Lewis Hamilton calls out Ferrari for “wasting time” in fiery F1 Zandvoort radio messages
Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated with his Ferrari team at the Dutch Grand Prix. Here's how it played out over team radio.
Lewis Hamilton accused Ferrari of “wasting time” by not swapping him and team-mate Charles Leclerc earlier in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton lost out to Leclerc at the start but hunted down his team-mate with a significant tyre offset at mid-distance. Hamilton lost crucial time behind Leclerc as Ferrari dithered over whether to use team orders.
Ferrari asked Leclerc to make a pit stop, though the Monegasque initially ignored this instruction and retained track position over Hamilton for another lap before finally coming in, only adding to the latter’s irritation.
After quickly catching Leclerc on lap 42, Hamilton opened up his team radio to tell Ferrari: “I’m quicker than Charles. My tyres are better.”
“Understood,” came the response from his race engineer Carlo Santi, but Ferrari took no action.
“We’re just loosing time!” Hamilton snapped on the following lap.
On Lap 44, the 41-year-old Briton sarcastically added: “Great way of wasting time, guys. Good job.”
That was not the end of Hamilton’s complaints.
After losing track position to both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris, with his rivals on much fresher tyres, Hamilton once again questioned Ferrari’s strategy.
“Are you using me as a guinea pig or what? What’s going on? How long will you have me stay out?” Hamilton asked.
Hamilton subsequently pitted on the next lap as Ferrari capitalised on a virtual safety car by double stacking its drivers, which prevented any further drama between its drivers.
Having been unable to find a way past George Russell’s Mercedes in the final laps, Hamilton had to settle with fourth place, just ahead of Leclerc.
After the chequered flag, Santi said to Hamilton: “Thank you Lewis. A bit unlucky with Russell…”
Hamilton clearly did not agree, responding: “We weren’t unlucky! We lost time earlier on and that cost us P3.”
The result sees Antonelli extend his world championship advantage over Russell to 59 points.
Russell and Hamilton are tied on points, but the former has leapfrogged his old team-mate on wins countback.
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