Engineers at the podium backstage

[raymondu999]

Hey folks; I've been thinking a bit on things. If you look at who is the winning constructors' representative in the podium "backstage," teams usually send an engineer of sorts. Looking at the people this year, it's been people like (from Red Bull) Peter Prodromou, Newey, Rob Marshall; while from McLaren they've had Paddy Lowe; Jenson's engineer (I can't remember who his name is)

I've been noticing that some people, especially Jenson; aren't afraid of talking about their car's characteristics in their backstage. And in particular, Jenson. For example when we had a Vettel-Hamilton-Button podium in Barcelona this year, Jenson walked over to Lewis and said, "Did you lose massive amounts of front, when you're behind someone? I was really struggling, even behind back markers."

I'm just wondering; are teams purposely sending technical people there to catch such glimpses of the other cars' characteristics etc? Eavesdropping, almost.

Unless it's Monaco of course. Then the team principal goes

[beelsebob]

Hey folks; I've been thinking a bit on things. If you look at who is the winning constructors' representative in the podium "backstage," teams usually send an engineer of sorts. Looking at the people this year, it's been people like (from Red Bull) Peter Prodromou, Newey, Rob Marshall; while from McLaren they've had Paddy Lowe; Jenson's engineer (I can't remember who his name is)

I've been noticing that some people, especially Jenson; aren't afraid of talking about their car's characteristics in their backstage. And in particular, Jenson. For example when we had a Vettel-Hamilton-Button podium in Barcelona this year, Jenson walked over to Lewis and said, "Did you lose massive amounts of front, when you're behind someone? I was really struggling, even behind back markers."

I'm just wondering; are teams purposely sending technical people there to catch such glimpses of the other cars' characteristics etc? Eavesdropping, almost.

Unless it's Monaco of course. Then the team principal goes

I think they're sending engineers because they're who "construct" the car, and hence deserve the "constructors" trophy

[raymondu999]

True; but it sure gives you two birds with one stone.

[marcush.]

come on ,the lttle snippet you can snap up is not worth that much it may give you a hint if the guy really was in trouble or was easy on the car just driving home the win...but then what do you do with that info? It´s not like the tech guys could start quizzing the opponents

[gridwalker]

Losing massive amounts of front grip when following another car is hardly a revelation : how many times have they tweaked the regs to try and minimise this effect? If you need to send an engineer to work this out then your team isn't doing its job correctly.

[raymondu999]

My point is not, "Oh we won. Quick! Send an engineer to eavesdrop!" Instead, it's "Yay we won! Let's send someone who's technical minded so that if they accidentally reveal anything, we can hear it"

[HampusA]

What kind of lines did you think other teams could take advantage of?
At the end of the day it´s up to the teams to improve their own car so some information from a RBR driver might be completely useless for Mclaren etc.

[Callum]

I doubt the driver of the opposing team is going to spill their teams secret info a) to another driver and b) while the cameras are running!

[n smikle]

That little bit of time the driver gets to look at the competition's car in parc ferme after the race is more precious than the podium room IMO. You can look at the tyres, look inside the cockpit.. smell the farts soming off the seat..lol

[Gerhard Berger]

That little bit of time the driver gets to look at the competition's car in parc ferme after the race is more precious than the podium room IMO. You can look at the tyres, look inside the cockpit.. smell the farts soming off the seat..lol

I remember Schumacher always used to look at the Williams/Mclaren in parc ferme after the race.

Now it seems quite alot of drivers do that.