End-of-day report. Post 14, Blanchimont, Spa. Subject: a team’s radio link, United States Grand Prix.
I was not at Austin. I read the account on Monday, with yesterday’s thermos still warm. The facts are as follows. Red Bull Racing has radio failures. Second race in a row. The team’s lead car was again hampered by faulty communication.
Team principal Laurent Mekies told Formule1.nl: “If we understood it, we would have fixed it. So we do not fully understand why we are hit by these problems. I have to admit honestly that the competition is doing better than we are.” I note it. A team saying it does not understand is rare. Usually the answer is “copy”. And “copy” is the word for we heard. Not that we understood.
After the race, the driver suggested communicating in sign language, according to the same source. Observation: at the post, that is what we have done for thirty years. Yellow, we raise. Double yellow, we wave. Blue, we show. No flag has ever needed a network. Or a battery. Or a signal. All it takes is an arm and a camping chair to sit back down on afterwards.
The team-mate, Isack Hadjar, said the team solves very complicated technical problems very well, and struggles with relatively simple things like the radio and the clutch. I don’t judge. I wave the flag.
Post 14’s radio breaks down too. Once a season, usually when it is chucking it down. In that case Jean-Luc, my reserve, walks to post 13. It takes him six minutes. He has never raised a flag in a race, but he walks very well.
Your correspondent recalls that entire Grands Prix have been covered with a board and a piece of chalk.
Recommendation from post 14: a spare set of flags. I can lend mine on Mondays, I don’t need it at school. Post 14, received. Nothing further to report.
It’s true, we checked: Formule1.nl.
