Driver-pit radios

[duke_toaster]

Just a question - when were radios first used in F1? And are scramblers currently legal?

[Kieran20]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

Just a question - when were radios first used in F1? And are scramblers currently legal?

long time a go i would think! and what is a scrambler?!

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Kieran20

and what is a scrambler?!

An encryption thingy.

[Knowlesy]

Did Williams not first use them around 1985/86?

They certainly aren't that old a thing in F1 I don't think.

[Rockmunky]

I think it was around the 80's that they began using radio systems.... not all that new.

[j_hampton2000]

>when were radios first used in F1?
I think it was 1986.

>And are scramblers currently legal?
There is nothing in the F1 regulations which make them illegal and there never has been. Since 2003, the teams have been required to allow the FIA and broadcasters access to the car-pit radio communications. They do this via a hardwire link, linking the voice heard at the pitwall to an FIA node which then goes off to race control and the broadcasters (http://broadcastengineering.com/news..._championship/ gives more details). The teams are allowed to switch this link on and off and some teams eg Renault are known to 'forget' to switch this on until later in the race (at least until after the first round of pit stops) which is why you won't hear as much 'team radio' in the early stages of the race.

There is nothing to stop the teams using a scrambler/encryption system for the wireless part of the driver-pit link, nor do they have to broadcast the pit-engineer links. Currently Spyker use an analogue scarmbler system wth their radios, McLaren use a digital encryption board with their analogue radios, and starting from this year Ferrari will use a new digital (encrypted) TETRA radio system. All other teams use analogue radios in the clear.