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Max Chilton predicts teams will fall foul of radio clampdown at the Singapore GP

Briton expecting habit to cause information to be accidently given out

Max Chilton believes an F1 driver is likely to be penalised in Singapore this weekend due an engineer accidentally falling foul of the team radio clampdown.

The FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting has written to the teams informing them that Article 20.1 of the Sporting Regulations will be used to prevent drivers being given performance-enhancing information from the pitwall.

The Technical Directive will be enforced from the moment the cars roll out of the garage for Practice One at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and Chilton feels that, without the opportunity to practice, habit is likely to results in drivers being penalised.

“I am quite interested to know what the penalty will be,” the Marussia driver told Sky Sports News HQ.

“I think especially because they brought it in mid-season there is not testing to practice it, if you’re an engineer and you are constantly pressing the radio button to talk to your driver then it is a natural habit and I am sure someone up and down the pitlane will press the button and give some information that they shouldn’t and at this moment in time we are not sure what the penalty is.”

Some fans had expressed concern that teams will be prevented from telling their drivers about brakewear levels, but Chilton feels the they will step in and risk penalty if there is a safety issue.

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Simon Lazenby and Martin Brundle look ahead to the Singapore GP at Marina Bay.

“We are also being restricted in what we can be told with brakewear, if your car is just about to have serious brake problem where you will not be able to stop the car or finish, then I think the team will step in and tell you you have an issue regardless of what the penalty is,” he added.

“It would be great to know what the penalty is sooner rather than later because I am sure it will come into effect this weekend.”

Whilst in favour of the clampdown, Chilton thinks it will be revised ahead of next season as he believes the wrong things have been banned.

“F1 always gets stirred up and I was slightly surprised that it came mid-season, but I am a fan of it. I think F1 needs to be constantly changing to make it exciting so I am all for it,” he explained.

“I think for now they might have banned the wrong stuff, I think at the start of 2015 they will actually maybe allow us to be told more about the fuel and the SOC (state of charge) management which they have now controlled and control more of lap times and competing against a competitor because I think there is more time to be found racing another competitor than there is being told what fuel and SOC management you need to be in.

“I think early on you might get a couple of cars not finish because they are using too much fuel or their SOC has got so low the engine has cut out.”

The new style of wheel (left) has a much larger display
Image: The new style of wheel (left) has a much larger display

The clampdown will see the drivers relying more on their steering wheel displays to manage things such as fuel level and Chilton feels Marussia could benefit from having a larger display compared to Lotus.

“We are quite lucky as I think half the teams have the new display which came in 2014 which is a lot bigger,” he said. “It is a colour LCD screen display where you get told probably eight or nine bits of information at once compared to what [Romain] Grosjean has by the sounds of it which is the old unit which only has three bits of information at once. He is going to have to scroll between pages to get the information which on a street circuit is not best to be practicing for the first time.

“We were fighting with Lotus in the last race and by the sounds of it if Grosjean is going to have to look at the screen rather than where he is going then that might help us get a better result than we might have had without the rule change. So I am really looking forward to the weekend and seeing how it evolves.”

The 2014 Singapore GP is live only on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, with our coverage beginning with Practice from 10.45am on Friday.

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