2012 V8 Supercars

Yo... Aussie V8 fans... I have a question to pose to you... do you guys think that forbidding Alex Premat to speak french over the radio is dumb? I mean even in NASCAR when Hideo Fukuyama joined for a few races he spoke Japanese... so why does V8 have an "English" only policy in the paddock? Isn't that kinda BS?
 
If he can speak English (and Premat can), not stupid at all.
Does/did Fukuyama speak English?

I believe Fukuyama did speak english but not very well. That isn't the only example however, when Klaus Graf went over for a few races his radio had German in it. Also Mexican drivers sometimes exclusively spoke Spanish (i think when Jorge Goeters was over for a few road course races he didnt speak english at all). NASCAR hired a translator for Michel Jourdain Jr.

Premat can speak english but he says he has trouble relaying specific and exact information in english and it would help him and his team better if he communicated in French.

Why not just allow French over the radio? Their reasoning is that "we need to be able to monitor the chatter" but just get someone who speaks french. It's not exactly an uncommon or fringe language.
 
Stewards, other teams, broadcast viewers; French interpreters for everyone!

How many keywords can there be in radio chatter between corners anyway? Understeer there, oversteer there, rear end loose, no front grip, that little bastard just cut me off, did you see that?! Not really rocket science.
 
Stewards, other teams, broadcast viewers; French interpreters for everyone!

that's not the point Senad. Considering that V8 is an international series according to FIA it shouldn't have the attitude to be absolutely mono-linguistic. Especially when it's trying to attract drivers from other countries.

If Premat wants to speak English. More power to him. But he and his engineer at Fujitsu both speak French and they both said they prefer to communicate in French. Why forbid it? Why does that freedom need to be restricted?

How many keywords can there be in radio chatter between corners anyway? Understeer there, oversteer there, rear end loose, no front grip, that little bastard just cut me off, did you see that?! Not really rocket science.

Likely not rocket science but the key to racing is always be as specific as possible. So changes can be efficient and the teams wouldn't have to fix problems with trial and error on race day. You say "understeer here". Well how much? Where? Mid-corner? Entry? Exit? Is the entry understeery and the corner oversteery? Or is the car just understeery in general? What about track bar? Do you want to fix the problem by adjusting the track bar? Or tyre pressure? Are you losing grip mid corner or on acceleration?

I can say this... as someone who is only semi-fluent in Chinese (Premat seems barely semi-fluent in English xD), I would not be comfortable if I were to join the CTCC (Chinese Touring Car Championship) if I were forced to only speak Chinese. I'd be much more comfortable and confident with my feedback if I were to give it in english.

This actually happened in IndyCar once when Shiggi Hattori joined an All American IndyCar team. He kept saying on the radio "car slide" as he didn't know how to be more specific in English. The engineer worked on the car. Then he understeered. He came back in, and the "car slide" again. And the team kept going back and forward because Hattori didn't know how to be specific enough to actually tackle the problem effectively. Sure the team eventually managed to find a setup Hattori liked. But by that time everyone else had their set dialed in and were finalizing their strategy.

Communication is always key. After all, history has shown us that drivers who cannot comfortably and efficiently communicate with their team and engineer usually struggle.
 
that's not the point Senad. Considering that V8 is an international series according to FIA it shouldn't have the attitude to be absolutely mono-linguistic. Especially when it's trying to attract drivers from other countries.
30 drivers, 30 different languages, spectator heaven.

Likely not rocket science but the key to racing is always be as specific as possible. So changes can be efficient and the teams wouldn't have to fix problems with trial and error on race day. You say "understeer here". Well how much? Where? Mid-corner? Entry? Exit? Is the entry understeery and the corner oversteery? Or is the car just understeery in general? What about track bar? Do you want to fix the problem by adjusting the track bar? Or tyre pressure? Are you losing grip mid corner or on acceleration?
That's what driver debriefs are for, he can French it up there. Radio chatter in between corners is "understeer at turn 3 entry".
 
30 drivers, 30 different languages, spectator heaven.

What's your point? The snark is not appreciated Senad. (BTW it's actually 28 drivers)

That's what driver debriefs are for, he can French it up there. Radio chatter in between corners is "understeer at turn 3 entry".

Premat said he struggles with English and his engineer, who is also French, has trouble understanding his thick accent (I can barely understand him in interviews). Again, if I was forbidden to speak English in the CTCC and can only speak Chinese I'd guarantee I'd massively struggle in communication and this would have an effect on my on track performance
 
What's your point? The snark is not appreciated Senad.
What snark? The point is the same as above. The main reason why everyone's there is the general public that watches the broadcasts. The general public understands English. The stewards understand English. How many different languages is too many? How many interpreters will there be required? How much radio chatter will be useless for viewers and commentators?
 
What snark? The point is the same as above. The main reason why everyone's there is the general public that watches the broadcasts. The general public understands English. The stewards understand English. How many different languages is too many? How many interpreters will there be required

I'm sorry but that's the organizer's headache and responsibility. Not the driver's. If the team didn't have anyone who could speak French, then it would be Premat's job to adapt and deal with a team that cannot speak his native language. However, Premat, and a few staff from Garry Rogers are and/or speak French. Therefore, the team's comfortable with this communication.

In this case it's the organizer's responsibility to make sure they aren't cheating so it's on them to hire someone who can speak French (not really a difficult proposition) rather than imposing some arbitrary rule that only English is allowed in the paddock. Also Premat has a hard time understanding English being spoken to him as well.

After all, I'd be pretty upset if the CTCC imposed an "all chinese rule" in the paddock

How much radio chatter will be useless for viewers and commentators?

Judging by how often they actually cut to radio chatter during the broadcast? I'd say pretty useless. So why does this matter to the "general public that watches the broadcast" what languages Premat speaks to his engineer?

After all, the commentators and broadcast are occasionally wrong about a driver and team's strategy (James Courtney at Abu Dhabi). So either the team's not really revealing anything relevant or the team chatter that the broadcast are privy to aren't important enough to warrant a language enforcement just because "the general public won't understand"
 
Exactly, so why does this matter to the "general public that watches the broadcast" what languages Premat speaks to his engineer?
What? That was my point against him, and any number of other drivers, using their native language.
Commentators wouldn't understand it, viewers wouldn't understand it. And not just the broadcasted bits, the commentators overhear random stuff on other channels. A lot of info would be lost.

Anyway, I haven't watched Formula 1 in a decade or so, but I don't remember any of them speaking in their own language (except in their post race monologues). Is that so? Isn't F1 much more internationally oriented, LOL?
 
Anyway, I haven't watched Formula 1 in a decade or so, but I don't remember any of them speaking in their own language (except in their post race monologues). Is that so? Isn't F1 much more internationally oriented, LOL?

Sure. Yuji Ide couldn't speak english. All his chatter was Japanese

EDIT: Ferrari radio occasionally makes calls with Italian.
 
So we go back to square one. If he can speak English, make him speak English.

If the team (as an overall) is comfortable in one language of communication that's not English. Why must they be forced to speak English? For the viewers? I highly doubt that not being able to understand the radio chatter is really going to remove the enjoyment of the average casual racing fan.
 
I also find that English rule very irritating. I have locally especially DTM around. Ekström makes some calls in Swedish, not because he cannot speak English or German, he is really good in both (especially in German I have the impression he is more skilled then some native speakers) he does them because in a stressy racing situation it is much easier and therefore faster to make difficult calls in a language you're 100% confident with. The other way round, when the engenieer tells him something in Swedish he directly knows what to do. Especially Pit-In signals are delt this way as they sometimes happen in the latest second. There is no relation to any lack of language skill or anything like that, it is more the fact that you don't have to think about phrases and expressions in a language you can automatically THINK in. Even if you are very good in a language, that is not automatically happen.
Who cares about radio communication? Race control, to spy eventuall illegal orders. Of course, motorsport shall entertain the people, but if they want to listen to something in their language, they can turn on their own radio. The drivers shall entertain with their on-track action, not with their radio communication. That it is public nowadays is simply a form of transparency to give the viewers a feeling of that it is all according to the rules!
 
http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=7935

The identity of one the new manufacturers interested in the championship has been indicated towards Mazda. Two of the teams in search of a new manufacturer are Stone Brothers Racing and Dick Johnson Racing after losing funding from Ford next year, according to V8X Magazine.

Well I can't help but wonder - if Mazda were indeed to enter the championship, what car would they use as a base? the Mazda6 is the closest at the moment, but none of their cars seem to really fit despite Mazda's sporty brand image...
 
Mazda's sporty brand image :) ? Mazda together with Toyota (before getting back to WEC) to me is a really dull brand.

6 Series could do the job though. Are they offering that car in down under with a V8 engine?
 

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