McLaren F1 questions Red Bull’s radio messages in Singapore
After the restriction of radio communications in F1, Eric Boullier wonders if the instructions given to Daniel Ricciardo during the Singapore Grand Prix contradicted this ban.
First Grand Prix held after the restriction on radio communications by the FIA, the Singapore race led to some messages bordering on legality, particularly from Red Bull. At least that’s what the McLaren team believes.
The use of radio messages from the pit to the car to improve driver performance has been banned, but advice and communications aimed at enhancing technical performance and preventing reliability issues remain permitted. However, during the Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo’s engineer, Simon Rennie, repeatedly advised his driver to avoid the curbs at the corner exits, specifying that it was to fix the problem with the car, an issue that seemed to affect the battery of the Red Bull RB10.
For Eric Boullier, the competition director for the Woking team, although the situation hasn’t really changed on the pit wall, it has made them more attentive to messages from other teams: « We are more occupied with listening to others to ensure they are not doing what Red Bull has done twice with Ricciardo. »
« I think it was coded, yes. It’s up to the FIA to investigate, so it’s not for me to say anything, » he stated to Autosport. « But it was a strange message. Once would have been fine, but two or three times, it’s a bit strange. »
On the Red Bull side, Christian Horner claims to have had the approval of the FIA to deliver this type of message to his driver: « Obviously, we spoke to Charlie [Whiting] and told him that Daniel had some reliability issues. That’s why he was told not to go over the curbs, because it was causing damage to the battery. » He acknowledges, however, that this communication was close to the limit: « I think it was sensible, and we need to try to find a balance with this ban. »
