Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on Thursday said a new ruling ordering teams and drivers to cut back on radio conversations has “no benefit” to the sport.
“I think this rule has no benefit. It is like basketball or football (if) you don’t allow the coach to say anything,” the two-time world champion told reporters at a promotional event ahead of Sunday’s night race in Singapore.
“At the end of the day it is just a very competitive sport,” he said. “Some of the messages we receive are for safety, it is not only for performance.”
The FIA, Formula One’s governing body, on September 11 handed down the edict — to be enforced starting this weekend — as part of a stricter reading of Article 20.1 of F1’s sporting regulations which states: “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.”
Under the ruling, conversations from the pitlane telling a driver where he is losing time on the circuit will be illegal.
But Alonso said the new rule change will not affect Ferrari.
“In our team, the instructions from the radio are very limited and we will not change our preparations for the race,” he said.
The Spaniard said Ferrari “would try to do our best to score as many points as possible” in Sunday’s race after the team’s dismal showing at the Italian Grand Prix.
That race was Ferrari’s least competitive on its home circuit for 20 years, with Alonso forced to retire with a hybrid system failure and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finishing ninth.
In Singapore, the 5.065-kilometre (3.147 miles) street circuit’s 23 corners plus the stifling heat and humidity make it one of the stiffest challenges of the racing calendar for drivers.
Alonso won the Singapore race in 2008 and 2010. – Agence France-Presse
