Radio silence for helping drivers

"The driver must drive the car alone and unaided." So says Article 20.1 of F1's sporting regulations as the FIA clamp down on radio communication between team and driver that help's with the performance of the car and driver.

Mercedes are a fine example of this, often you can hear them talking to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg telling them where they could be braking later, where the advantage of their team mate is coming from on track. The perception is that the wider public are now viewing these once great gladiators in control of viciously fast machinery as mere puppets under the pit walls control.

In a way I guess that might not be too far from the truth, although not one I fully agree with. The full message sent to the teams on Wednesday night from FIA reported in autosport reads like this: "In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver."

I think the intent of what the FIA are trying to do makes sense. They want the driver to be the star and for the public to see that he is the one in control and not attached to strings from the garage. I'm all in favour of the driver being given more control and can understand a sense of frustration when you hear a communication which helps a driver out and therefore erodes an advantage of another not through that drivers talent but from an engineer sitting by telemetry traces on a computer.

To my mind though it's just another case of Formula 1's current obsession with self improvement where it's not needed. As I've written before there is nothing wrong with the product, what’s wrong is the division of money to teams, about teams struggling for survival when there's no need for that to be the case, the fact that Formula 1 hasn't embraced social media and has no idea how to promote itself even with the major opportunity of a brave new world of regulations this year which no one knows about other than it's not as noisy. 

I'm sure there are some drivers who appreciate the radio help from the team, but equally I'm sure there's some drivers who just wish to be left alone. Perhaps it is a bit unfair when you're a driver who can cope with the complexities of the sport on your own and are able to manage all aspects but then that advantage is cancelled out because you're team mate or main rival has an engineer who is guiding them along.

To me it more emphasises the team element of the sport which unfortunately is so often overlooked. The radio transmissions add to the television coverage, and with this ban I'm sure we'll hear a lot less of the goings on of the drivers and the insight that brings. For instance you're able to learn how some teams operate, or which drivers request more information. How often do you hear Fernando Alonso looking for advice for instance compared to the Mercedes pair? It lets you realise sometimes who are the ones that need help, who want it, who don’t and who will get it anyway.

When does a communication become help anyway? How will that be defined? Thankfully the team will still be able to advise on pit strategy so we shouldn't lose classics like Hamilton's engineer Pete Bonnington saying it's 'hammer time' when it's time to push. Rob Smedley on the radio to Felipe Massa was always fun in the Ferrari days, but was often helping him and that kind of thing might be lost.

Still after all that, it's not going to effect anything radically and I hope in general there's still plenty of chatter broadcast, probably involving a lot of code words from teams that mean what they now cannot say. I do think it is just another case of F1 getting a thought in it's head and running with it for better or worse. We'll lose an aspect of team and driver and how they operate but maybe we'll gain from drivers being thought of as the real stars and in control of their machines again.

However as they’re the ones sitting in the car I always thought they were the ones in control and just utilising everything they could to drive them quicker. I think most people thought that anyway as at the end of the day when you're in a wheel to wheel fight no amount of advice is going to help a driver then and there. The new regulation comes into force at the next race in Singapore.