Why Communication Is King

In my lastcolumn, I highlighted how important a good race start is to set a driver up forvictory; in Hungary, LewisHamilton had just that. Starting from pole, Hamilton enjoyed a superb getaway from thelights to lead into the first corner, where he stayed for the remainder of the race toclaim his second win of the season and his 19th race victory in Formula 1. Ofcourse, his race victory also had to do with his race strategy and the all-importantchoice of tires on the two-stop strategy. The top 10 drivers started with the same softcompound, but McLaren and Hamilton decided to switch to the less grippy but harder-wearingcompound for the second stint. Meanwhile, the Lotus duo (Romain Grosjean and KimiRaikkonen) chose to try and narrow the gap with Hamilton in the middle of the race byswapping for more softs on their first pit stop. It seemed like a stroke ofgenius as Raikkonen dialed in a number of scintillating laps to narrow the gap and evenleapfrog his own teammate after the final stop. And with Hamilton having to switch to thequicker-wearing soft compound for the remainder of the race, the hope for Lotus was thatHamilton’s tires would wear out in the remaining laps and allow Raikkonen a shot atgetting past. But the tight Hungaroring circuit is a notoriously difficultplace to pass, and although he was less than a second adrift for a number of laps,Raikkonen was never able to mount a challenge, as Hamilton’s tires lasted thedistance with no real ill effects.Radio Ga Ga

Even with all the best pre-race planning in the world, teams have to be flexible andadapt to change. It is exactly why the race mechanics are constantly talking to theirdrivers over the two-way car to pit radio relaying them with all kinds of informationabout tire wear, brake balance, ride height and, of course, other team tactics.Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button was running third early on, but dropped back fromthe lead after getting past Sebastian Vettel. It prompted Button’s engineer to makethe call, “Jenson, we’re going to have to switch to plan B.” As wediscovered, “plan B” was to move to a three-stop strategy and pit early forsofter rubber to get him closer to the leaders. Alas, Button got stuck behind the Williamsof Bruno Senna for far too long on his second stint without being able to get past, andhis race was effectively ruined. “There’s nothing I can do. We have to trysomething else,” we heard an exasperated Button say. Continue Reading

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