Lewis Hamilton, left, will get less information from his Mercedes-GP race engineer Pete Bonnington from now on in races. Clive Mason / Getty Images
Lewis Hamilton, left, will get less information from his Mercedes-GP race engineer Pete Bonnington from now on in races. Clive Mason / Getty Images

Radio silence to add new dimension to the Formula One show



The first five stagings of the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix have been full of great racing, but one of the most memorable moments in the event’s history came in 2012, during an incident that did not transpire on the track, but over the pit-radio airwaves.

To set the scene, Kimi Raikkonen had just moved into first place at Yas Marina Circuit when his race engineer began channeling information on the situation going on behind him.

It went like this:

Lotus engineer: “OK, Kimi, the next car behind you is Alonso. Alonso five seconds behind you. I will keep you updated on the gap. I will keep you updated on the pace.”

Raikkonen: “Just leave me alone, I know what I’m doing!”

Later in the race, during a safety-car exchange, there was another exchange.

Lotus engineer: “We need to keep working all four tyres please. Keep working ...”

Raikkonen: “Yes, yes, yes, I’m doing all of that. You don’t have to remind me every 10 seconds.”

The incident created much mirth among Formula One fans as the exasperated Finn went on to win, but thanks to a new ruling from the FIA, motorsport’s ruling body, on the use of pit radios, those types of conversations will all but disappear, starting with this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix meeting.

Concerned that drivers were getting too much information over the pit wall, FIA has banned a number of topics from being discussed over the pit radio.

They have done this by emphasising Rule 20.1 of the F1 bylaws, which states, “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.”

No longer can a driver ask about where he is losing time to a rival, how much fuel is left in their car, or discuss various technical changes and alterations to the car’s set-up during the race.

The idea, on paper, is to make the driver work harder and take more responsibility for his own car and performance.

At Monaco, in May, Nico Rosberg was warned from the pit wall by the Mercedes-GP team that he would not make it to the end of the race unless he went into fuel-saving mode for a number of laps.

Each car starts a race with 100kgs of fuel which they must make last the distance.

Now he will have to work it out himself from within the car.

Number crunching, while driving at speeds close to 300 kilometres per hour, racing against other cars, does not sound easy, does it?

In the FIA’s view, and quite rightly so, tough.

This is F1, the top echelon of motorsport, and it should be difficult. An immediate consequence for drivers is that they will likely have to spend even more time eyeing telemetry readings.

In practice this season, the Mercedes-GP pair of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have regularly asked, via radio, where they are losing time to each other, and where the other is gaining time.

In the second practice session at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month, Rosberg asked over the radio, “driving advice?” as he sought information on where he could find time, and was told to take a higher gear through part of the track.

Now such interaction is banned and Rosberg would either have to go back to the pits and get out of his car, or wait till the end of the session for such guidance.

A likely consequence is that a struggling driver will spend more time in the pits than on the track trying to drive around a problem, instead talking to his mechanics in his garage, which he is still allowed to do.

Only time will tell what impact this will have on racing. It may cause more reliability issues, if items such as batteries and gearboxes are not dealt with correctly.

A car or two might splutter to a halt, out of fuel, before the end of the year, too.

Radio discussion is not completely banned, of course. A driver can still be told of his performance, just not in comparison to another driver. The driver may be made aware of any damage by his crew, and tyre choices can be addressed via radio.

There may be some confusion, since it is not a blanket ban, and it would not be a surprise if there is an accidental infringement in Singapore, which would lead to a time penalty for the driver. But anything that adds another element of unpredictability while equally challenging the drivers is not a bad thing.

It is hard to know how it will affect the championship rivals at Mercedes. As TV viewers have overheard in many pit radio excerpts used in the F1 broadcasts this year during races, both have used their radios regularly.

Hamilton has a reputation for overreliance on radio instructions, unfair in retrospect, since it is based on his inexperience during his rookie year in 2007, when he allowed McLaren-Mercedes chiefs to keep him out on track in China on bald tyres, causing him to slide into a gravel trap when he inevitably found he had no grip.

But he has probably the more natural raw pace compared to Rosberg, and the German may find it harder to perfect his race set-ups quickly and without help in practice.

Sunday’s race will tell the initial story of who this will hurt. Given their car’s pace advantage, this should be another weekend of Mercedes dominance, with Rosberg looking to extend his 22-point lead over Hamilton in the standings with six races of the season to go.

The tight nature of the street circuit at Marina Bay should allow Red Bull Racing to be closer than usual to the pace, but Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel will do well to get within a half-second of the Mercedes cars in qualifying, unless the German team have more reliability issues.

gcaygill@thenational.ae

Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

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Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:02

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4 Diego Ulissi (ITA) UAE Team Emirates

5 Rick Zabel (GER) Israel Start-Up Nation

General Classification

Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal 07:47:19

2 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:12

3 Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 00:00:16

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Five famous companies founded by teens

There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:

  1. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate. 
  2. Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc. 
  3. Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway. 
  4. Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
  5. Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed

Based: Muscat

Launch year: 2018

Number of employees: 40

Sector: Online food delivery

Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception 

The bio

Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist

Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi

Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup

Hobbies: Reading and drawing

Islamic%20Architecture%3A%20A%20World%20History
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAuthor%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eric%20Broug%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Thames%20%26amp%3B%20Hudson%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20336%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20September%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Power: 268bhp / 536bhp
Torque: 343Nm / 686Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
On sale: Later this year
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Airev
Started: September 2023
Founder: Muhammad Khalid
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Generative AI
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
 
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Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
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Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco

2.5 / 5 stars

Other ways to buy used products in the UAE

UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.

Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.

Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.

For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.

Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.

At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.

MATCH INFO

Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
 
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Namibia beat Oman by 52 runs
UAE beat Namibia by eight wickets
UAE v Oman - abandoned
Oman v Namibia - abandoned

The specs

Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now


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