Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari radio drama “meaningless” amid more severe issue

The team order saga between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton that played over team radio in the Miami Grand Prix is “meaningless” considering just how slow Ferrari was, according to renowned Formula 1 insider Peter Windsor.

Leclerc and Hamilton swapped positions twice during the Miami F1 race on Sunday, but ultimately neither was able to make any in-roads into the cars ahead.

The two were eventually classified seventh and eighth respectively on a day when the SF-25 was only the fifth-fastest car on the grid, even behind the Williams FW47.

Much has been made about Hamilton’s sassy messages to Ferrari, as the team tried to contain the situation between its two drivers who were on different strategies.

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari radio rant 'meaningless'

However, Windsor believes that radio exchange is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as the focus should be on just how uncompetitive Ferrari was around the Hard Rock Stadium.

“What we really want to see is all the stuff when they get out of the car and they've done all of the interviews and then they get into the TV briefing room,” Windsor said on his podcast on YouTube.

“I'd love to be in the Ferrari one when Charles and Lewis are there, talking to the engineers, talking to the top brass about how that race went.

“The ridiculous thing is all the discussion will be about 'you did this', 'you kept me up there for turn 11', 'I should have passed you there'.

“Of course, that's all meaningless because the cars were absolutely terrible anyway and they looked terrible [with the one-off sponsor livery]. Forget Miami, Ferrari, it was just a weekend to forget.”

After switching to the faster medium tyres during his sole pitstop, Hamilton spent several laps stuck behind Leclerc, prompting him to ask the team for help.

As Ferrari mulled over asking Leclerc to give way, Hamilton added: “Have a tea break while you’re at it”.

But the decision to prioritise Hamilton failed to pay off as the Briton had taken the best out of his tyres while running behind Leclerc.

This meant Leclerc, now the faster of the two Ferrari drivers, was losing time in dirty air.

Ferrari then switched their positions back again, with then put Hamilton under pressure from the Williams of Carlos Sainz.

“I'm smiling here because it was funny because we are not talking about the lead here, it was the seventh-eighth place they were doing. It was ridiculous.

“Lewis anyway gives Charles the position back. And Charles says, ‘Let's see what we can do about [Andrea] Kimi [Antonelli] now, let's see if I can catch him’.

"He did quite well. Kimi was backing off towards the end and he didn't pass Kimi, but he got within about a second.

“But this whole Marx Brothers thing continued because Lewis' engineer says to Lewis, ‘Carlos is only 4.2s behind you in the Williams’. So Lewis gets back on the radio and says ‘You want to let him past as well?’

"And bear in mind this is Carlos Sainz as well. Think about the irony of all this. Alex Albon long gone, destroyed both Ferraris. Williams beat Ferrari easy. But Carlos Sainz wasn't far away either, catching Lewis big time. 

"And this is the guy was basically fired and replaced by Lewis. And here he is catching Ferrari and already the Williams are giving him a hard time. So it was all quite nerve-racking."