São Paulo Grand Prix 2021: Sprint Qualifying team radio
61 radio messages were recorded during sprint qualifying at the São Paulo Grand Prix 2021, across 19 drivers. 60 of them have a transcript; the rest are audio only. Pierre GASLY had the most, with 7.
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
- Pierre GASLY · AlphaTauri · 7 messages
- Lando NORRIS · McLaren · 6 messages
- Valtteri BOTTAS · Mercedes · 6 messages
- Antonio GIOVINAZZI · Alfa Romeo · 5 messages
- Sergio PEREZ · Red Bull · 4 messages
- Sebastian VETTEL · Aston Martin · 4 messages
- Nikita MAZEPIN · Haas · 4 messages
- Lance STROLL · Aston Martin · 4 messages
- Lewis HAMILTON · Mercedes · 3 messages
- Max VERSTAPPEN · Red Bull · 3 messages
- Daniel RICCIARDO · McLaren · 3 messages
- Charles LECLERC · Ferrari · 2 messages
- Kimi RAIKKONEN · Alfa Romeo · 2 messages
- Esteban OCON · Alpine · 2 messages
- Carlos SAINZ · Ferrari · 2 messages
- Mick SCHUMACHER · Haas · 1 message
- George RUSSELL · Williams · 1 message
- Nicholas LATIFI · Williams · 1 message
- Yuki TSUNODA · AlphaTauri · 1 message
Every message, in the order it happened
Engineer: And some full throttle last part and to the grid
Engineer: gentle reminder go to select P1 select P1 once you are at the back of the grid
Engineer: 18 minutes, 18 minutes to go. Remember, no V-Races 1 recognition, no national anthem, just a normal countdown. Tire blankets to be disconnected at the 5 minute signal, the remaining 8 from 3 minutes.
Engineer: It's all going to be down to the rear surface temperature management Lewis. Got a little bit of cloud cover coming in now, track temps dropping just a little bit, I'll get a latest figure from Marcus. So yeah, 37 now, 37.
Engineer: So track temp drop another 3 degrees.
Pierre GASLY: Radio check
Engineer: Sainz is on soft, Leclerc medium
Audio only, no transcript available for this message.
Engineer: I've got to use the hot-hustle.
Engineer: Uh, Max, fire update for SOTA. I think on SOTA I'll get that for you, currently thinking of SOTA and SOTA.
Engineer: And just so you're aware Pierre, because the track is still dropping, we've added a little bit of air balance on the car
Engineer: So a quick run through of things as normal. Hit limiter on once the car's fired up. Concentrate on those carcass targets and the surface targets at the end as well. No changes to the number of burnouts or where we want you to do them. And a reminder, don't overheat the rear brakes please. 450 max.
Engineer: And then Lando, just one thing, just check brake balance for turn one.
Engineer: Am I allowed to overtake one or two cars in the formation lap or no? Hold your position please.
Engineer: Lando, just want you to check your brake balance again, Jose is expecting minus 2 or minus 3, he currently reads plus 1 Yeah
Lando NORRIS: this is just for the warm up, I'll do what I need to from there when I come to the start OK cool
Engineer: So Sebastian, three cars directly behind you, Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Giovanzi are soft. Then there's three mediums, Stroll, Latifi, Russell, medium, and then Schumacher, Mazepin on soft, Hamilton at the back, medium, and at the front, Gasly and Sainz are soft, and Bottas is soft, everybody else medium. So in front of you, Bottas, Gasly and Sainz soft, as well as Ocon to your left.
Engineer: carry out your launch to third gear, and once it's out of time, generate some good temperature. Beware of your throttle pedal as normal, and then you come back round onto the main straight. From position 15, which is stroll, that's at the end of the left-hand side Heineken advert, click the overtake, and two long turnouts, and the extra ramp run coasting down into your pit.
Engineer: So science the car behind honest soft
Engineer: Do not use early overtake
Engineer: Tardade OK Antonio, car looks OK.
Engineer: Give
Antonio GIOVINAZZI: it to me.
Engineer: So our tyre temperatures are good for pushing. You've got two cars ahead of you on soft. Ricciardo 0.5 behind, Ocon 0.6 ahead.
Engineer: On Ocon, just 1 tenth to lose DRS, 9 tenths behind.
Engineer: So same lap time 2.5
Engineer: Use special 4 for last corner, we have now Sonona behind on the same compound, he is with DRS now.
Engineer: Gap behind 2.7 to Sainz.
Sergio PEREZ: He's moving very late on the braking.
Engineer: Copy. Mode 9. Mode 9 now.
Engineer: Hamilton is now behind Alonso, Hamilton likely to be behind you soon. Suggest green shape three, green shape three.
Carlos SAINZ: Struggling with time.
Engineer: Restore.
Nikita MAZEPIN: Let's stay sock six. It's sock seven. Sock six is okay. It's coming up.
Engineer: Ok so still a very tight battle in front with Sainz not picking up the pace
Engineer: Great job. Let's go. Perez next.
Engineer: Hamilton is now the car behind, he could create an opportunity here as well.
Nikita MAZEPIN: Laps to go.
Engineer: 15 to go, 15.
Engineer: So Ricciardo 0.5 behind Ocon 0.8. Tires are good so you can push as much as you can just matching surface Just watch Ricciardo behind 0.3 now. He's close
Engineer: T-Rex 0.7 behind, and energy is 5% down compared to FP2, you are doing great
Carlos SAINZ: Ok, a
Engineer: bit less ray, I read you please Copy, understood
Engineer: Push the entry of nine less compromise the entry of nine
Engineer: And please update your tyre switch.
Charles LECLERC: Those traps is quite a bit quicker than what I expected, especially on braking.
Lance STROLL: Took no traction in the low speed high levels of understeer with no traction
Engineer: Don't attack, too much braking, turn 10, the rest is looking fine.
Engineer: So that's up in my head, DRS.
Engineer: And think about brakes for rear, think about bringing the brake temps down a bit.
Engineer: And Gasly ahead, also soft.
Daniel RICCIARDO: That's getting very close to moving on the brakes.
Engineer: Copy, we'll report it.
Engineer: Press and hold overtake, 5 seconds.
Sergio PEREZ: I'm having... I'm not having... good exit out of the left corner. And I'm having a lot of engine push in the turn 10.
Engineer: Copy. Hand bait for turn 10 if you need it.
Engineer: So we're stopping giving his tires a breather we'll attack again
Engineer: Ocon 0.8 ahead, he does not have DRS, Ricciardo 0.8 behind
Engineer: So gap at 0.7, you're very strong, turn 23 to Leclerc.
Engineer: Consider EB9, consider EB9, compared to Sainz's main loss breaking turn 1, he is doing 13.5.
Engineer: Last lap, turn 12 was good, minimal difference to make, good job.
Engineer: Okay, Perez and Sainz fighting ahead. Let's still try. Four laps to go. Yeah, okay.
Lando NORRIS: No more, please.
Engineer: Keep an eye on your battery
Engineer: Oh, P3's on the cards. We got this.
Engineer: Good news good news
Engineer: Okay, that's the checker. That's the checker. It's a difficult balance. We were a little bit overbalanced there, I think. But towards the end of the race, you were matching, and then that last lap, you were quicker than Mick. So, yeah, I think his tyres were going too, but you were matching him quicker than him, so something to work with for tomorrow.
Nikita MAZEPIN: Yeah, I think we were overbalanced a bit. I almost had him, but, yeah, didn't position very well. We'll improve, and we'll improve for tomorrow.
Engineer: Copy that.
Engineer: Got pretty tricky there at the end.
Mick SCHUMACHER: Yeah. We'll still discuss I think. I
Engineer: think a
Mick SCHUMACHER: few positives. I think that's the main thing. It wasn't all negative.
Engineer: Yeah. You ended up like 11 seconds behind Kimi and about 6 ahead of Nikita. So there was some good phase of good balance and then lots of rear management and lots of rear dealing with for the rest of it.
Mick SCHUMACHER: Yeah, exactly.
Engineer: It
Mick SCHUMACHER: was that last section where I wasn't able to keep the tyres. No.
Engineer: It really came apart.
Mick SCHUMACHER: The start was good. I was happy with the start. Couldn't get by anyways. There was just walkage in front.
Engineer: OK, give me the checkered flag, mode charge, pick up proper and box.
Engineer: So as you saw they were coming back to us but just a couple of laps short there so the audio if you're interested it was Bottas, Verstappen, Sainz, top three.
George RUSSELL: Yeah I mean the car felt pretty good I think the pace would have been okay obviously just
Engineer: too
George RUSSELL: difficult to overtake, obviously closed for a few laps but that would extend a bit.
Engineer: Yeah understood mate, it looked okay and obviously got another chance tomorrow so it was worth doing.
Engineer: So that's P16, 7 tenths of Tsunoda I think that was good on the tyre management, mate
Nicholas LATIFI: Man, we had no pace, I don't know what you're talking about, good We were so slow I'm
Engineer: just saying you managed your tyres well, so slow in lap And team Apple, and team Apple You managed your tyres OK, you still had pace at the end
Engineer: OK, Antonio, solid ways, P13
Antonio GIOVINAZZI: Yeah, I was on the edge, with the rear, but yeah, OK Fortunately I had some damage on the front wing, it was the left one, it was really bad and the right was OK
Engineer: Copy, we will have a look later on
Engineer: And check reflect. Recharge on. Recharge on.
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