Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023: Practice 3 team radio
48 radio messages were recorded during practice 3 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023, across 17 drivers. 47 of them have a transcript; the rest are audio only. George RUSSELL 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
- George RUSSELL · Mercedes · 7 messages
- Yuki TSUNODA · AlphaTauri · 6 messages
- Nico HULKENBERG · Haas · 5 messages
- Sergio PEREZ · Red Bull · 4 messages
- Esteban OCON · Alpine · 3 messages
- Lewis HAMILTON · Mercedes · 3 messages
- Lando NORRIS · McLaren · 3 messages
- Lance STROLL · Aston Martin · 2 messages
- Fernando ALONSO · Aston Martin · 2 messages
- Pierre GASLY · Alpine · 2 messages
- Valtteri BOTTAS · Alfa Romeo · 2 messages
- Kevin MAGNUSSEN · Haas · 2 messages
- Logan SARGEANT · Williams · 2 messages
- Max VERSTAPPEN · Red Bull · 2 messages
- Oscar PIASTRI · McLaren · 1 message
- Charles LECLERC · Ferrari · 1 message
- ZHOU Guanyu · Alfa Romeo · 1 message
Every message, in the order it happened
Engineer: OK, Lance, if we have the intercom issue, you're boxing at the end of this lap for a pit stop. Copy.
Engineer: So we're still happy to lean on them a bit through here. So full throttle through here, good straight line speed. You can lean on them left and right a bit, and then it's box, box.
Engineer: OK, financial, have you a bit faster in the first sector, please, on these harder paths, a bit faster in the first sector?
Fernando ALONSO: Copy.
Engineer: At the launch, clutch drop was 1% shallow, and radio check, turn 13.
Oscar PIASTRI: Yep, turn 13.
Engineer: Yep, that's loud and clear.
Pierre GASLY: Okay, the steering is the right-hand side is down
Engineer: Yeah, copy
Engineer: I
George RUSSELL: don't know if this is the right way to
Engineer: do it,
George RUSSELL: but I think it's insane.
Audio only, no transcript available for this message.
Engineer: Try to work your brakes slightly.
George RUSSELL: Get a vibration through the pedal, under braking, park at 22 Copy, go farther ahead to the right please
Engineer: Okay, so just some lap time differences to Pierre, so we're strong in sector one, just losing a little bit, exit 13, exit 16, 17, entry to 22, and then exit at the last corner, just a few little bits.
Engineer: Okay, Kev, we still think the next lap might be quicker if you go for it. People are still improving on the third lap, so it's your call, really.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, but I want to have more time to go through stuff. Okay, that's fine. Let's box then.
Lance STROLL: Yeah, so
Engineer: yeah, NG2 is latched. Turn radio off. Yeah, so I was latched talking to the driver then.
Lance STROLL: You're still talking to me. It's okay, now it's okay.
Lewis HAMILTON: Traffic copy.
Engineer: Yep, very busy now.
Pierre GASLY: Went on the curb but felt like really aggressive.
Engineer: Yeah, copy that, we'll have a good look
Engineer: How is the car?
Sergio PEREZ: Yeah, I think we picked up good from that in the low speed compared to yesterday. And the high speed was a little bit neutral, 22. But I'm happy with the grip I have in the high speed generally, please. I had a very long pedal going into 13.
Engineer: OK, we're having a look. Which was that corner where it was neutral in particular, standout corner?
Sergio PEREZ: 22.
Engineer: Yeah, close up.
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, I want the helmet changed for the next run, this visor is too dark, I need a lighter visor please, it's
Engineer: quite cloudy today. Understood, Martin understands.
George RUSSELL: I'm too pretty in this theory
Lando NORRIS: Uh, struggling turn 13 still with the front, um, turn 22 was better, but potentially a bit of instability on entry, so maybe a bit too aggressive on the tug.
Yuki TSUNODA: I think rotation in high speed is quite good.
Engineer: I
Yuki TSUNODA: think it's a good place. I feel a little bit exit of turn 13 traction and turn 17 is a little bit tricky to go flat. Other than that it's okay. Still turn 22 is a massive understeer but yeah we can ignore that.
Engineer: Front tires are ok, lean on the rear in the high speed
Charles LECLERC: I lost the first shift
Engineer: Okay, copy
Engineer: So a bit of info on timing, Sergeant found just under a second going on his second use off time, let's see what we can get on this one.
Engineer: OK, have a think about what you'd like for balance for the next run. Did you increase
Esteban OCON: the flap?
Engineer: Nope, left it the same. Tamir, I think we should be bringing this down.
Esteban OCON: No, no.
Engineer: Keep
Esteban OCON: it the same.
Engineer: OK, understood.
Sergio PEREZ: Yeah, my right mirror keeps coming down.
Engineer: Okay.
George RUSSELL: Steering vibration apex up 10
George RUSSELL: Upshift's improved!
Engineer: You can push again this lap, Albon 1. You can push this lap or you can do a double cool down or you can start the lap and see what you think.
Engineer: I
Valtteri BOTTAS: got blocked by the Aston.
Engineer: Copy, copy.
Engineer: We have lots of time, Nico, so we could drive through and do another practice start. We can do that now.
Lando NORRIS: It's dangerous what these guys do. They need to use the radio or something.
Engineer: There could have been a massive crash. Okay, understood. We'll report to now.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Mate I
Engineer: Apologies
Lewis HAMILTON: Give me your sectors mate.
Engineer: Copy, we've got Gasly coming through six seconds away. So Verstappen's now gone fastest, it's two and a half tenths sector one, one and a half tenths in the middle sector and three and a half tenths in the final, Gasly two behind.
Lewis HAMILTON: How much, do I have time for a drive-thru? I've got to set 10 feet's tyres down.
Engineer: Copy, yeah, we can probably do that.
Lewis HAMILTON: I've done two laps less than the other guys, so...
Engineer: Affirm.
Max VERSTAPPEN: My battery doesn't want to charge that last bit.
Engineer: We can go for a second slow lap if you want to, just to fully top it up. Let's try that.
Yuki TSUNODA: The rear grip didn't feel very good.
Engineer: Okay, so Max's third push lap, he's gone purple in sector one. It's a tenth and a half in every sector, basically a tenth and a half in every sector.
Logan SARGEANT: My seat is so hot!
Engineer: Help me!
Engineer: Just keep the rear cool as much as possible.
Engineer: Well, we just go a little bit slow. It's a two minute out lap anyway with the start so it's no problem And we'll just go slow if we have to at the end It's less than two minutes left. It'll be no problem
ZHOU Guanyu: What the f*** is this guy doing, man?
Engineer: We can go for, we can maybe get another lap in, but the tyres will be a little bit on the warm side, up to you. Yeah,
Sergio PEREZ: how, how are we doing?
Engineer: We've got about 10 seconds margin.
Engineer: Lando, I would just drive straight out, just drive straight out. I'm past the light, I'm good.
Engineer: Okay Kev, so you and Nico are going to be the first two cars to do starts.
Engineer: Mode slow two burnouts start on the left hand side in mode RS
Engineer: So just an update we think actually where you are now is good
Yuki TSUNODA: I don't feel much, especially rear grip, I would say overall as well, but especially rear grip, the traction, like, quite snappy overall.
Engineer: Yeah, Juki, we agree with you, we need to have a look.
Engineer: And we keep up the pace.
Yuki TSUNODA: Where are my black and white flag?
Engineer: I'll show you later.
Yuki TSUNODA: But yeah, I'm really confused why we're slow because balance itself is not too bad. I mean a little bit snappy in traction, but yeah, I think just grip.
Engineer: Yep.
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