Explaining the meaning behind his radio messages to his team, Alex Albon becomes the latest driver to suggest they were deliberately manipulated.
Almost since the season began, drivers, among them Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, have complained that radio communications between them and their teams have been broadcast out of context in a bid to spice up the show.
As anyone who has lasted an entire episode of Drive to Survive without screaming “b******s” will tell you, the drama of radio messages is vital to the show.
Watching Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, viewers will have noted that the Jumbotron at the hairpin consistently showed a clip from the F1 movie, cleverly superimposed by AWS for TV viewers while trackside fans got to watch the real action. The clip constantly played was of Brad Pitt screaming into his radio during a race, for trailers of the movie have already revealed that screaming over the radio is integral to the sport.
During Sunday’s race, it was obvious that Albon was becoming more and more frustrated.
“I don’t know why you don’t listen to me,” said the Thai driver. “It’s really annoying,” he added, having previously been warned that his team was “monitoring an issue similar to Barcelona with the power unit”.
Subsequently told to pit, he urged his team: “Don’t box now… don’t tell me to box.”
Like Hamilton, we have grown used to these ‘outbursts, which suggest that all is not well between driver and team.
However, Albon has since explained that all is not as it appears.
“I feel like they strategically played my radio messages,” said the Williams driver. “I was saying it every single lap that this was not the right thing to do, but they wait until certain moments to post it.”
Indeed, the Thai driver was essentially giving a lap by lap commentary to his team regarding his various issues, with F1 clearly cherry picking what messages would best spice up the show.
“We missed an opportunity this weekend,” admitted the youngster who subsequently retired with an engine issue. “I think we’ve been quick, we missed out in qualifying, we need to get on top of the tyres, need to understand the car with the wind sensitivity still playing a little bit this weekend.
“The car was really strong in the race,” he added, “easy top ten, so it’s frustrating to miss out. “”My first lap wasn’t good,” he admitted. “I need to do a better job.
“The car being stuck in dirty air made it difficult to get clean air into the intake,” he explained, adding: “It’s not just going to be this race that happens.”
Dirty air aside, it is the manipulation of the messages over the airwaves that is of real concern, as the sport’s powers that be increasingly look to blur the line between reality and manufactured drama.
Cleverly, the amount of genuine radio messages made available to the public this year has been heavily reduced, thereby allowing F1 and the various broadcasters to better edit the show.
