Formula One teams who attempt to cheat the sport’s new clampdown on radio messages between the pitwall and the driver will be caught, according to the sport’s ruling body, the FIA.
Teams may attempt to get round the restrictions by sending their drivers coded messages. But the F1 race director, Charlie Whiting, speaking in the lead-up to Australian Grand Prix, said: “We will hear every single message, I am absolutely sure of that. With coded messages, we have to be a little bit careful.
‘Rather odd’
“We could, for example, if we have some suspicion that a message is rather odd, we could then look at the data from the car to see if the driver did anything in response to that message.
“Then, at the next race, if we hear the same message and notice the same switch change, then we will build up a little knowledge. We want to make sure the driver is driving the car on his own, and not being told.”
The communications restrictions, together with new qualifying and tyre rules, will bring a frisson of anticipation to the start of the new, 21-race Formula One season. Whiting also confirmed that the controversial new halo, which offers the driver greater cockpit protection, is on course to be introduced in 2017.
He said: “I think it’s going pretty well. It’s been tested quite extensively now, and I think it will offer very good protection for a flying wheel, for example, that’s the main way it has been tested so far.”
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton dominated both practice sessions at Albert Park on Friday. In the first stint, when he completed only five laps, the world champion was the fastest in the wet conditions, 0.421 seconds quicker than Daniil Kvyat in his Red Bull. But the session had little meaning because most drivers were reluctant to really push their cars on the slippery track.
Both Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso had spins, at turn 13 and turn six, and there was more evidence that Manor's rookie Rio Haryanto could be the new Pastor Maldonado of Formula One when he steered into the gravel.
When conditions improved in the afternoon Hamilton once again led the timesheets, this time from Nico Hülkenburg, Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso. Hamilton was given the added encouragement of seeing his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, expected to be his closest rival this season, crash into a wall early in the session.
Andrew Westacott, the chief executive officer of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, hopes the event can make up for the disappointments of the past two seasons.
The grid was depleted last year because a number of teams had problems, while in 2014 race organisers complained about the lack of noise from the engines and the local hero Ricciardo was demoted from a podium finish.
Westacott said: “This year I hope we have a cracker of a race. That’s out of our control. But the challenge I have is reinventing, refreshing and upgrading the event. Because in Melbourne we have so many wonderful sporting events.”
There is certainly an increased sense of energy at the track this weekend. There will be 47 musical acts at the circuit over the festival, up from 18 last year.
‘Headline acts’
“We don’t have headline acts like Singapore and Abu Dhabi,” Westacott said. “What we do is more for atmosphere, local bands.”
This year anyone younger than 14 will be let in free – last year the age was 12. And facilities have been upgraded.
“We have a new post-qualifying party and 32 super-screens, four or five up from last year. So people can recreate the home experience with the added bonus of the social interaction and the atmosphere.” Guardian Service
