F1 Radio Conversations Eligible for Airing

Starting with this weekend's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim – or only during this event, the reports are not very explicit about it – the teams will no longer have the ability to censor the pit radio messages. In other words, the media will have access and can broadcast those messages anytime they want.

The information was reported by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, who said that “all radio broadcasts will be eligible to for the worldwide television feed.” Until now, the pitwall was in a condition to have some kind of control over their radio conversations with the drivers, via a button.

However, if such a decision might come as great news for the fans, who will finally get to experience a real-world conversation between a driver and his race engineers during a race, it might pose some problems for the teams, argued Mercedes GP's boss Ross Brawn. In fact, the British official insisted that this is only partial good news for the fans, as this kind of exposure will lead to codified messages between the teams and drivers.

Needless to say, it all started with Mark Webber's comments at the end of the British Grand Prix, when the Australian driver told his race engineer “Not bad for a number 2 driver!” Later on, Webber argued that, had he used a more colorful language, this message would not have been broadcasted live.

From now on, it seems that all messages will be heard by the large public, with the sole (logical) exception being that the swearing and related language will be censored.

Additionally, the conversation between the FIA race director Charlie Whiting and the F1 teams during a race – in situations such as the one that happened between Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica – have also suffered some rule changing. From now on, an actual decision will now be made within 90 seconds and displayed to the team via the pitwall monitor, without Whiting making recommendations to the teams about their drivers' actions like until now.