The ‘morbidly forbidden’ tactic Ferrari once used to spy on McLaren during Formula 1 races

Follow us on Google Discover

Formula 1 teams will use any means necessary to try and win races and secure world championships.

Michael Schumacher was a Ferrari legend, but some of his tactics on the track were questionable, to say the least.

McLaren once got caught in the Spygate scandal when they tried to get the upper hand on their rivals.

Meanwhile, Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore was once banned from Formula 1 for his role in the Crashgate scandal involving Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr. that Felipe Massa was the reason he missed out on winning the 2008 championship.

F1 is almost notorious for controversy even when the most dramatic of endings – such as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s 2021 battle in Abu Dhabi – are still debated years later.

Author Matt Whyman was writing in his book Inside Mercedes F1 and spoke to their trackside electronics leader Evan Short.

Short began his career with Ferrari in 1999, following in the footsteps of another Canadian Gilles Villeneuve before moving to Mercedes.

At the time, Schumacher was battling Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard at McLaren.

The electronics expert has now shared the interesting tactic Ferrari used to try and gain an advantage over their closest rivals that ended up being spotted by the British team.

How Ferrari used to hack McLaren’s radio messages in Formula 1

Short is currently in charge of looking over a lot of the car’s read-outs to check for problems with the electronics and other systems before they become terminal.

Speaking about his previous roles in F1, Short said: “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.

“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.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

“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.”

Short explained that eventually, McLaren cottoned onto Ferrari’s tactics: “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.”

Mercedes need to find a new advantage after disappointing 2024 campaign

Hamilton’s final campaign at Mercedes before he heads to Ferrari hasn’t gone as he would have liked.

An emotional victory at Silverstone was the high point in a season where Mercedes already know they’ll finish 4th in the Constructors’ Championship.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Hamilton and Russell have very different approaches, and Mercedes will need to learn how to get the most out of Kimi Antonelli when he steps into the seven-time world champion’s car.

Teams no longer need to hack into their rivals’ radio systems to learn their strategies, with all communications now available publicly.

Mercedes would much rather be in a position where other teams are adapting to their plans, rather than having to use Short’s old tactic of covering off their opponents.