The rules regarding communications does not mention anything about hand signals from the team members sitting in the stands. It it legal to use some sort of hand or graphic signals to communicate with the operators?
it does not matter what you do out of the playing field. You can give signals to your operator as long as you do not bother other teams.
But I would not recommand that because that usually give more distraction to operator.
Well I believe the whole point of the rule is for drivers not to get help outside the booth, so i believe in the spirt of the rule it would be illeagal
I think you better read those rules again because I just read in 1 of the updates (I think it might have been 3) no hand signals.
Where does it say no hand signals… Rule T23 has been updated and says in part that … no device may be used to communicate with something or someone outside the alliance area. I do not see any rule prohibiting hand signals.
Although I found this on Q&A
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=1780
but T23 is still refering to Equipment and Devices
In addition to the other posts, keep in mind that the venues will all have artificial lighting over the playing field and frequently the audience area is unlit or far away. For those reasons, no one can expect to communicate reliably to players on the field. In a two minute match, why would you break your concentration to look for a person in the stands and then to interpret what the signal might be. It just isn’t practical.