Formula 1 Radio - Radio Le Castellet
A new chapter, with the sassiest radio communications in Motorsport: guess who’s on top of our Hit Parade and who earned our Special Prize in Radio Le Castellet.
After a ten years breaks, Formula 1 came back in France for the first time. Le Castellet has been the stage to another appointment of our favourite championship and it didn’t failed to give us some great team radio communications.
Obviously, Paul Ricard’s radio frequencies were not well tested, as the last GP happened there in 1990. Do you think this would stop us? Absolutely no!
“Radio check, radio check Pierre.”
Pierre Gasly – “Radio ok.”
“Okay, you lost connection to the car, so we were not able to tell you to box. We need to box now.”
Pierre Gasly – “Okay.” (FP1)
Radio communications weren’t on top of priorities as our drivers had to get used to a new track.
I know, I know, last time there was a real song in this show it was “Spinning around” by Kylie Minogue; take whatever song you want, because they still like to spin and round and around and around…
“Oh, Fernando just as a reminder, a lot of cars are spinning in turn 6 because of the wind direction change through that corner.”
Fernando Alonso – “Okay.” (FP1)
Fernando doesn’t seem happy about it. And, even if the top drivers had a right – round in Le Castellet, there were two drivers that made their engineers going out of head. Their engineers and literally the whole rest of the grid.
Kimi Raikkonen – “Yeah I don’t know what the Williams is… but.. completely aggressive.” (FP1)
Esteban Ocon – “Yeah Sirotkin is always in the way..” (FP1)
Nico Hulkenberg – “Massive traffic there with Williams.” (Q1)
Guys, please, don’t be so angry: the Williams guys know what they’re dong… I think. Maybe.
“Lance turn 4 can b e in 4th and turn 5 in 3rd (gear).”
Lance Stroll – “Yeah I’m doing that at the moment.”…. “Oh, sorry, ok, now I know what you mean.” (FP1)
Lance Stroll – “Give me information!! Tell me something I should be doing.” (FP2)
Ehm.. can I suggest you to come back to the box and avoid other damages.. (?)
“Okay, Lance I think we’ll box this lap, confirm, box box.”
Lance Stroll – “Yeah? Why?”
“We would be happy to continue in these conditions, but we already learned a lot so it’s fine, you can box this lap.” (FP3)
Yeah, I mean, you are not upsetting anyone, right? Just doing your thing..
Sebastian Vettel – “Why is Stroll going so slow?”
“I think he has an issue.”
Sebastian Vettel – “I think he just wants to back me up. He doesn’t have an issue.” (Race)
Yeah, you should definitely box now.
Anyway, despite Stroll, despite being forced to be the weather man for their respective teams, three drivers were nothing but excited to race in France: I’m talking about Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and my beloved Romain Grosjean.
I guess that, if you ask them now, they all want to forget that race.
Pierre Gasly – “Oh guys there’s no more time to close the f**king lap!” (Q2)
Pierre Gasly – “Crash guys. I was on the inside and Ocon probably didn’t see me and turned in… I didn’t have anywhere to go.” (Race)
Romain wants to forget it all too and he didn’t even cause that damage like he is used to.
Romain Grosjean – “What the fffff… I just got pushed out of the track on Bottas… I don’t know what’s going on.”
“We saw it on tv mate, we saw it.” (Race)
“Box, now, Romain, box now, we have 5 seconds penalty.”
Romain Grosjean – “For what?”
“Something at the start, we’ll sort it out after the race.”
Romain Grosjean – “That’s a f**king joke.” (Race)
For once, Romain wasn’t the one to blame, but after that first lap incident with Vettel, it was a Silver Arrows the car to blame.
Lewis Hamilton – “What’s going on? Nothing to do with me, right?” (Race)
Ah, no, Lewis, don’t worry. Keep going there in the front all alone.
Lewis was on fire, looking at the timetables, but there was someone else on fire for real.
Marcus Ericsson – “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Okay, you crashed?”
Marcus Ericsson – “Yeah.”
“And remember the switch off procedure. Get out of here, get out of here quickly! Out of the car quick! Press the fire extinguisher if you can.” (FP1)
Marcus was already in the summer mood and wanted to prepare a barbeque on the trackside to celebrate the winners of our Hit Parade. Let’s go then!
Third Place for Ericsson’s team mate Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque is really proving himself as one of the drivers of the future and unexpectedly brought his Alfa Romeo Sauber in Q3.
Charles Leclerc – “Wow, that was a good lap, I hope.”
“Yeah, it was quite good, P10. Well done Charles, we are Q3.”
Charles Leclerc – “Uuuhhh uuh! Oh yes! That feels good. I’m not sure we’re in the best place for tomorrow’s race, but anyway good job. Now let’s focus on Q3, but… don’t think I can extract much more. I mean, I always can, but..”
“So Charles stay off radio, please, stay off.”
Charles Leclerc – “Oh, sorry.” (Q2)
Hey, Sauber, I need to hear my drivers loud and clear!!
Second place for Fernando Alonso who, after his glorious victory at Le Mans, as gifted us with lots of team radio.
Second position for this one against Sebastian Vettel. Alonso might be struggling with his McLaren, but the samurai is always inside him… and is a little angry.
“And Fernando is there any damage? Is there any possible damage?”
Fernando Alonso – “I don’t know, I touch with Vettel, I hope he has damage. What a stupid move!” (Race)
But, as the champion he is, Fernando couldn’t be content just with the second position. He wants it all. A fast car mostly.
In FP2 he is all sweet and nice with his engineer.
“That’s a pretty good lap Fernando, cars behind still on a high fuel runs. We will have time to do another one if you like.”
Fernando Alonso – “Another lap time, maybe with deployment this time.”
“Yeah okay.” (FP2)
Then, the team radio which earned him the first place and our Special Prize: Honestly, what are we doing here?
Fernando Alonso – “Mate I have no brakes, no tyres, we are out of the points. I mean… we try to do whatever, but… I don’t care too much.” (Race)
This is so “GP2 engine.” Fernando is now used to win and he can’t stand to drive his McLaren anymore.
Fernando Alonso – “Ok, a problem with the rear suspension. I’ll try to get to the box.”
“Okay, Fernando we’ll say.. we are box now, box now.” (Race)
He almost seems happy about this retirement.
Fernando, is this a goodbye?
Who knows if you’ll still be part of our chart next year.
But there’s Austria this weekend, right? And other races before the end. Keep doing these team radio, please.
See you at Red Bull Ring!