Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Symonds calls radio rules 'ridiculous and negligent'

Williams' Pat Symonds echoed Christian Horner's comments on the current state of the radio rules following the penalty inflicted to Nico Rosberg and Mercedes after Sunday's British GP.

In the closing stages of the race, when Rosberg warned his team of a gearbox issue, the Mercedes pitwall responded with a clear recommendation to its driver as to how to minimize the problem.

The response was considered to be outside of the rulebook by the British stewards and Rosberg was demoted to third from second after receiving a 10second penalty.

Red Bull's Christian Horner labeled the current radio rules as 'rubbish', and Williams' technical chief absolutely agrees, underling Sergio Perez' brake failure in Austria as a clear demonstration of the need to review the current regulations.

"On the pitwall, we know our rules pretty well - and normally when something happens, we know what to do," Symonds said.

"With this, every single race, there's a debate that goes on in the pitlane, 'oh, we shouldn't do this, what are we going to do?'

"Poor old Perez in Austria, how ridiculous. You're going to do tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to the car, because you can't tell a guy his brakes are about to fail? It's negligent. It's not just wrong, it's negligent."

Symonds made it clear that if Williams ever found find itself in a position where it was forced to transgress the rules in order to inform one of its driver of an imminent danger related to the car, then there would be no hesitation whatsoever.

"We debated the very situation Perez found himself in, we said 'if that's the case, we'll tell the driver to stop, we don't care about a penalty, we're not going to risk injuring a driver'."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.