Helmut Marko complained that Lewis Hamilton receiving information over the team radio made his life too easy.
The 79-year-old proposed a rule change after becoming frustrated with the amount of technical information hamilton receives from his race engineer Peter Bonnington by radio.
Hamilton is not the only one to receive this kind of information, indeed red bulls Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase have been hailed as one of the best driver-engineer duos on the grid, but Marko objected to the radio chat Hamilton is familiar with.
The Red Bull adviser called for a rule change that would limit the radio so only the driver could talk and said at the moment it was too easy for drivers.
“Part of it is like being in driving school,” Marko told ServusTV. “You could limit it to only go one direction, just let the rider do it, but don’t let him get technical assistance.
“It’s like, ‘You lose five meters in turn ten braking and in turn three the other driver takes it a bit slower.’
“So a driver gets all that information and it makes it easier for him.”
Radios play an extremely important role in team operations during a race. It’s not just the driver and the engineer talking to each other at any given time.
A look at the array of radios available to Christian Horner on the pit wall shows just how many channels each team operates. This is designed to keep communication clear and allows different parts of the team, such as strategists, mechanics and bodybuilders, to all communicate effectively with each other.
Detail of Red Bull on their website how many radios work during a race weekend.
“The first and most obvious of the channels is the Car 33 Radio channel, on which Max Verstappen is in contact with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.
“GP in turn is tuned into the Car33Pit channel to talk with Max’s mechanics, and the Car33Eng channel which is shared by the engineers working on Max’s car.
“In the larger group there is the Garage channel telling everyone on both sides of the garage (or neither) what needs to be done, the Race Radio channel which covers both groups of cars on the track and the Pit Wall chain where senior staff can discuss what they plan to do.
“While the folks at 33Eng are discussing what needs to be inspected and the protocols for performing a repair, the mechanics at 33Pit are talking to the garage to request various parts be delivered to the grid slot.
“Very few people – although sporting director Jonathan Wheatley would be one – hear all the conversations, everyone just hears the things they need to complete their part of the puzzle with the minimum amount of distraction.”
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