How Ferrari used to hack McLaren's team radio messages in Formula 1 almost 3 decades ago
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Formula 1 teams have a long history of pushing boundaries to gain an advantage, employing tactics that sometimes skirt the edges of ethical conduct—or outright cross them. Winning races and securing world championships can lead to extreme measures, as evidenced by some of the sport’s most infamous scandals.
McLaren was famously embroiled in the “Spygate” affair, where the team was caught using confidential Ferrari documents to gain an edge over their rivals. Similarly, Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore faced a lifetime ban (later overturned) for his involvement in the “Crashgate” scandal. This scheme saw Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crash during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, aiding Fernando Alonso but inadvertently impacting Felipe Massa's title hopes. These controversies highlight how F1’s history is peppered with dramatic incidents that often overshadow the on-track action.
Even more recent events have added to the sport’s controversial legacy, such as the electrifying yet polarizing 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi. Years later, debates still rage over how Max Verstappen‘s battle with Lewis Hamilton for the championship was handled.
Author Matt Whyman delves into these high-stakes dynamics in his book *Inside Mercedes F1*, where he interviews Evan Short, a seasoned trackside electronics leader. Short’s career in F1 began in 1999 with Ferrari, where he joined the team at the height of their rivalry with McLaren. It was an era dominated by titanic battles between Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, and David Coulthard, and Ferrari was determined to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of victory.
Short recounts one particularly bold tactic employed by Ferrari during this time. The team sought to gain an edge by tapping into McLaren's radio communications—a move that epitomizes the lengths teams would go to in their relentless drive for success. This audacious maneuver was eventually discovered by McLaren, adding another chapter to the sport's already colorful history of espionage and strategic gamesmanship.
Today, as Mercedes’ trackside electronics leader, Evan Short oversees a multitude of data systems, monitoring car performance and identifying potential issues before they escalate into critical failures. Reflecting on his journey through various roles in Formula 1, he sheds light on the intricate and often shadowy strategies that have defined the sport over decades: “My first job was as a radio spy. The communication channel wasn't open like it is today. Teams like McLaren would encrypt their radio. As they were Ferrari's main competitor, my job was to find a way to intercept it.” – he explained – “Arguably it was morbidly forbidden. In those days, analogue encryption relied on automatically shuffling the communication through a sequence of radio frequencies. One of McLaren's sponsors was an encryption company, and I knew they only used a limited combination of sequences. So I built something that followed each combination. McLaren would use the same one for an entire race weekend. It meant once I found it I could chase the communication." – the current Mercedes’ trackside electronics leader added.
"We did it for about two years before McLaren worked it out. We were reacting to things on track that we couldn't possibly know any other way. They had an engineer called Tyler. He suspected we were listening and sarcastically started saying good morning over the radio to my boss." – he concluded.
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