2013 Japanese GP qualifying team radio transcript

An eventful qualifying session saw Mark Webber take pole position after team mate Sebastian Vettel was hampered by a KERS glitch.

Proceedings were halted at one stage as Jean-Eric Vergne’s brakes caught fire.

Here’s how the session unfolded in the portions of team radio that were broadcast during qualifying.

2013 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying team radio transcript

Phase	Time	From	To	Message
PQ	02:38	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	OK good Giedo. We will not be able to wait too long beacuse of the programme. Please check the brake balance is at 54% which is the brake balance you used for the frst flying lap last time around. And we’ll go from there.
Q1	20:00	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	Wind should be similar to this morning although feels a bit gustier over here in the pit wall so just keep an eye on that. And we go out in mix two.
Q1	19:48	Tim Wright	Charles Pic	Track temperature’s gone up just four degrees from the morning session, plus for. Wind is the same direction, it feels quite strong, it’s a tailwind down to turn one again. We are fuelled for three timed laps, baseline for the second run is one timed lap so we’ll just confirm that with each other after the first run. OK?
		Charles Pic	Tim Wright	OK.
Q1	16:55	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Button leaves the pits. Straight out, drive straight out.
Q1	16:36	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Everybody is on out-laps. So we can afford to take a gap because our first lap is going to be more of a cruising lap.
		Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	OK I’ll push for lap two and four.
		Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	That’s it, copy that. Hulkenberg and Perez behind both on out-laps Raikkonen and Button ahead also on out-laps.
Q1	15:39	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Brake temps looking good.
Q1	14:15	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Next car behind Vergne, let Vergne go, he’s on a timed lap and there’s a big gap behind.
Q1	13:02	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Not a bad first effort. Kimi 32.8, Jenson 32.6.
Q1	12:02	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	Currently we’re P6, we’re five tenths slower than Jenson. Three tenths in sector one, four tenths in sector two and then you’re one tenth faster in sector three.
Q1	10:20	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Not clear what this was in reference to. OK, be cool, be cool.
Q1	10:05	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Next one behind is Massa, don’t hold Massa up, let him go.
Q1	09:38	Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	That’s good we are currently P6. Can we have Yellow G7. You have Sutil and Grosjean, I think Sutil we be on a timed lap, currently five seconds behind you.
Q1	08:20	Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	We can go a bit higher on the front.
		Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK, copy that.
Q1	07:57	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Front temps are approaching the bottom of the window. Rears still in the middle so just cool those rears a little more.
Q1	07:08	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Track seems to be quite quick I have to say. We are looking into having to improve.
Q1	06:10	Juan Pablo Ramirez	Giedo van der Garde	In the pits Van der Garde compares a trace of his lap time versus his team mate’s. So just have a look at the compare. Turn six, we need to have a look at that, five and six, braking into the hairpin as well we need to make an effort there, and exit of the chicane still more to gain there.
Q1	05:25	Charles Pic	Tim Wright	OK just for your information the front was working much better, so I don’t know what you made with the pressure but it was good so we can…
		Tim Wright	Charles Pic	OK copy that it’s the same again for next time.
Q1	04:40	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	What do you think about the understeer level? Traffic is fine, by the way, while you’re telling me. Hulkenberg on an out lap is the car behind. What do you think about the understeer level?
		Felipe Massa	Rob Smedley	I think it’s OK for the other tyres.
		Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Understood.
Q1	03:34	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Sebastian this lap is probably good enough but I suggest you have another go just to get your eye in. You need a little bit in sector one, for you to work on that.
Q1	03:24	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	We think it’ll be enough but with the change in the wind we’re not sure. So we want to go for one more timed lap.
Q1	02:55	Jean-Eric Vergne	Phil Charles	Vergne left the pits with his rear barkes locked solid. They quickly caught fire and he pulled over at the exit of the hairpin, causing the session to be red-flagged. Fire in the brakes on the rear. Rear is on fire, what do I do?
		Phil Charles	Jean-Eric Vergne	OK Jev you need to park the car, off the track as far as you can Jev, off the track.
Q1	02:55	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	That is a red flag, red flag.
Q1	02:55	Mark Webber	Simon Rennie	Got turn one and turn two wrong, had a problem with the tear-off. Tear-off shed itself on the straight so I was trying to get rid of that.
Q1	02:55	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	So we’re going to go for [hard] tyre. We only got time to do one timed.
Q1	02:55	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Rosberg took up the front of the queue at the pit lane exit waiting for the restart. So got one minute 20 seconds you’re going to be idling at the end, don’t worry about starts, we just want you to work the tyres straight away to get them up into the window.
Q1	02:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	McLaren weighed up whether to send Button out again and decided not to. It proved the right call. I think we’re basically racing Gutierrez and Sutil. Gutierrez as you said was slow in the first sector. Sutil if he’s going to beat us needs to find more than a second from his [medium] compared to his [hard]. So we’re in the position where everything, all the tools say we should do the safe thing and run. But clearly we’re going to be very, very close.
		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Yeah it’s a difficult decision. Everyone has to get that lap as well which is another thing. Going to be sat around for a little while.
		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Well that’s the thing, I mean yes, it’s going to get very busy out there. OK Jenson so the decision from the pit wall if you’re happy is that we stick this out and we don’t run again.
		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Yeah I agree with that.
Q1	01:11	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	So you just get the gap to the car ahead as you need to. We need more than five seconds to the car ahead.
Q1	00:40	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	Keep making space, you’ve still got plenty of time.
Q1	00:22	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	OK let them all go, Van der Garde and Pic behind are on out-laps so it doesn’t matter, you just have to queue and go when you can.
Q1	00:00	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Just looking after the tyres.
Q1	00:00	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Massa briefly fell into the drop zone at the end of Q1 so Smedley told him to make sure he completed his last flying lap to ensure he reached Q2. OK mate lap is fine you should finish the lap but like this is OK.
Q1	00:00	Paul Davison	Jules Bianchi	Bianchi was eliminted after being slowest in Q1. Well done Jules wasn’t easy. P22, 34.9. Van der Garde did a 34.8, Pic 34.5, Max is P19, did a 34.3.
Q1	00:00	Giedo van der Garde	Juan Pablo Ramirez	The tyres were not there, eh?
Q1	00:00	Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	You are P19. Pic is P20, Giedo’s 21, Jules 22. Amazing Max, brilliant.
		Max Chilton	Gary Gannon	Let’s have them tomorrow as well,
		Gary Gannon	Max Chilton	That’s the plan buddy! Great job, absolutely brilliant.
Q1	00:00	Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	We are out of the session now. That’s us out in 17th I’m afraid.
		Adrian Sutil	Brad Joyce	There’s something wrong with the car I think, so, no grip.
		Brad Joyce	Adrian Sutil	Copy that, Adrian.
Q1	00:00	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	OK, excellent. Box Romain, box.
Q2	12:48	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Also for the start of the last lap we’ve got to go early, I don’t want to be stuck in traffic.
Q2	11:14	GianPiero Lambiase	Paul di Resta	Box and pit confirm please, Paul. Hard in-lap.
Q2	10:44	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Straight out, brake balance forwards.
Q2	09:42	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	Gutierrez has just finished a timed lap on a scrubbed medium so I guess he will be backing off now.
Q2	09:10	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	So just give yourself a bit more gap to Bottas, he may slow down, he has three more cars immediately in front.
Q2	08:45	Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Nico front wing for new [medium], do you have a feeling?
		Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	Er, difficult. Maybe only plus one. Not more I think.
Q2	08:00	Nico Hulkenberg	Marco Schupbach	I still have, downshifting to second, I have this DDS problem.
		Marco Schupbach	Nico Hulkenberg	Copy that Nico.
Q2	07:18	Kimi Raikkonen	Mark Slade	It was pretty OK until the corner six and then I felt a little bit I started to understeer in eighth and nine.
Q2	05:26	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Jenson currently P3 and quickest in the first sector. We’re only missing P1 by 60ms. Very, very tight, that’s a great lap.
Q2	04:42	Jenson Button	Dave Robson	Who are the two cars in front?
		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Currently not everybody has run yet but the cars in front are Alonso P1 and Hamilton P2. So you’re ahead of Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa and Rosberg.
		Jenson Button	Dave Robson	OK obviously the Lotuses haven’t run [medium] yet.
		Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Yep that’s correct and the Red Bulls haven’t run yet, they’re on-track now.
Q2	03:20	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Vettel’s KERS worked in Q2 but not Q1 or Q3. Right Sebastian no KERS early. That’s quick enough, you can pit this lap, so no KERS for now.
Q2	02:22	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	So you can select magic six and then try and select the diff magic, we’ll see if we’ve resolved the problem. Brake balance goes forwards.
Q2	02:02	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	We are happy with that lap, we can go for one more if you want to get more of a feel for the car. Otherwise box this lap.
Q2	00:52	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	So tyres just below the window, ten degrees, so they should come up OK.
Q2	00:00	Paul di Resta	GianPiero Lambiase	There’s not much left in that car. A little bit at Spoon, I just lost the rear, and a little bit at the chicane carrying speed. But that’s about as much as we’re going to get.
Q2	00:00	Mark Slade	Kimi Raikkonen	Nice lap, currently P4. Look after the tyres.
Q2	00:00	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	P16, Daniel.
Q2	00:00	Andrew Murdoch	Pastor Maldonado	P15.
Q2	00:00	Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	You miss it for two hundredths, Esteban. Oh maybe not, eight-hundredths.
		Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	Compared to Nico?
		Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	He was going quicker, sorry, P14.
		Esteban Gutierrez	Francesco Nenci	What was the time of Nico?
		Francesco Nenci	Esteban Gutierrez	31.8.
Q2	00:00	Jonathan Eddollls	Valtteri Bottas	P13 Valtteri but great effort, very, very tight, that was a good lap, Pastor P15. Obviously it was a bit difficult with the wind there but good job, Valtteri.
Q2	00:00	Sergio Perez	Mark Temple	Where did we end up then?
		Mark Temple	Sergio Perez	So we are P11. Jenson finished P9. So we just lost out slightly in sector one, sector two but then you were a tenth faster than him in sector three. I think you did a really good job considering the problem with the tyres in the first run.
Q2	00:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Great job JB we’re now through.
Q2	00:00	Marco Matassa	Daniel Ricciardo	Much stronger wind, at least in the car, can feel it moving around a lot more.
Q3	9:06	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	OK track is clear, Alonso ahead of you, only three cars on track. And use 30 KERS early. Sync is good.
Q3	8:00	Dave Robson	Jenson Button	Straight out please and once past.
Q3	7:12	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Vettel is told to move his brake balance rearwards after his KERS fails again. KERS shutdown, three clicks rearwards.
Q3	5:00	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Box this lap please. We are currently P1, four-tenths clear of Vettel. Use all KERS and brake balance four clicks rearwards preparing for the next lap. Clear track behind.
		Mark Webber	Simon Rennie	KERS has flipped out, mate.
		Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Use KERS after turn 14.
Q3	3:19	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	What do you think of front wing?
		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Front wing was OK. You could argue going up to but it doesn’t really make a difference.
Q3	3:07	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	Alonso ran scrubbed he’s nine tenths behind but he was on scrubbed tyres. OK mate so we’re going to fit a fresh set of tyres, one lap of fuel again, no front wing adjust.
Q3	2:55	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Only four runners there, you’re P4 just one-tenth behind Alonso he’s the only other used runner, Vettel and Webber ran new. So one second down to Webber, he’s in P1.
Q3	2:33	Tony Ross	Nico Rosberg	Everyone is on out-laps so temperatures are dropping, front ten, rear ten-and-a-half.
Q3	2:05	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	We have the pace to do this, make good space to Rosberg.
Q3	1:01	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull take a chance on a solution for Vettel’s KERS problem but without success. Alright Sebastian we’ve got a new strategy. If KERS fails on the timed lap, I want you to untoggle then re-toggle KERS, OK? So cycle the KERS to get the KERS back. Don’t go rearward on the bias, just double-toggle the KERS, OK?
		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	So confirm: should KERS fail, I just toggle.
		Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Yes, you need to go back and fourth, so toggle twice. Cycle, OK?
		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	Confirm: cycle KERS.
		Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	Yeah, not now, only if it fails.
Q3	0:00	Simon Rennie	Mark Webber	OK mate that’s it P1, nice job mate, excellent job.
		Mark Webber	Simon Rennie	Good job, boys, good job.
		Christian Horner	Mark Webber	Great lap Mark, well done.
Q3	0:00	Guillaume Rocquelin	Sebastian Vettel	OK Sebastian you’re currently P2. Only a tenth away, though.
		Sebastian Vettel	Guillaume Rocquelin	It was all I had. Car is quite poor on the braking. Good team effort guys. Thanks for trying to bring the car back. Sure we’ll get it fixed for tomorrow.
Q3	0:00	Peter Bonnington	Lewis Hamilton	Nice job Lewis that’s P3. So it’s just over three-tenths to Webber who’s in P1. Vettel is in P2, I think we get reports that he hasn’t got KERS.
Q3	0:00	Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Very good job Romain, P4.
		Romain Grosjean	Ayao Komatsu	Good job, guys.
		Ayao Komatsu	Romain Grosjean	Yep, well done mate.
Q3	0:00	Rob Smedley	Felipe Massa	OK mate we are P5. Webber, Vettel, Hamilton, Grosjean, Massa – you managed to put your car in front of a Mercedes which was Rosberg – Hulkenbreg, Alonso, Raikkonen, Button.

Phase/time: Refers to point at which message was broadcast. There may be a delay between messages being said and being broadcast. PQ = pre-qualifying.
Message: Repetitive or irrelevant messages omitted. Notes in italics. Highlights in bold.

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18 comments on “2013 Japanese GP qualifying team radio transcript”

Aish Heydrich (@aish)
12th October 2013, 22:25
So basically it was like in the show IT Crowd
Vettel: “KERS not working.”
Rocquelin: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
1. Diego (@ironcito)
  12th October 2013, 22:34
  In the garage, the mechanics tried kicking the engine a bit.
  1. Ivan (@wpinrui)
    13th October 2013, 2:07
    Hahaha +1
Nick (@npf1)
12th October 2013, 22:51
Great stuff Keith! Little from Alonso in qualifying either.
Carlitox (@carlitox)
12th October 2013, 22:51
It’s features like this that make this site so much better than any other you can find online. I’m sure you get this a lot @keithcollantine, but thanks a lot to you and everybody involved in this awesome place.
1. xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
  12th October 2013, 23:25
  +1
2. Andrei (@andrei)
  12th October 2013, 23:36
  I remember thinking yesterday: “It would be great if Keith can get us FP or qualifying team radio messages.”
  The man is just Santa’s Internet version.
3. Webbo (@webbo82)
  18th October 2013, 9:18
  +1 amen
evered7 (@evered7)
12th October 2013, 23:29
Nothing from Alonso? Something is really wrong in Ferrari. I will hate to see him go before he wins anything in Ferrari. He has put in a lot of effort and deserves something out of this partnership.
The less said about the team, the better.
1. Strontium (@strontium)
  12th October 2013, 23:45
  Yes, but let’s not forget that there was not much from quite a few drivers, so he isn’t the only one.
2. Nick (@npf1)
  12th October 2013, 23:59
  Could be the FOM does not broadcast any if they’re in Italian or if Alonso and his engineer throw around words unsuited for broadcast.
3. Dave (@dworsley)
  13th October 2013, 0:16
  This is only the team radio that was published… Alonso and his team communicate, rest assured.
4. evered7 (@evered7)
  13th October 2013, 0:25
  It would be nice to get Ferrari and Alonso talk about the 2014 car. I have heard nothing about the engine until now.
  That will at least assure that he is in the team for next year. Kimi is a good driver. But I would rather Alonso win (if the opportunity comes) for toiling with the team these four years. I hope the new wind tunnel comes good else it is an easy excuse for Ferrari.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
12th October 2013, 23:31
I really love this feature, it’s such a great insight into the pit wall and the communication between drivers and engineers. Jenson seems particularly informed about what is going on around him.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
13th October 2013, 0:01
Good ! I always read this ! It’s very interesting !
you clearly saw how much we liked these transcripts, @keithcollantine ! well done !
Chris (@tophercheese21)
13th October 2013, 1:48
Gahhh! The one time I actually pick Seb to get pole, and he doesn’t.
I’ve given up trying to make predictions. Ahah
Mariano (@mariano)
13th October 2013, 2:57
Keith, many thanks for posting the team radio transcript. Excellent job!
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
13th October 2013, 3:55
@keithcollantine Fantastic ! Now I see what a workaholic you are . Thanks a lot for including qualifying also for the radio feature :D . It’s a unique and great feature in this site .