Explained: Hamilton’s angry team radio message to Mercedes
Sky’s Ted Kravitz explained why Hamilton felt his team made a mistake which cost him a better qualifying run.
“Mercedes haven’t been quick all weekend, or at least since FP1,” Kravitz said.
“George Russell complained of understeer.
“Hamilton lost two tenths on the final lap in his effort in Q2, and was out.
“‘Left it too late there, guys’.
“What that was about - they left it too late getting him out of the garage in Q2.
“It meant that he found himself in a little bit of traffic, which meant he couldn’t prepare his tyres the way he wanted.
“That meant the lap was compromised from then on.
“You see? It all leads into the other. Everything has to be perfect.
“Hamilton felt that, if they had got him out of the garage quicker, he would have had the time he needed to prepare his tyres as he needed to.
“Then his lap time would have been better.
“Would it have been enough to gain two tenths?
“Can they compete with Ferrari and Aston Martin? Certainly not here. Maybe they can compete for the rest of the year.”
What Hamilton said
“I was at the back of the queue and everyone slowed into the last corner, so I lost all temperatures and couldn’t do the lap.”
What Russell said
“Everybody is working so, so hard to bring more performance to the car, it’s definitely not for a lack of effort and it’s just not coming to us at the moment.
“So there’s a lot to think about. A few questions that need answering.”
What Toto Wolff said
“I would say the performance is just really bad, and for George and Lewis it just really went south. You could see in the first sector the car really wasn’t there.
“When things go bad they compound bad and this has happened for him [Hamilton] and for all of us as a team.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
