In an interview with the media yesterday, Marussia driver Max Chilton believes an F1 driver is likely to be penalised in Singapore this weekend due an engineer accidentally falling foul of the team radio clampdown.
The FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting has written to the teams informing them that Article 20.1 of the Sporting Regulations will be used to prevent drivers being given performance-enhancing information from the pitwall.
The Technical Directive will be enforced from the moment the cars roll out of the garage for Practice One at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. In his interview yesterday with the media, Chilton feels that without the opportunity to practice, habit is likely to results in drivers being penalised. Chilton stated the following:-
‘I am quite interested to know what the penalty will be. I think especially because they brought it in mid-season there is not testing to practice it, if you’re an engineer and you are constantly pressing the radio button to talk to your driver then it is a natural habit and I am sure someone up and down the pitlane will press the button and give some information that they shouldn’t and at this moment in time we are not sure what the penalty is.’
I think many would agree with Chilton and are actually wondering what the penalty will be if this is broken. As from what I have read about the subject, I have found nothing about what would happen if a team was found to break these rules. Chilton makes a valid point however and it could be one mistake that an engineer makes that could ruin a race for his driver and his team and I feel that the FIA need to announce what the penalty will be and how it will enforced if a team breaks the regulation.
Some fans had expressed concern that teams will be prevented from telling their drivers about brakewear levels, but further on in his interview, Chilton feels that they will step in and risk penalty if there is a safety issue. Chilton added the following:-
‘We are also being restricted in what we can be told with brakewear, if your car is just about to have serious brake problem where you will not be able to stop the car or finish, then I think the team will step in and tell you you have an issue regardless of what the penalty is.
‘It would be great to know what the penalty is sooner rather than later because I am sure it will come into effect this weekend.’
I would have to agree with Chilton here. I feel that if there is a safety issue on the car, then I feel that the driver needs to be told in order to prepare to stop or even to pit to resolve the issue that they could be experiencing on the car in order not to endanger himself or any other driver.
Whilst in favour of the clampdown, Chilton thinks it will be revised ahead of next season as he believes the wrong things have been banned.
‘F1 always gets stirred up and I was slightly surprised that it came mid-season, but I am a fan of it. I think F1 needs to be constantly changing to make it exciting so I am all for it.
‘I think for now they might have banned the wrong stuff, I think at the start of 2015 they will actually maybe allow us to be told more about the fuel and the SOC (state of charge) management which they have now controlled and control more of lap times and competing against a competitor because I think there is more time to be found racing another competitor than there is being told what fuel and SOC management you need to be in.
‘I think early on you might get a couple of cars not finish because they are using too much fuel or their SOC has got so low the engine has cut out.’
I think many pundits and fans would agree with Chilton here and feel that even though it is a bit late until the season to enforce this new set of regulations, I do feel that certain issues with the regulation haven’t been properly looked at but I am sure that with the remaining six races, this will be more tighter as we head into the 2015 season.
But as for Chilton believing that a couple of cars may not finish due to fuel levels or problems on the car, it might just happen. But I do feel that if there is something seriously wrong with the car, the driver should be told in order to see if there is anything he can do to help the team resolve the issue.
The clampdown will see the drivers relying more on their steering wheel displays to manage things such as fuel level and in the latter stages of his interview, Chilton feels Marussia could benefit from having a larger display compared to Lotus. Chilton said the following:-
‘We are quite lucky as I think half the teams have the new display which came in 2014 which is a lot bigger. It is a colour LCD screen display where you get told probably eight or nine bits of information at once compared to what [Romain] Grosjean has by the sounds of it which is the old unit which only has three bits of information at once. He is going to have to scroll between pages to get the information which on a street circuit is not best to be practicing for the first time.
‘We were fighting with Lotus in the last race and by the sounds of it if Grosjean is going to have to look at the screen rather than where he is going then that might help us get a better result than we might have had without the rule change. So I am really looking forward to the weekend and seeing how it evolves.’
From what Chilton has stated, he feels that the new display has helped him and also the team when displaying information while he is driving the car out on the track. It would appear that Marussia has a better system than say Lotus, but at the end of the day as long as Grosjean gets the information he needs, that is all that matters.
But overall, Chilton might be right and we could see a team making a mistake and communicating to their driver, but what is the penalty? No one knows at this stage what it is and how it will be enforced. But the fact that something will be enforced will only highlight to the teams that it will not be tolerated under any circumstance.
If that situation occurs like the one Chilton has described in his interview, then this could provide him with the opportunity to gain a reasonable result for Marussia this weekend. Question is; will Chilton be proved right? We can only wait and see what happens in Singapore this weekend.
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