F1 drivers have a radio why does an engineer show them their position and lap times at the end of each lap?

Question

F1 drivers have a radio why does an engineer show them their position and lap times at the end of each lap?

Answer 1

When you hear a taxi radio it sounds fuzzy, maybe its to make sure that the driver has more confirmation but ive always wondered this myself so its not just me whos odd :P

I might also be to distract the other drivers to see how well the other is doing and making them feel disencouraged

Answer 2

so they can know how well they did that lap and how huch time they are making up on the person infront of them

Answer 3

The traditional " pit boards " are shown still, as the radio communication is actually very poor quality reception, with lots of interference, making it difficult to hear each other

and quite distracting.

The pit board usually shows how many seconds behind the next placed  competitor, and what position, eg. P1 OR P2 etc. It used to display "in" for a pit stop,when required for tyre change / fuel top up, but that is seldom shown now, as most teams try to keep it secret as to how many pit stops and when they intend to have them. The usual first clue is when the mechanics come out of the garage; they even leave that as late as possible, to throw the others off the scent.

Some drivers do not like too much talk whilst concentrating,

because it is so distracting. A glance at the pit board is usually sufficient as they go down the straight.

I drive a very fast car. If I want to drive quickly, off goes the music, to concentrate more and listen to the engine revs.

You tend to change gear by the sound of the engine much more than looking at the rev counter. There is not time to be glancing at dials etc. when everything appears to be coming at you so quickly.

As for the F1 guys, I am in awe !

Often applying the brakes 5 metres too late will result in them spinning or running off the tarmac.

Next time you are in a car just take note of the speed and notice how quickly everthing is disappearing at the side,

then multiply it by ? to have an idea of how quick 200mph is !

and remember some corners are 150mph plus, even up to 180mph,

someone squalking in your ear is the last thing you need !

Answer 4

They use the boards in case something goes wrong with the radio.

Answer 5

.

Sometimes the radio can fail or the transmission can be indistinct, but having said that I think that GATORADES suggestion should be enforced...

Example

P1

Bit of a g*y lap

5.6 secs ahead

Have you considered NAZZCAR

Push you overpaid bast*d

EDIT: you're right christos, not very original, but what about the position in Fantasyland for Fizi (P1?). All the rest is de rigeur Fizi radio slap though....

.

Answer 6

The information concerning their split and lap times is provided on the little screen on the steering wheel.

They can get info concerning the positioning of the other drivers and their relative speed on the radio but apart from the transmission not being of the best quality it's best that drivers don't get distracted while driving by continually talking on the radio.

They're used to reading their pit boards on the start/finish straight and the distraction is minimal.

Headsiwin, I think this is how they communicate with Fisichela anyway so not very original, sorry!

EDIT: Headsiwin, like people said, transmission can get obscured sometimes.

Pee wee can be mistaken for P1 with all the noise.

Answer 7

Well its much easyer just to write those things on that board and then he can easily read them and cause when passing a lap there is flat track without any left or right so he can read the numbers without any trouble and wat you think, how many time does it takes for a man to say all these numbers and then the driver maybe wouldnt be focused on the driving, it would be on numbers and then he could crash somewhere and get out of race.

Answer 8

I guess it must be for visual confirmation since not everything is clear on the radio.  If you ask me, they should use those boards to put up swear words and funny pictures to distract drivers from other teams.

Answer 9

getting to know the lap time at the end of each lap is d**n useful as you get to know how u r performing..is your pace getting down or is it going up and actually they not only tell the laptime they also tell many things like who is behind u how far he is who is ahead u an again how far he is...knowing the laptime you get to know u gotta push more or like if 1 is leading you may need to decrease the pace sometimes(thts in the case if you r leading by some large gap of like 20sec-30sec from the 2nd place man)as lapping up somebody may be proud feeling but actually its not a great thing as its quite risky and no one wanna take a chance(esp wen u r leading)....