Alonso Andrea Stella A lot, a lot to learn.
9 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton It may be very soon, just waiting for the window to clear, we have the Williams inside there at the moment.
10 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Nico we’re going to extend this stint now, will be three more laps.
10 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Pace is still good. We’re still making good gap on the cars behind us.
10 Marco Matassa Daniil Kvyat Rear tyres slightly on the high side.
10 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Box, box, pit confirm.
11 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Rich one, push hard now.
11 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Bottas in the pits, will come out behind us.
12 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg Nico we’ve got a 5 second penalty at the pit stop. So you need to push now, we need to find this five seconds.
12 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce So is that for Magnussen or what? That guy was pushing me wide.
12 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Situation is Lewis has obviously stopped on [soft] tyres. He’s just in front. Hulkenberg next car behind, four seconds, he’s not stopped yet on [soft] tyres. Massa is still out on [super-softs].
13 Kamui Kobayashi Tim Wright Problem with the front locking, I have too much front locking. Cannot drive this time [unclear].
13 Felipe Massa Andrew Murdoch [Unclear] last sector now at the rear.
13 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Copy that Felipe. Box now.
14 Jean-Eric Vergne Xevi Pujolar I can make this tyre last longer but I’ve been pushing too hard.
14 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Massa just pitted so just think about conserving the tyres, gap to Lewis.
14 Adrian Sutil Marco Schupbach How many laps else? How many more laps than this?
14 Marco Schupbach Adrian Sutil Around ten.
14 Adrian Sutil Marco Schupbach I don’t think I make it. The tyres are all over the place.
15 Valtteri Bottas Jonathan Eddollls Can you tell Caterham to take the pit board off the racing line? Entry of turn one, pit board is on the track.
16 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa OK this race for us now is just about managing these tyre sets for us, just managing this tyre set.
16 Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez They tyres looked in good condition on that stop. No graining observed. So just think about how you bring them in on this stint.
17 Daniil Kvyat Marco Matassa Kvyat retired with a power unit failure.
I’m losing power guys. Feels like… Oh no I’m losing everything now.
17 Marco Matassa Daniil Kvyat OK Dany, stop the car. Sorry for that. P0.
18 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg So Nico plan is quite simple. Keep the gap to a manageable proportion to Lewis. We’ll plan to go longer than him.
18 Romain Grosjean Ayao Komatsu The rear deg is bigger than expected.
18 Ayao Komatsu Romain Grosjean Romain because of that we are thinking plan B. What do you think?
18 Romain Grosjean Ayao Komatsu Yeah I think it’s right.
18 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Jenson this is fuel three. Fuel one would be enough, but I think you’re doing the right thing.
19 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg This exchange gives the impression of having been edited, as Hulkenberg’s question changes.
Perez on the same strategy ahead. Pit [unclear] ready.
19 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce No. Are you going to let me by or not?
19 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce I was so much faster in the first stint, you’ve got to let me by.
19 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce Brad, when I’m asking something, please give me an answer, yeah?
19 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg OK, I didn’t understand.
19 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce Give me an answer now.
19 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg What is the question, what is your question?
19 Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce Why did I get that [censored by FOM] penalty?
19 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg Lap one, turn six with Magnussen, it was a stewards’ decision.
20 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo OK mate Bottas behind is a few tenths quicker than us. He’s not really our race, don’t make it easy for him, it’s not really our race.
21 Kevin Magnussen Mark Temple The tyres are holding on very well. They’re still very good.
21 Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin Rears are going off.
21 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Copy.
22 Tom Stallard Jenson Button White H7 position one. More power.
22 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Hulkenberg is doing 48.4s. If we box now we’ll be right on top of him. We need to find a few more tenths.
23 Kevin Magnussen Mark Temple How is the pace of the [super-softs] compared to my [softs]? How are the [super-soft] runners compared to my [soft] runs?
23 Mark Temple Kevin Magnussen Kevin new [super-softs] is around seven-tenths faster than new [softs], start of stint.
24 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Gap to Alonso 1.4 and we’re now target minus one.
25 Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie Not sure how much longer I can keep this pace up. A couple more laps I think.
25 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo OK status nine. We want to extend this stint.
25 Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie OK. Let me know how much you want me to find.
25 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Like I said we’re not really racing him, it won’t help our race if you hold him up, don’t make it too easy.
25 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross The first sign of Rosberg’s car problem came when he ran wide at turn 17 under braking.
Strange lack of engine power out of turn 14. Losing engine power.
25 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Yep copy Nico we can see it.
25 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Anything I can do to keep it going? Anything to do differently?
25 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg We’re trying to solve it, Nico. At the moment just keep pushing. We’ll keep an eye on rear brake temperatures, we may have a problem with those.
25 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK Nico so at the moment ERS has failed so we’d like you to go brake balance forwards and B-mag – oops, it’s restarted again.
25 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Did not copy the last part.
25 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK so brake balance forwards and go down on B-mig for the moment.
25 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Is there enough…
25 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Interrupting and talking over him.
Strat two. No, nothing with gears, just go strat two.
26 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Rosberg is losing power ahead, we made up three seconds on him in the last lap.
27 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg So Nico currently still no ERS so all the brake energy is coming from the rear brakes. So we’re happy with…
27 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross But it feels like there’s more than that. It’s literally only the brakes on the rear or something.
27 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross So invetigate that now please and tell me what I can do.
27 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK, copy that.
27 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross It’s not just ERS that’s not there, it’s actually holding back too.
27 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK, copy that.
31 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington What else can I do to look after the car?
31 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton We’re just reviewing whether we need to turn the car up again, you let us know.
32 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Ahead of you is the two Force Indias and Daniel on the same strategy as you. The two Force Indias stopped earlier than you, Daniel later. Behind you, you’ve got…
32 Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin What’s their pace?
32 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Their pace is 48.5 ahead. Behind you, you’ve got Button and the two Ferraris. They are going to the end, they’ve pitted for [softs] and are going to the end from there.
32 Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin And what’s their pace?
32 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Low-to-mid 47s.
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Nico you can use the lower gears we think it’s helping you with the turbo lag. And with no K we’re OK with the gears.
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Well Nico, question – erm, you can let Lewis go – in terms of rear tyres, we think we try and go to the end. What do you think?
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg It sounds as if Rosberg gave a reply which wasn’t broadcast.
So when we had this failure before in Montreal we reduced the wear…
33 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross …yeah, it’s like traction control at the moment so… I don’t know, I can’t judge it.
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK, alright.
33 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Rosberg wants to get to at least sixth place so that if Hamilton in front retires he will be able to take the title.
Just get me in the top six or five or whatever it is as safely as possible.
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Copy that, we’ll do our best.
33 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg I’d like to get the brake balance forward now, rear brakes starting to get hot.
34 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Massa currently P1, 15 seconds ahead. Bottas has just passed Nico behind.
34 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Bottas behind, four seconds.
34 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington What do I need to do? Do I need to pick up my pace? Let me know what I need to do.
34 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton So low 47s is your target lap time. Laps just like that, Lewis.
35 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Mercedes clearly gave up on the possibility of completing Rosberg’s race without a further pit stop in order to save time.
So brake temps back under control so box, box. You’ll need to do a manual pull-away, Nico.
35 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Do not copy that, I mean tell me what that is.
35 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK so go RS, but don’t drop the levers. Just pull away as you would do leaving the garage. So engine power will be lower because you have no turbo. So just be aware completely different procedure pulling away. It will be difficult to pull away. Use the same revs but just more throttle. Yo won’t have the boost to help you away.
35 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Feel some heat coming on my left
35 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton OK Lewis, that’s sometimes something we see but we’ll look into it.
36 Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez Maximum push now please Checo.
36 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo OK Bottas has boxed, you’ll be just ahead of him at pit exit.
37 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross How am I looking for that position finish that I need in case Lewis drops out?
37 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg It’s not good at the moment Nico.
37 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Well what the hell doe that mean, what do I need to on pace?
37 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Just drive flat out. That’s all you can do Nico. The tyres are fine. 19 laps remaining at the end of this lap.
38 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Hamilton was unwilling to risk increasing his pace to keep Massa from jumping ahead of him, though as a later message shows he may have been uncertain whether Massa was going to pit again.
So Massa 46.8 last lap. Need to pick the pace up a little bit.
38 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington I’m not racing Massa any more.
38 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton OK copy that Lewis. So rears not a limitation, plenty of life left on those. Front-right was the limitation last set but they’re still good enough to go to the end, no worries there.
38 Jonathan Eddollls Valtteri Bottas So for infor Ricciardo needs to stop again to fit the [super-soft] tyre. So just look after our tyres to the end of the race. He’s got to stop so he needs to make a good 20 seconds up on us.
39 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg So the guys in front are on on soft tyres: Raikkonen, Vergne, Alonso, we need to push through them if we can.
39 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Massa still has to pit?
39 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Bonnington tells Hamilton that if the Safety Car comes out Massa might be able to make a pit stop and come out ahead of him, but if he pits under green flag conditions Hamilton will comfortably regain the lead.
Affirm, Massa still has to pit. He’s on our Safety Car window, but 6.3 seconds safe to a pit stop.
40 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg Perez is on your pit window so you need to push.
40 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Bottas has been told to look after his tyres, he knows we need to stop again. I think we’ll be quicker if you stay in front of him, see what you can do.
40 Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie I agree.
41 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Rosberg experiences a further problem.
Advise what’s going on. The car switched off and now the throttle is all over the place. And brake pedal is long but brake balance is the same right? Turbo is…
41 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Affirm. We had a momentary loss of power, Nico.
41 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Get my brake pedal back, please.
41 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Standby.
41 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Nico driver default ten on and off again, please. That’ll get your brake pedal back.
42 Jenson Button Tom Stallard How far ahead are the cars we’re racing?
42 Tom Stallard Jenson Button OK Jenson, Vettel and Perez right in front of you, you’re racing them, they have to pit again. Ricciardo has to pit again to fit a super-soft, but he is absolutely on our pit gap.
43 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton You’re doing a great job, you’ve got the pace to win this one. Nico currently down in eighth position with that problem.
43 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Please don’t turn up my car, I’m comfortable. I can pick up the pace if I need to. Don’t turn up the car please.
43 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton This message indicates Hamilton was given an instruction to change one of engine settings, which was not broadcast on the radio and which he did not necessarily understand that consequence of.
No this is actually helping us as well, Lewis, don’t worry this is a non-risk change
43 Jenson Button Tom Stallard Looks like Vettel is struggling.
43 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Yep we expect Vettel to pit soon.
43 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Box now, confirm.
44 Tom Stallard Jenson Button No need to save tyres in turn eight. Vettel still needs to run super-soft.
44 Jenson Button Tom Stallard Can you have a look at the hairpin because I feel like I’m getting single wheelspin. At turn seven, just have a look.
44 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Yes Jenson we’re looking at that.
44 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton So gap to Massa behind 10.8 seconds, he’s fitted the super-soft. There are 12 laps remaining. Massa has fitted the super-soft, let’s keep the pace up.
45 Kamui Kobayashi Tim Wright Kobayashi retired after reporting this problem.
I have a vibration when I brake. It’s getting worse.
45 Tim Wright Kamui Kobayashi OK box, pit confirm. OK Kamui we will inspect the car, stop in the pit box.
45 Tim Wright Kamui Kobayashi OK engine off, P1.
45 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross What position am I heading for?
45 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Possibly P5 if you can keep Hulkenberg behind you behind. He is on [super-soft] tyres so will start to degrade.
46 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Your lap time pace is one second faster than Hamilton, he’s still ten seconds in front.
46 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Good job Sebastian, Alonso 47.9.
46 Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin OK I can’t keep this pace for long.
46 Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Understood. You’re pulling away at the moment, it’s working for us, we’ll monitor your pace. Keep us up-to-date as well.
47 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Nine laps remaining. Gap to Massa: 9.3.
48 Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa The gap is down to eight seconds and there’s eight laps to go.
49 Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie Can we catch anyone?
49 Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo Bottas is the next car ahead. We are P4. Bottas about 20 seconds aheda of you. Button six seconds behind. Think we’re pretty settled on fourth.
49 Jenson Button Tom Stallard Need a bit more information. Need more information what’s going on behind.
49 Tom Stallard Jenson Button Car behind is Hulkenberg, he’s on 11-lap-old new [super-softs], but he’s still one second a lap faster than us.
50 Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Hamilton was lapping Gutierrez.
Blue flags.
50 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton OK, we’re on it, he’s getting them.
50 Gianpiero Lambiase Sergio Perez OK let’s push to the end.
51 Fernando Alonso Andrea Stella I have not the normal poewr, check.
51 Andrea Stella Fernando Alonso OK Fernando we are checking. Six laps to go.
51 Fernando Alonso Andrea Stella There’s something going on with the K, maybe.
51 Andrea Stella Fernando Alonso Fernando we see that, let’s carry on.
51 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Nico looks to not be a threat now so we can fight for this.
52 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg So you have DRS, driver default ten on and off. Ten on, ten off to get back brakes.
53 Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Gap to Massa 3.5. Three laps to go.
54 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Mercedes told Rosberg to retire his car shortly before Hamilton came around to lap him.
So Nico box, box, box.Too many problems with the car.
54 Nico Rosberg Tony Ross I would like to go to the end.
54 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Standby.
54 Tony Ross Nico Rosberg OK so just be aware Lewis coming through now, three seconds behind. Massa is directly behind him, racing him. We’re happy for you to continue.
54 Jean-Eric Vergne Xevi Pujolar The front-right tyre is massively grained.
54 Xevi Pujolar Jean-Eric Vergne Copy, keep pushing.
55 Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg Two laps to go. 2.9 behind Button. 8,7 ahead of Perez. Fuel is good. Tyres are good.
VL Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Get in there Lewis! Eleven race wins – 2014 world champion.
VL Jock Clear Lewis Hamilton Great job, Lewis, great job from Jocky, brilliant stuff mate, world champion.
VL Paddy Lowe Lewis Hamilton Congratulations Lewis, 2014 world champion – first Mercedes-Benz champion since Fangio! And I’m going to hand you over to Prince Harry.
VL Prince Harry Lewis Hamilton Lewis, thank you very, very much for not letting or making the British public sweat. You are an absolute legend well done mate.
VL Lewis Hamilton Peter Bonnington Woohoo! World champion! Oh my god! Can’t believe it. Thank you so much guys! Woo!
VL Prince Harry Lewis Hamilton Lewis well done, you’re an abolsutel legend. Yes Lewis, you’re allowed to do doughnuts.
VL Peter Bonnington Lewis Hamilton Go driver default 44, let’s have that on the dash.
VL Tony Ross Nico Rosberg So sorry about that. Could have been different without the problems.
VL Nico Rosberg Tony Ross Can I do doughnuts?
VL Tony Ross Nico Rosberg The guys would rather not, I think it’ll be a safety issue.
VL Paddy Lowe Nico Rosberg Hi Nico it’s Paddy. Sorry it didn’t work out today. Very sorry about that. But you drove like a champion all year. We’ll come back next year and have another go.
VL Nico Rosberg Tony Ross No problem. It wouldn’t have made a difference today anyway. Thank you for this year, it’s been amazing. And congratulations to Lewis for a fantastc year, well-deserved win.
VL Tony Ross Nico Rosberg Thank you Nico, it’s been fantastic working with you.
Vl Andrew Murdoch Felipe Massa Great job mate, great race.
VL Rob Smedley Felipe Massa Aye not too bad for an old man, eh? Good lad. Well done.
VL Jonathan Eddollls Valtteri Bottas Great job Valtteri, P3. Mode 12 now, pick up rubber, save fuel. Well, wasn’t an easy start to our day but ultiamtely we achieved everything we wanted to.
VL Valtteri Bottas Jonathan Eddollls Thanks guys. We got what we came here to get so that’s perfect. Really good job a sa team this year and just looking forward to next year, there’s more to come.
VL Simon Rennie Daniel Ricciardo OK nice job mate. Very good from the pit lane today, P4. Very good pace, looked after the tyres very well, excellent job.
VL Daniel Ricciardo Simon Rennie Cheers mate, thanks boys. Not a bad end to the season. Had a lot of fun this year, thank you.
VL Christian Horner Daniel Ricciardo Great job Dan, really good drive from the pit lane to P4, pretty impressive recovery. Great season, brilliant drive.
VL Tom Stallard Jenson Button Great stuff Jenson, P5, well done mate.
VL Jenson Button Tom Stallard Thank you Stallard. Well, we weren’t quick enough today but we made the best of what we had and that’s what you’ve got to do these days. When you’re not fighting for a win you make the best with what you have. Like we’ve done today.
VL Tom Stallard Jenson Button Yeah well done mate.
VL Jenson Button Tom Stallard Whatever happens over the next few weeks it’s definitely been an honour, guys. Been an amazing five years, hopefully many more, hopefully many moreguys, I want to get back to winning.
VL Tom Stallard Jenson Button Yeah Jenson well done. And with the Force Indias in sixth and seventh, because you were there we still did enough to stay ahead of them in the constructors’ to that’s really good, well done mate. I think that counts as driving it like you stole it.
VL Jenson Button Tom Stallard Hope so!
VL Nico Hulkenberg Brad Joyce Yeah thanks, great job from your side too guys. Thanks for bringing me in early, definitely the right call then. Car was strong today so thanks for giving me that opportunity. Was a very good and smooth and flawless race, really. Although with Magnussen, you know, this guy is going for gaps where there aren’t gaps… and I don’t get it but we can discuss later.
VL Brad Joyce Nico Hulkenberg No we feel it was harsh as well, Nico, we don’t agree with it, and that’s the way it is I’m afraid. Good job. Good job all season, mate, well done.
VL Guillaume Rocquelin Sebastian Vettel Very good job Sebastian. I’m sure you wanted it to be a bit better than this, we got had over at the start basically, being stuck behind Magnussen, that’s what hurt our race.
VL Sebastian Vettel Guillaume Rocquelin Yeah thank you race. Was a [censored by FOM] race but that shouldn’t make the last couple years any less pleasurable so thank you for everything you did and I shall miss you.
VL Christian Horner Sebastian Vettel Well Seb it’s not just about today so thank you very much for everything thatyou’ve done for the team and for Red Bull in your time. Four world championships, 38 victories, plus the one with Toro Rosso. Unbelievable. It’s been an absolute delight and pleasure working with you and we’ll miss you. Hopefully we can give you a hard time next year.
VL Sebastian Vettel Christian Horner Yeah likewise.
VL Gianluca Pisanello Will Stevens Will this is Gianluca. Good job, congratulations on completing your first F1 race.
VL Will Stevens Gianluca Pisanello Thanks mate. Thanks again to all you guys for making it happen. Did Lewis win?
VL Gianluca Pisanello Will Stevens Yes! He’s world champion now.

Lap: Refers to lap message was broadcast on. There may be a delay between messages being said and being broadcast. PR = pre-race; FL = formation lap; VL = victory lap.
Message: Repetitive or irrelevant messages omitted. Notes in italics. Highlights in bold.

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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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36 comments on “2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix team radio transcript”

  1. Profile Photo

    pSynrg (@psynrg)
    27th November 2014, 12:07

    Oh that is golden from Mercedes, putting that onto the steering wheel :)

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      27th November 2014, 12:32

      @psynrg Yeah @bbudna put it in the Sunday in Tweets article but I thought it was worth repeating!

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        Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
        27th November 2014, 13:09

        @keithcollantine wonder if Lewis switched to driver default 6 later, just for a laugh…

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          JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
          27th November 2014, 13:53

          @fer-no65 I wonder if they did have a driver default 6 – that number is probably low enough that it might already be used for something?

          And an amusing thought; imagine the red faces if Mercedes later realised that their special “driver default 6” accidentally introduced an ERS debilitating bug into the system?

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      JCost (@jcost)
      27th November 2014, 13:47

      What a treat.

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    McL88AsAp (@deongunner)
    27th November 2014, 12:18

    I don’t know why but Nico words made my heart tears out. Especially the message he said to Paddy and “I would like to go to the end”

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      JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
      27th November 2014, 13:56

      @deongunner I haven’t been a big fan of Rosberg this year but the fact he wanted to keep going and limp to the finish line really gave me a bit more respect for him, as did his behaviour in going to congratulate Hamilton afterwords.

      I suspect that Rosberg has known for some time that Hamilton is the better driver, but he has had no choice but to give his best fight and keep saying the right things in public (and hoping that luck would go his way).

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      JCost (@jcost)
      27th November 2014, 14:04

      Indeed. Very sad. But he was very composed, to the point he wanted to do doughnuts!

      In fact it would be cool if the whole field did some doughnuts.

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      Mick Nicholson (@submick)
      28th November 2014, 1:53

      It looks to me as if the team were a bit worried he might do something stupid as HAM lapped him and wanted to avoid that by pitting him

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    Stefanauss (@stefanauss)
    27th November 2014, 12:26

    Just for the sake of completeness, in the lap Alonso passed Raikkonen, before “In this lap” he says, in italian and in a rush, “L’ho passato, l’ho passato” (“I passed him, I passed him”).

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      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      27th November 2014, 12:32

      @stefanauss Ah I didn’t hear that when I did the transcript, thanks! Will add it.

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    gdewilde (@gdewilde)
    27th November 2014, 13:34

    VL Nico Rosberg: Can I do doughnuts?
    VL Tony Ross : The guys would rather not, I think it’ll be a safety issue.

    Nice question to ask when you are driving a dying car :-D

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    JCost (@jcost)
    27th November 2014, 14:13

    Next year, if Nico gets to Abu Dhabi fighting for the title who will be “his Prince Harry”?

    a. Prince Albert
    b. Angela Merkel
    c. Sauli Niistö
    d. All of the above

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      JCost (@jcost)
      27th November 2014, 14:15

      *Sauli Niinistö

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    maarten.f1 (@)
    27th November 2014, 14:17

    Nico was very graceful in defeat, kudos to him! He kept Lewis honest all year, and hopefully next year he’ll have another go at it (although I do hope they’ll have a bit stronger competition from the other teams as well).

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    L. Martins (@xusso)
    27th November 2014, 14:22

    Again Keith, well worth the wait!
    Thank you very much for your hard work!

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    Ilham Shaq (@hahailham1)
    27th November 2014, 14:29

    ”Aye not too bad for an old man, eh? Good lad. Well done.”

    It’s another smedley-massa kind of radio ！

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    Nin13 (@nin13)
    27th November 2014, 14:47

    It is amazing how much Hamilton could pick up pace even with slightly slower mode.

    Also before this I did not know pit crew could turn up or down the settings on car. That must be unfair.

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      Yusha (@freebird78)
      27th November 2014, 15:20

      The pit crew cannot turn up the settings. Read @keithcollantine comment below this message. It was a response to an unbroadcasted message.

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      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      27th November 2014, 15:41

      @nin13

      I did not know pit crew could turn up or down the settings on car.

      They can’t do so directly, as it says in the article. They have to tell the driver to make the change.

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        Nin13 (@nin13)
        27th November 2014, 15:49

        Okay sorry missed that.

  10. the skwirrell
    27th November 2014, 15:15

    Congrats to Lewis. I hope his old man stays on the job because (from my perspective) Ham is more balanced out of the car when his dad’s around.

    I hoped Nico could get the win; no toys thrown from his pram when things don’t go his way unlike LH, FA and SV. Very honourable behaviour although defeated.

    Drive of the race went to the driver of the year, Duncraig Dan; I hope he is #1 next season!

    1. matt
      28th November 2014, 10:33

      nico wasnt happy after losing out to lewis in hungary,thats why he made that stupid move in spa.also nico was hoping lewis would have car problems in the final race,it backfired.and lets not forget he probably cheated in monaco.

      1. the skwirrell
        30th November 2014, 7:12

        re “lets not forget he probably cheated in monaco”; utter tosh. repeating speculation / the lie doesn’t make it factual.

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    TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
    27th November 2014, 15:15

    You got to have some respect for Will Stevens – at the end of his first ever F1 race he had the perspective to realise it wasn’t all about him:
    Team radio transcript – “Thanks mate. Thanks again to all you guys for making it happen. Did Lewis win?”
    That’s a really mature question for someone who must have been mentally and physically exhausted. Kudos.

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      zippyone (@zippyone)
      27th November 2014, 15:48

      Yeah I liked that too, he did a solid job considering, maybe he’ll be back again.

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    Clive Allen (@clive-allen)
    27th November 2014, 15:36

    I was struck by Will Stevens at the end. thanks the team but then wants to know how Lewis got on. That’s a real fan for you!

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    nidzovski (@nidzovski)
    27th November 2014, 15:45

    I missed that conversation between Button and his engineer in qualifying when they send Jenson on the track without sufficient amount of fuel in the car and told him to come back after installation lap :D

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    David (@ctidave)
    27th November 2014, 17:15

    can someone explain alonsos reaction to will stevens about “having a lot to learn” When i was watching the race i didnt notice him do anything wrong when alonso passed

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      George (@george)
      27th November 2014, 18:29

      @ctidave Stevens went wide presumably trying to defend, Alonso was probably just annoyed because it slowed them both down when they weren’t really racing each other.

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    MONEYR (@moneyr)
    27th November 2014, 18:18

    I notice a lot of people wondering whether Hamilton would have taken defeat as graceful as Rosberg.

    I’m pretty sure Rosberg also knows that if he would have won then he would have been “lucky”, and that if Hamilton wins that it’s “normal” because of the differences on wins and DNF’s (Rosbergs last DNF excluded)

    It would still be deserved by Rosberg if he would have won, but we all know that Hamilton deserved it more, so a Hamilton losing the Championship would be much harder to take (for Hamilton) than it would be for Rosberg to lose the championship. (as proven by his awesome reaction)

    1. dan
      27th November 2014, 21:45

      @moneyr

      I agree while i loved his sportsmanship if he was 17 ahead and was leading the race and that happen’d would he do it? Ros aint silly he know’s reliaility is what helped him most of the season untill he had his bad fair share of bad luck.

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    Jack (@jmc200)
    27th November 2014, 21:21

    Can Rob engineer Felipe full time again? haha!

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    Stig Semper Fi (@stigsemperfi)
    28th November 2014, 4:44

    That WAS the image displayed on Hamilton’s screen? I thought it was a joke.

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    Patrick (@paeschli)
    28th November 2014, 19:39

    Quite a lot of typos Keith (I only read the parts in bold). It would be nice to fix them if you’ve got some time. Nice transcript though, thanks :)

  19. دانلود فیلم
    26th December 2014, 15:23

    very good

Comments are closed.