Chinese Grand Prix 2018: Race team radio
79 radio messages were recorded during race at the Chinese Grand Prix 2018, across 18 drivers. Lewis HAMILTON had the most, with 12.
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
- Lewis HAMILTON · Mercedes · 12 messages
- Daniel RICCIARDO · Red Bull · 9 messages
- Kevin MAGNUSSEN · Haas · 7 messages
- Fernando ALONSO · McLaren · 7 messages
- Brendon HARTLEY · Toro Rosso · 6 messages
- Max VERSTAPPEN · Red Bull · 6 messages
- Sebastian VETTEL · Ferrari · 6 messages
- Valtteri BOTTAS · Mercedes · 5 messages
- Romain GROSJEAN · Haas · 5 messages
- Esteban OCON · Force India · 3 messages
- Stoffel VANDOORNE · McLaren · 3 messages
- Marcus ERICSSON · Sauber · 2 messages
- Pierre GASLY · Toro Rosso · 2 messages
- Nico HULKENBERG · Renault · 2 messages
- Sergey SIROTKIN · Williams · 1 message
- Charles LECLERC · Sauber · 1 message
- Carlos SAINZ · Renault · 1 message
- Kimi RAIKKONEN · Ferrari · 1 message
Every message, in the order it happened
Engineer: We are okay with temperatures. We are okay with temperatures. I will keep you posted
Engineer: OK, so nice and slowly through the pit lane, it's very busy so keep your eyes out. OK, nice and slowly, we need to back up, there's a lot of cars queuing.
Lewis HAMILTON: Got time to stop and put some wing in?
Engineer: It will be tight, we'll update you. How much do you want?
Lewis HAMILTON: Take out three holes.
Engineer: So leave the engine running, stop short.
Engineer: Remember to go to the grid, please confirm that you are going to the grid. And cool down the engine. Okay, going to the grid. Okay, cool down the engine as much as you can.
Engineer: So I just look for the guys and when you're on the back turn off P2 without brake pressure.
Engineer: And we'll have a PU calling now and you're going to the back of the grid boys will meet you there
Engineer: So just to be clear, so he had two holes more taken out than us to start with. We had two more than him to start. We then came down three. And now if we've gone back up one and a half, we are half a hole more than Valtteri is at this very moment. He went to the grid, didn't change the flap angle at all. Relatively happy with the balance. He's going to stay where he is. So he is 55.5, we are 56.0. So just half a turn in it. I don't really get that. We put two holes less, then we put another three holes. That's five holes. That's five holes less I had just now. We were two holes more. Yeah. Then came down three. Is he happy with the balance? Yep, he's happy with his balance. He's staying where he is.
Engineer: I
Lewis HAMILTON: definitely wouldn't be surprised that it would be a one-stop with the way it was just feeling just there.
Engineer: Fernando, tyre info, prime starters are Vettel, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Bottas, Magnussen, Ocon, Yourself, Stoffel, Sirotkin, Stroll, Leclerc and Ericsson. Backup starter, Gasly, everybody else option.
Max VERSTAPPEN: See you f***ing Ludo, sir.
Engineer: Alright, don't get greedy now, mate. That's good. Settle down.
Engineer: Do
Esteban OCON: you see how many places we lost because of Sergio right now? Unbelievable.
Engineer: Copy that.
Engineer: Driver swap, driver swap before turn 14. Driver swap now.
Brendon HARTLEY: Seriously? Okay, I'm letting him fly.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Real man is losing pace.
Engineer: Ok, copy.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Guys, he's holding me up.
Engineer: Ok, messenger received that.
Engineer: Let Kevin buy before 14. Let Kevin buy before turn...
Romain GROSJEAN: Come on, it's lap 6!
Engineer: Thank you, Roman. We'll square it up. We'll square it up.
Fernando ALONSO: From the feeling so far, plan B I think is better.
Engineer: OK, Fernando, I understand. I'll get back to you.
Romain GROSJEAN: I'm on massive dirt here.
Engineer: Yep, understood, understood. Just look after the tyre as best you can.
Romain GROSJEAN: The blast is not helping me. It's not pulling away.
Lewis HAMILTON: Sorry to lose your place guys, keep being quite aggressive
Engineer: No stress Lewis, just keep your head down mate
Engineer: I think we need to get off this compound as soon as we can.
Engineer: Push push
Engineer: Big lap required, big lap.
Lewis HAMILTON: Here we've got some debris on my left front. Big vibration.
Engineer: OK, we think the vibration is coming from some pick-up, so hopefully it should clean.
Engineer: I think we are we are in temperature we are in temperature come on let's do like that is very good
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: I'm saying they're getting better yeah
Engineer: tires are getting better more grip yeah I know I know that's great for us
Max VERSTAPPEN: They're still faster than Kimi, right?
Engineer: Yep by a tenth or two. That's what we need at this stage. Keep going
Daniel RICCIARDO: There's not much more I can lean on them. They're holding up, but I can't really get any more out of it.
Engineer: OK, mate, understood. You're doing a good job, mate. Let's keep it going.
Engineer: So how much are you being held up to Nick? I don't
Lewis HAMILTON: have, I'm
Engineer: just
Lewis HAMILTON: pushing, trying to keep up.
Engineer: Box, Daniel box, box this lap. Okay it's gonna be a double stop but he will be out of your way
Engineer: Box, box, box, box. Do the opposite to Raikkonen. Do the opposite to Raikkonen.
Engineer: Okay this is plan A, plan A, maximum pace. And Fernando Grosjean went back up, we think he'll try and one-stop.
Engineer: Push hard now, give it everything.
Engineer: Push now, push now, close to Bottas, engine 1, engine 1, and box, Sebastian, box, very tight.
Engineer: Ok Marcus, your race pace is good, keep pushing.
Marcus ERICSSON: I think we can extend if that's good for strategy.
Engineer: Copy that, very clear.
Engineer: Good job
Engineer: So you need to stay in front of Vettel. 36 laps remaining.
Engineer: Box to overtake Stroll, Box to overtake Stroll
Engineer: We need to increase our pace, 4 tenths, 4 tenths, Ocon is doing 39.5.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: That's not possible, not possible.
Engineer: And Fernando, how is the balance? How is the balance?
Fernando ALONSO: Still mainly oversteering, but the front left is nearly finished.
Engineer: OK, Fernando, we understand the feedback. Ideally, we would like to extend.
Fernando ALONSO: Running in traffic was a killer. So we need to be careful with the strategy. Happy to stay, if for you it's OK.
Engineer: So
Fernando ALONSO: if for you it's better to stay, I'm happy. We just need to monitor the R4 if it arrives. So far it's consistent. It's quite warm to the front left, but OK to keep running in this lap time.
Engineer: And mode push, mode push, excellent job so far.
Engineer: Surat Kinnahead has not stopped yet. Yeah,
Romain GROSJEAN: but I'm
Engineer: going
Romain GROSJEAN: to think f***ing time here.
Engineer: Charles Hall, OK?
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, but the balance is so difficult to drive.
Pierre GASLY: Why the f**k are you closing the door? What is that?
Brendon HARTLEY: I just got hit by Gasly.
Engineer: I
Brendon HARTLEY: think there's a lot of damage.
Engineer: Where did you hit? Where did you hit? He
Brendon HARTLEY: hit me on the rear. He hit me on the rear. Okay, I definitely have a problem.
Engineer: Yeah, I think we need to safety guard, there's 20 degrees
Engineer: Safety car, safety car, box this lap Daniel, box this lap, box this lap.
Pierre GASLY: I have front wing damage guys, I'm really sorry guys, but what is that you said, you lifted to let me pass and then suddenly closed, stay
Engineer: positive and keep focus, stay positive keep focus,
Pierre GASLY: I have front wing damage, front left
Brendon HARTLEY: I'm not sure on the damage. It doesn't feel too bad now that I'm up to speed.
Engineer: Alright, so Infomax. Hamilton on a 14 lap old set of medium tyres. He'll have to try and restart after this safety car. Vettel 12 laps and Bottas 13 laps. He's got a fresh set of soft.
Engineer: Just confirm that you received this message, lapped cars may now overtake.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, but there's no lapped cars behind me either.
Engineer: Okay, good point.
Lewis HAMILTON: Francis Supercold
Engineer: Is
Lewis HAMILTON: it me or have I got a bunch of cars that have new tyres on behind me?
Engineer: So it's Verstappen is the car with new softs, then Raikkonen and then we have Ricciardo against new softs Shoot,
Lewis HAMILTON: why don't we stop at new tyres?
Engineer: Because they'd then be in front of you
Engineer: Mind your safety car, line 1 is before pit entry, as you know, keep working on your tyres.
Romain GROSJEAN: It's too cold.
Engineer: Okay, nice job. Let's keep pushing now.
Engineer: Right, let's get off to Hamilton. Let's get in.
Engineer: We're losing massive race time. Copy, copy. He's struggling a lot. Ok Marcus, we will swap position at 10.14 and keep pressing on him, keep pressing on him, we will swap position. This is just killing both our tyres. Copy, we will swap position.
Engineer: Nice job mate, let's keep pushing. Alright next one's Vettel, let's get him.
Engineer: Well done mate. Easy pickings. Let's push up.
Lewis HAMILTON: Guys we should have had these new tyres
Max VERSTAPPEN: You locked up and then just turned in very sharp.
Sebastian VETTEL: I don't think I need to say anything here.
Engineer: Copy that.
Engineer: Nice job, mate. This is sweet stuff. Keep going.
Engineer: Go on.
Daniel RICCIARDO: Get it, kiddo. Get it.
Engineer: Don't give up. You can pass through the camera.
Romain GROSJEAN: It's all falling apart.
Engineer: So the stop and extend second penalty to be had at the end of the race, if you posted on gap.
Sebastian VETTEL: Was worth it then.
Engineer: And Verstappen at 0.8 Just
Lewis HAMILTON: leave me to it man
Engineer: All right Max, so we've been given a 10 second time penalty, so we just need to maximize this result. Okay, no more mistakes maximize this result
Engineer: So Lewis, 8 laps remaining when you cross the line, need to stay within 10 seconds of Verstappen.
Lewis HAMILTON: Easy to say when you've got tyres on!
Engineer: Copy, understood.
Engineer: okay stop I think these Force Indias in front are going to struggle at the end they're fighting each other so that's costing them time and they will struggle at the end
Engineer: OK, we've now got Alonso behind Vettel. He's 7.2 seconds behind you. Yeah,
Nico HULKENBERG: but a bit more, come on. Peace, blah, blah, blah.
Engineer: His pace is two tenths slower than yours. Vettel is dropping away at the moment at six tenths per lap.
Engineer: You are keeping both Force India at bay, come on keep on pushing man, we can do it
Engineer: Box this lap we have to retire the car
Kimi RAIKKONEN: I'm losing so much grip behind him.
Stoffel VANDOORNE: I mean, the sound and the feeling is quite worrying.
Engineer: Copy, Stoffel, we see an issue, but it is OK to continue, we see an issue, it is OK to continue.
Sebastian VETTEL: He can't just run me off the track like that, it was intentional, you saw he just made the corner
Engineer: Nice work Fernando.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, I think he was too optimistic.
Engineer: entry seven entry seven let's give it the best lap of our race now mate best lap of our race
Engineer: yes
Daniel RICCIARDO: boys nice job mate nice
Engineer: job
Daniel RICCIARDO: amazing
Engineer: job mate that was absolutely clinical clinical moves cutthroat scary nice job absolutely brilliant mate well done Daniel that was absolutely amazing you were you were incredible today fantastic and Genti for doing all that hard work he's going to go up and represent the boys in the garage today so he'll be joining you up on the podium so congratulations well done oh
Daniel RICCIARDO: I'm speechless what a turnaround happy to see Genti up there thank you guys
Engineer: enjoy every minute of it you thoroughly deserve it amazing mate those moves are amazing absolutely brilliant I can't stop smiling that felt
Daniel RICCIARDO: good thanks again guys
Engineer: that was that was a very very good job there mate
Daniel RICCIARDO: fat lip and all
Engineer: I think you might have a bit of a thick head as well tomorrow you got the fastest lap of the race by half a second well done
Engineer: That's a great job Valtteri, great job. Unfortunately the safety car just allowed other strategies to come into it, but really good job there Valtteri. So P2, P2. Safety car was so unlucky for us. Yeah, copy that, copy that. We did the best we could though, first of the one stoppers.
Engineer: Okay Nico, wow, the gap was 10.7 seconds. Anyway, fantastic job Nico, absolutely brilliant drive there, thank you very much. Superb effort.
Engineer: And great racing Fernando, great racing. Well done mate, good race, good race. We finished P7, P7.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah great guys, P7 again, good comeback.
Engineer: Yeah indeed mate, great race, P7 again, beginning to become a lucky number. Let's try and get ourselves a lower lucky number shall we?
More from this weekend
Every session of the Chinese Grand Prix 2018Search the full archive