A never-before-heard radio chat from Lewis Hamilton shows his frustrations with Ferrari about Charles Leclerc at the Singapore GP.
Lewis Hamilton’s radio chats with Ferrari got a bit tense during the Singapore Grand Prix while he was stuck behind teammate Charles Leclerc. There was one unseen conversation with his race engineer, Carlo Santi, that really showed the frustration.
Hamilton started the race in third place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, running on medium tyres, while Leclerc was on softer ones. Leclerc pulled ahead, and Hamilton came in early to switch to softs, but Leclerc stayed out longer. When Leclerc finally pitted, he came out just under a second ahead of Hamilton, which didn’t sit well with Lewis.
Feeling like he had the speed to pass Leclerc and catch the leader Max Verstappen, Hamilton kept asking to be allowed to challenge his teammate during the second part of the race. But Ferrari didn’t give the go-ahead, and Hamilton showed his frustration on the radio when his engineer didn’t respond.
“If I can’t pull away, I’ll let him back past,” Hamilton said, to which Santi simply replied, “copy.” After a pause, Hamilton added, “Alright… I’ll back off.”
Then, during a virtual safety car caused by Lance Stroll’s car stopping on track, Ferrari pitted Leclerc first since he was in front. That left Hamilton out on older tyres from lap 19, while Leclerc got fresh ones. Hamilton reported brake problems and was told he couldn’t pit again soon without messing up the strategy. By then, Leclerc had caught up.
Sky F1 reporter Ted Kravitz said, “Lewis was ready and was going to come in, but he drove past the pits because the tyres were gone, and Ferrari didn’t want to stack the cars.”
After the race, Hamilton apologized to Ferrari over the radio, saying it was his decision not to pit under the virtual safety car and that it cost them points. “Sorry, guys. I let you down with that strategy. We lost valuable points. I’ll try to make up for it in the next race. Great job with the pit stops,” he said.
Earlier, Leclerc told the team not to waste time with the two cars fighting. He then passed Hamilton at turn four using his fresher tyres. After that, Hamilton dropped to fifth after being overtaken by Kimi Räikkönen and Lando Norris.
In the final laps, Hamilton tried to hold off Oscar Piastri, who had been way behind earlier. But Piastri passed him at turn 16, making it a tough race for Hamilton, who finished sixth. It felt like he might have been able to get on the podium, but things just didn’t go his way this time.