The accident Sergio Perez in the last turn of the Grand Prix of Austria has led to complaints by Force India in relation to the new restrictions of the radios imposed this year. The indian team was unable to communicate to any of its pilots to the serious brake problems they had, which resulted in the withdrawal of Nico Hülkenberg and the crash of the mexican, all in the final stretch of the race.
To root of this situation, the chief functions of the team, Bob Fernley, has demanded a review of the prohibitions in order to contemplate those cases where the safety of the riders will be seriously compromised
“We have to look at what of radio communications, because we were not allowed to communicate to the drivers that their brakes were on the limit. It is a little worrying. it Seems a little absurd to put a Halo on a car and not being able to tell a pilot that their brakes are about to fail“.
One of the main motivations behind this increase in the prohibitions was limit to the extent possible of the assistance that the pilots received in the wall, and to avoid that these could be communications camouflaged or key to their pilots to change some of the parameter not permitted by radio.
For this reason, Fernley believes that the safety of the riders should be a fundamental parameter above monitor potential orders covert, and believes that the rules should relax in some way:
“Race Direction informed us that we could not inform the pilot. We have to speak with them, because this, perhaps, is going a little too far. I Think that we should have the safety of the riders under control. Not would have made no difference with Czech anyway, but it is only an example of something that we may need to check”.
however, the intent of the FIA until the time goes through other avenues. According to Autosport, the Federation believes that adjusted the rules could encourage teams to “abuse them”, and increase the likelihood of encrypted messages. For its part, the opinion of Fernley is partially shared by Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes.
“The FIA is not in an easy position because what is the limit? The teams could abuse easily of them, and with the pretext of security, attempting to communicate with the pilots. My opinion is that we’ve probably gone a little too far in what is restricted. Extend it is, in fact, the suggestion of Bernie (Ecclestone, not my idea. Perhaps not in the part of the councils piloting, that is the only thing”.
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