How will the teams cope with the radio clampdown? Will Red Bull spring another surprise? And can Nico Rosberg prove he has the necessary mental strength to thwart Lewis Hamilton's title charge?
Friday 19 September 2014 12:50, UK
How will the teams cope with the radio clampdown under the bright lights of Singapore? And will Red Bull surprise again?
Who will go radio ga ga?
The FIA’s radio clampdown is no trifling matter. Or straightforward. According to the governing body’s own updated ‘clarification’ of what Article 20.1 of the Sporting Regulations - which simply declares “the driver must drive the car alone and unaided” - fully entails, 18 different ‘types’ of messages have been outlawed. On the opposite side of the same coin, a mere 14 have been deemed permissible. Given that the tightly-worded second list includes such courtesies as ‘acknowledgement that a driver message has been heard’, it is clear that, as of this weekend, F1’s new soundtrack will be the sound of silence.
For many, the mute button will be preferable to hearing drivers openly requesting driving advice over their car-to-pit radio - a habit Nico Rosberg has been particularly prone to. Instead of enjoying a guided tour around the tarmac, drivers will have to formulate their own race approaches and rely on their instincts for caressing their machinery to the finishing line in the fastest possible time. No longer will they sound like robots, affixed at the end of the line to their master’s voice. F1 wants its gladiators back – and no driver will ever sound like a gladiator when overheard pleading for advice on entry and exit speed or his rear brake bias.
Yet, as with any rule change suddenly implemented midway through a season and thrust down with scant notice, the proposal appears to have several rough edges. How sensible is it, for instance, to outlaw warnings of brake wear? And just how gladiatorial will the drivers appear if – or make that ‘when’ – they run out of fuel on the final lap after their teams are forced to stay shtum about the looming calamity? That particular embarrassment should be avoided by some bold font and a large pit board, while next year’s steering wheels are likely to be closer in appearance to the console of a space ship than the wheel of the average saloon car. It’s the oldest adage in F1’s unofficial rulebook: you read the official regulations once to understand them, and then you read them again to see how you can get around them.
Perhaps, when all is said and done – or not said, of course, as the sound of silence rules the airwaves – this latest rule change will be absorbed without a murmur. After all, we’re still waiting for the prophesised Armageddon of putting the cars into Parc Ferme immediately after qualifying to wipe out the F1 world as we know it; and, in a similar vein, so much for the notion that the 2014 rules revolution would wreak havoc at the start of the year. F1 is a sponge for absorbing both the best and worst-made plans.
But the unease generated by the unexpected clampdown is genuine, not least because the teams have been given such scant opportunity to adjust. “We are still evaluating the full consequences of the new interpretation of Article 20.1,” admitted Eric Boullier in McLaren’s pre-event press release. “Singapore is a difficult race to manage under normal circumstances, so this will definitely add an extra dimension to our preparations.”
With Renault warning ‘we will use the largest amount of fuel per lap over the season here and we will be right on the limit of the 100kg permitted’, the drivers face a challenging weekend – and one they’ll have to tackle all by themselves. PG
How will Nico Rosberg respond?
Such has been the near vice-like grip Nico Rosberg has held on the summit of the Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton’s start to the season that wasn’t back in Australia, we’ve rarely gone into a race weekend asking such a question. Much of the focus during F1’s world travels over the last six months has been on Hamilton’s various travails in the all-conquering W05, be it mechanical or self-inflicted, whereas Nico, although not without hiccup or mistake himself, has generally enjoyed a less tumultuous ride, although the German may quibble with that assessment given the brickbats that came his way at Monaco and Spa. That's also not to mention the new experience of being booed on the podium at the last two events.
Still, for perhaps the first time occasion since what at the time appeared a spirit-crushing four wins on the spin by his team-mate in the spring, F1 arrives in Singapore with the focus squarely on Rosberg and whether he can respond to a direct defeat by Hamilton. It’s not that Monza was a disaster for the long-time title leader - second in the race maintained his championship advantage at the best part of a full victory – but by making a straightforward driving mistake in his attempts to stay ahead of his recovering team-mate, Rosberg invited claims from observers that perhaps, despite many suggestions to the contrary this year, he is susceptible to pressure after all, particularly when it’s Hamilton bearing down on him.
Much of such serious scrutiny was marginalised in F1's hysterical world of conspiracy post-race, but even Rosberg, to his credit, himself admitted: “It was just Lewis was quick, coming from behind. I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake.” F1 is all about either taking pressure or applying it and Nico’s error was certainly not-so-subtly seized upon by Hamilton after the Briton’s race-winning drive: “I knew that this was the best time to put pressure on him. I did it a couple of races ago and he didn't seem to like it.”
Hamilton himself hasn't been immune to such under-pressure errors and Rosberg has displayed more than enough pace and poise all year to suggest that he can rebound from Monza rather well thank you very much and claim his fifth win of the year at Marina Bay. What is clear though is that the man with more to lose in the championship stakes over the decisive final flyaways – his 22-point lead with six rounds to go dictates that – Rosberg will certainly need more resolute defences than he put up in Italy between now and Abu Dhabi if it’s he who wins the defining duel of many a season. JG
Can Red Bull challenge Mercedes in Singapore?
Singapore has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for Red Bull, with Sebastian Vettel taking victory on each of the last three visits to the Marina Bay Circuit. Spa and Monza were predicted to be difficult races for the World Champions due to their engine deficit to Mercedes, yet they performed better than expected and Daniel Ricciardo even left Belgium with victory – albeit assisted by Mercedes’ intra-team clash.
The twisty layout of the Marina Bay Circuit will place less of an emphasis on horsepower, instead rewarding traction out of corners and driveability. Indeed, having slightly less power could even be an advantage when it comes to limiting wheel-spin on the exit of a corner.
“I think their [Mercedes] biggest problem in Singapore is going to be Red Bull because I think they have a really strong chassis and the engine seems to be getting better as well. It seems to be quite a driveable engine which in Singapore will be a real advantage,” GP3 Series leader and Red Bull junior Alex Lynn predicted. “I think Red Bull are coming on strong, they performed better at Monza and Spa than a lot of people thought, so I think they [Mercedes] are going to be under quite a bit of pressure.”
That said, Mercedes were no slouches around the streets of Monaco earlier this year as they locked out the front-row. “It was clear that Spa and Monza – high-speed circuits – would be on our side and positive for us, but we have had some good racing on smaller, narrower circuits as well so it is always a tough battle,” said Toto Wolff. “You have to stay on top.”
Ricciardo crossed the line just four tenths behind Lewis Hamilton in Monte-Carlo, though, and with victories coming in Montreal at a circuit that rewards traction and around the twists of Hungary, Red Bull are surely in with a chance of making it four-in-a-row in Singapore. WE
So….will anybody actually run out of fuel?
It’s a question that was asked in Melbourne, when all sorts of questions were being asked about the likely impact of F1’s brave new world. (Remember Charlie Whiting’s “doomsday scenarios”?) Yet just as teams and engine suppliers have, on the whole, proved adept at producing reliable new hybrid cars then they have also proved capable of making them fuel efficient, to the extent that no-one has yet run dry. If anything, it’s actually been the case that teams have added less than the 100kg maximum fuel allowed for a performance gain.
But the 5.065km Marina Bay Circuit, with its 23 corners, presents, along with Bahrain and Canada, the toughest test of the season in terms of consumption. Moreover, with the clampdown on radio communication explicitly citing fuel management high on the list of Don’ts, it does lead one to ponder whether anyone will be forced to slow to a halt during the closing stages of Sunday night’s race. However, with the consideration that engine maps tailor power delivery according to a particular track's consumption, not to mention the fact that drivers still have fuel information available on the car's dash, it seems they'd have to be particularly negligent to do so. MW
The 2014 Singapore GP is live only on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, with our coverage beginning with Practice from 10.45am on Friday.
