Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2018: Practice 2 team radio
43 radio messages were recorded during practice 2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2018, across 16 drivers. Max VERSTAPPEN had the most, with 8.
These are transcripts of real team radio audio, produced by speech recognition and presented as an archive rather than as edited prose. Radio is clipped and noisy, so wording can be imperfect. Each message is attributed to the driver or their engineer, and the original audio is playable in the archive.
Who was on the radio
- Max VERSTAPPEN · Red Bull · 8 messages
- Romain GROSJEAN · Haas · 6 messages
- Brendon HARTLEY · Toro Rosso · 5 messages
- Daniel RICCIARDO · Red Bull · 4 messages
- Lance STROLL · Williams · 2 messages
- Carlos SAINZ · Renault · 2 messages
- Sergio PEREZ · Force India · 2 messages
- Lewis HAMILTON · Mercedes · 2 messages
- Charles LECLERC · Sauber · 2 messages
- Stoffel VANDOORNE · McLaren · 2 messages
- Pierre GASLY · Toro Rosso · 2 messages
- Sebastian VETTEL · Ferrari · 2 messages
- Valtteri BOTTAS · Mercedes · 1 message
- Esteban OCON · Force India · 1 message
- Nico HULKENBERG · Renault · 1 message
- Fernando ALONSO · McLaren · 1 message
Every message, in the order it happened
Engineer: The track temp is about 37 or 36 now, it's dropping.
Engineer: Can you just test the right hand toggle now? Just go down and then go back up and just make sure it's doing what we planned. Toggle is okay, working as expected.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Something wrong with the deployment there.
Engineer: It should be a balanced mode but I will double check.
Max VERSTAPPEN: I touched that big kerb, so it bottomed out.
Engineer: Understood. OK, we'll box this lap, Magnussen behind.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think we need to check the floor, because it's quite a long touch.
Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, lots of derating there. A lot, a lot.
Engineer: Yeah, copy. We'll see now.
Engineer: It was basically just bottom out like literally underneath the car
Brendon HARTLEY: Very easy to lock the front brakes, so we need to just increase the migration on the toggle.
Engineer: Comrade, we are a bit too aggressive with the steering input this run as well.
Brendon HARTLEY: Yeah, copy.
Engineer: It looks like we might get a third lap out of these tyres if you want to try again. Was the grip better that time? Question?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, yeah the rear was better. I had to track it from the previous lap but it was better.
Engineer: Okay.
Engineer: Checo there are cars that have improved on time lap 5, Sainz, Hartley, Grosjean have improved later in the run on the super soft.
Lewis HAMILTON: Exit fix the bodywork on the right, right hand side panel. OK copy.
Engineer: So time-lapse was exit turn 19, and
Charles LECLERC: we have... Yeah, I know I nearly touched the wall, I mean not nearly touched the wall, but I did a mistake.
Engineer: Ok, copy.
Stoffel VANDOORNE: I went off in turn 1.
Engineer: Copy, copy. Is the car okay, Stof?
Stoffel VANDOORNE: Yeah, all good, all good.
Engineer: OK, so Kimi is going to try a fifth lap on the hyper.
Engineer: The McLaren didn't move much of the way in nine. Yeah, he was pretty bad in nine, yeah. Did that cost a lot, you think? A couple of tenths, maybe.
Brendon HARTLEY: Got some big mistakes unfortunately, turned 8 and 11 again. Yeah, it was a really poor lap.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Run out of battery
Engineer: Understood, reverse, off,
Max VERSTAPPEN: and watch out for
Engineer: the
Max VERSTAPPEN: open behind mate Yeah yeah, run out of battery, ready in 10-20
Engineer: Nobody has gone quicker after their first time lap. We'll give it a go. If it's not happening then we can box.
Max VERSTAPPEN: The battery is so slow in charging.
Engineer: Do you want to do another lap? Try to charge it?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, because like this, you can't really do a lap. Okay, let's
Engineer: do that.
Engineer: Yeah, still not perfect, but a good improvement. Yeah, much better in turn 8. Turn 1 was a bit tricky on this flop.
Brendon HARTLEY: Yeah, look, the front's a bit cold. Look, the front's lost a tenth and a half.
Charles LECLERC: Check if nothing is broken.
Engineer: Copy, we will check.
Charles LECLERC: It was quite a big shock when I came back on track. Is everything fine or do I need to drive slowly?
Engineer: So far all ok, so far all ok.
Pierre GASLY: Okay, yeah, I really need to go to the bathroom quickly, so
Engineer: Okay, quick please
Pierre GASLY: Yeah, I'll be quick
Engineer: Okay, just a bit of feedback from pedals, just watch, touching the front wing on that sausage on the exit turn 20, I'm not sure if you've been near it or not, but just avoid running onto that sausage for left hand side, front wing damage.
Daniel RICCIARDO: Okay, cheers.
Engineer: By the looks of it you will need to protect the front right, front right, some cars complaining of front right graining.
Engineer: I think there's a place down the front right.
Sebastian VETTEL: Pfizer gone.
Engineer: From
Fernando ALONSO: Greening
Engineer: OK, Fernando, understood
Engineer: There is no more we can do with the diff for the mid-corner. We can consider another step again on engine braking. I've already done it. Copy.
Engineer: The rear tyres have capacity, the rear tyres have capacity to help the front.
Engineer: How are the tires Max?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it's okay. Just have to look after the right front and just the rear. They're moving around a bit
Engineer: Okay, so other people are struggling with the grain in after even four or five laps. That's Mercedes and Ferrari. Okay, so Verstappen, five laps in. It's still doing 43.6, so Verstappen deg is low.
Engineer: How was the balance, Carlos? Yeah, 4 wheels sliding going on now. OK, copy that.
Engineer: degradation that was lower than some competitors Ferrari were particularly bad
Max VERSTAPPEN: That was an unsafe release.
Engineer: Understood Max.
Engineer: You're having a really good run profile by the way better than everyone. Yeah, I know, but I promise that the traffic. Yeah, we gather three behind
Daniel RICCIARDO: OK, so at the moment I'd say it's more in the front than the rear. I'll see if it cleans up and clear air.
Engineer: Understood.
Pierre GASLY: The front ride is cooked.
Engineer: Copy.
Pierre GASLY: Almost feels like there is something broken on the car.
Engineer: Front right, front right stage 5, slow lap, slow lap, killed it, I knew it, I knew it
Engineer: How's the tire holding up? How is it?
Romain GROSJEAN: It's not coming back.
Engineer: Yeah, well,
Stoffel VANDOORNE: I guess you saw what happened. Yeah,
Engineer: copy.
Max VERSTAPPEN: I'm getting into traffic again, but it doesn't make sense to keep stopping.
Engineer: I'm just
Lance STROLL: going to let it go so I get a free last lap. Okay, copy.
Engineer: Five seconds to sights.
Engineer: Actually, I was going to improve my fastest time, there was plenty of lifeline for the tyres. It's got held up in the low sector.
Engineer: Are you allowed to overtake after the check flag like this? Well, you're not allowed, but yeah. Ok.
Sebastian VETTEL: Okay, I got passed by Paris on the back straight.
Engineer: Copy, we know why.
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