Whistleblower Nico Rosberg

[dj_bytedisaster]

Just heard Nico's interview on RTL. He accidentally gave away Mercedes' private 3-day tutoring lesson with Pirelli last year and today he gave away just how little the drivers actually drive the cars. It was a real WTF moment:

"We lost telemetry on the formation lap, so the guys didn't know how to configure my clutch. So at the start my wheels just started spinning when it bit. Then I got hit by Bottas in turn one. They couldn't tell me if my car was ok. It was as if there was nobody out there. From then on I was on my own. They couldn't tell me how much fuel to use or when and how much of the electrical energy to use."

Dafuq did I just hear? :o Wasn't F1 once about people actually driving these things? This sounds to me like racing RC cars via telephone.

[Ranger]

Unsurprising. Come race day, the engineers' job is to interpret and relay the data that is given to them.

With no data...

[rjbetty]

Poor Nico, sounds like he´s having a sulk, just like Mr Vettel (Karma's a female dog eh Seb?) (lol)

[Whyzars]

...This sounds to me like racing RC cars via telephone.


Apparently all this electrolysis is oh so wonderful.


2014, the year that Bulltish won the championship...

[steveaki13]

Just heard Nico's interview on RTL. He accidentally gave away Mercedes' private 3-day tutoring lesson with Pirelli last year and today he gave away just how little the drivers actually drive the cars. It was a real WTF moment:

"We lost telemetry on the formation lap, so the guys didn't know how to configure my clutch. So at the start my wheels just started spinning when it bit. Then I got hit by Bottas in turn one. They couldn't tell me if my car was ok. It was as if there was nobody out there. From then on I was on my own. They couldn't tell me how much fuel to use or when and how much of the electrical energy to use."

Dafuq did I just hear? :o Wasn't F1 once about people actually driving these things? This sounds to me like racing RC cars via telephone.


Apparently all this electrolysis is oh so wonderful.


2014, the year that Bulltish won the championship...

This is my problem too.

I have said in the past I would like to see less technology involved and even manuel gearboxes. (I know it will never happen) In order to see the drivers actually drive the cars.

But I get told F1 is about technology too, which I suppose is true but in another 10 years we would have cars that dont need a driver and that would be a technological marvel but it wouldnt be a depressing spectacle as a motorsport and Nico sums up they ways its going byy saying that.

[Zico]

2014, the year that Bulltish won the championship...


Forgive me for being thick... but "Bulltish" ??


Re- the thread topic. With more electronics in the new cars there is even more scope for settings optimisation.
I recently watched a Chris Harris interview with the McLaren P1 designer where they discussed how they could add a percentage of torque from the electric motor at certain areas in the rev range to eliminate turbo lag, aid driveability and iirc they could get the ECU to configure its self to optimum launch control parameters after doing a couple of practice launches... so if they are doing this in 'road' cars it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they just communicate the ideal clutch parameters to the drivers for them to adjust manually in F1.

[Doc Austin]

I read somewhere that the FIA is considering bringing back active suspension. I suppose this means that the current cars are not complicated enough.

[tjoepie]

Poor Nico, sounds like he´s having a sulk, just like Mr Vettel (Karma's a female dog eh Seb?) (lol)

Refresh my memory - why does Vettel have karma due to him? Other than for offending certain people for winning for a long time...

[kfzmeister]

I don't get what the big deal is. It is 2014. You seriously don't expect racing like 1975 anymore, do you?

[airshifter]

I don't see how telling the truth is blowing the whistle. Telemetry has been a huge part of F1 ever since it became available, and for years the teams could do these things for the drivers from the pit wall. Now all they do is communicate it and the drivers make the changes themselves. I've heard quite a few pit transmissions instructing drivers on all sorts of things, including driving style. I'd say for Nico to have lost all telemetry would be quite a factor most likely, as there is limited information the pits could obtain as compared to the other car.

[airshifter]

I read somewhere that the FIA is considering bringing back active suspension. I suppose this means that the current cars are not complicated enough.

They were talking about this on the US coverage of qualification, and it seems the move is to simplify things. As it stands now the teams are going to great effort to make the suspension act like active suspension, with feedback from all four corners. It's so complex that it seems the FIA are thinking it would be a big money saving idea to just let them go back to some limited form of active suspension.

It seems the F1 engineers think of everything, including ways around the rules, and in this case it appears the FIA might cave in and just let them do it the easier way. But it is an interesting point. Like yourself I would have thought that "active" suspension would be more complex. It seems that creating it without breaking current rules is even more complex.

[andyone]

well im wondering too whats the fuss about. the old Formula 1 was easy for the machenics. not much to do on the team than just building a powerfull engine most manufacturers can do that.

Formula 1 is not only the driver but also the machanics. the whole team. if they dont put in technology and more complications to ensure that not only the driver drives but also to have decent mechanics. electronics engeneers, prgorammers. what els are they going to do, and the wold want to go Green. 1.6 V6 but same power

if you hate Formula one you can watch Go-carting they dont have complications or you can go check Nascar. the cars have no aid whatsoever.not much electronis. but FOMULA 1. the name says its self. for my poor understanding i think. 2014 is Formula 1 becoming more of it. withouht the team working flat out. the driver suffers. team looses.

[dj_bytedisaster]

if you hate Formula one you can watch Go-carting they dont have complications or you can go check Nascar. the cars have no aid whatsoever.not much electronis. but FOMULA 1. the name says its self. for my poor understanding i think. 2014 is Formula 1 becoming more of it. withouht the team working flat out. the driver suffers. team looses.

One doesn't need to hate F1, but it should be allowed to criticize a trend. Over the last 2,3 years we had drivers not driving as fast as they can, but as fast as they were told to by the boffins behind the pit wall. Flat-out racing without refuelling is not possible, but in the days of the first turbo era the drivers had to decide when to take it easy and when to mash the loud pedal as hard as they could.
Yesterday we witnessed Rosberg mucking up the start because the pit crew couldn't remotely configure the clutch settings for him. That's simply ridiculous. The teams need telemetry to tell them when to press what button and how fast they can go. That's not racing that's 'radio guided fast driving' and that, I believe, is not the purpose of F1.

[journeyman racer]

One doesn't need to hate F1, but it should be allowed to criticize a trend. Over the last 2,3 years we had drivers not driving as fast as they can, but as fast as they were told to by the boffins behind the pit wall. Flat-out racing without refuelling is not possible, They weren't doing it with it.

[airshifter]

One doesn't need to hate F1, but it should be allowed to criticize a trend. Over the last 2,3 years we had drivers not driving as fast as they can, but as fast as they were told to by the boffins behind the pit wall. Flat-out racing without refuelling is not possible, but in the days of the first turbo era the drivers had to decide when to take it easy and when to mash the loud pedal as hard as they could.
Yesterday we witnessed Rosberg mucking up the start because the pit crew couldn't remotely configure the clutch settings for him. That's simply ridiculous. The teams need telemetry to tell them when to press what button and how fast they can go. That's not racing that's 'radio guided fast driving' and that, I believe, is not the purpose of F1.

The pits couldn't change Nico's clutch settings, and no team has been able to do such things since two way telemetry was banned. This is reflected in the technical regulations.

They could inform him of optimum calculated settings for the start, which just about every team does. Telemetry analysis in the pits and the appropriate passing of information to the driver has been going on ever since they've had radios and telemetry. There are plenty of radio transmission instructing the drivers to change settings, and these instructions are all based on the data from the car, not guesses.

There are a number of good articles concerning telemetry and data analysis floating around, and some of it is boggling. It's claimed that during the average race that enough data is transmitted to fill a good sized phone book or two. Many teams also have people in remote locations doing live analysis during races, and it is a big chunk of team resources during a race as well as several percent of their operating budget for the season.

[MacFeegle]

Team cannot change setting remotely but can give correct settings for driver to input based on sensor feedback.

Nico did practice start and said start good so that what the team went with when telemetry fail.

Cars need more management because of complexity just as cars on the road work more on computer. Gone are day of gentleman racing on skinny tires and getting killed each week. Stopping for smoke and brandy in pits is not allowed these days as sport progress.

Today we have telemetry and computers. Tomorrow active suspension. Just evolution.

[journeyman racer]

Today we have telemetry and computers. Tomorrow active suspension. Just evolution.Active suspension, evolution?

[MacFeegle]

I know we had before but now back. Evolved.

[Jag_Warrior]

I don't see how telling the truth is blowing the whistle. Telemetry has been a huge part of F1 ever since it became available, and for years the teams could do these things for the drivers from the pit wall. Now all they do is communicate it and the drivers make the changes themselves. I've heard quite a few pit transmissions instructing drivers on all sorts of things, including driving style. I'd say for Nico to have lost all telemetry would be quite a factor most likely, as there is limited information the pits could obtain as compared to the other car.

I totally agree with this. And in the end, how can anyone suggest that the pits and the computers are what enable the driver/car to find success... when Nico carved his way back to 2nd place without telemetry?

[driveace]

They asked Nico ,what was the reading on his wheel .He said 79.35 or similar.They then said so your fuel use is OK .Then later in the race he was told that he didn't need to save fuel and that he could go for it

[Zico]

I totally agree with this. And in the end, how can anyone suggest that the pits and the computers are what enable the driver/car to find success... when Nico carved his way back to 2nd place without telemetry?

Yes as pointed out above he had access to and was able to provide limited manual telemetry. For the telemetry Nico didn't have access to the Engineers would have just played it safe and given him less extreme settings to use. Despite this handicap the Merc had such a large advantage that he got away with it.

If the competition behind him was on par or much closer I'm sure we would have seen a very different outcome.