Ferrari slam false narrative around Lewis Hamilton radio messages

Ferrari have hit out at F1’s select broadcasting of team radio messages during the Chinese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc swapped positions during the early stages of Sunday’s race in Shanghai after Leclerc became stuck behind his teammate but could not get close enough to overtake.

Sensing he was holding up Leclerc, seven-time world champion Hamilton told Ferrari he was considering letting his teammate by because he was struggling for pace.

“I think I’m going to let Charles go, because I’m struggling,” Hamilton radioed in to Ferrari.

But this message was not broadcast by Formula One Management.

However, a later exchange between Hamilton and new race engineer Riccardo Adami was played out when Ferrari ordered their drivers to swap positions on the same lap.

Ferrari informed Leclerc on Lap 18 that “Lewis will let you by into Turn 14” but Hamilton responded by saying “I will when he’s closer”.

On Lap 20, Ferrari called for a position swap at Turn 14 which did not happen for the third lap in a row.

Hamilton was heard saying “I’ll tell you when we’re going to swap,” implying he was not happy about the order. Hamilton finally let Leclerc past at Turn 1, instead of Turn 14 as had been requested.

Leclerc, clearly confused by what was playing out, sounded disappointed over team radio, saying: “This is a shame. The pace is there,” when Hamilton did not let him by on Lap 20.

Fans watching on TV would not have been aware that Hamilton had actually suggested the swap in the first place, with only select radio messages broadcast. This gave the impression Hamilton had refused to obey a team order.

Ferrari criticise "joke" radio broadcasts 

“I think this is a joke from FOM because the first call came from Lewis,” Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur told media in Shanghai.

"Lewis asked us to swap, but to create the mess around the situation they broadcast only the second part of the question. We will discuss with them.

"You can't imagine the number of questions I had about this when I came from the garage to here," he said. "It's all about the same thing: 'Is it a mess?' I said no, it's Lewis who asked to swap.

"I'm not even sure you would even have these situations ten times at other teams in a season, and honestly from the pit wall we really appreciated the call from Lewis saying, 'guys, I'm losing the pace, I'm keen to swap’.

"It took us one lap to ask him to swap with Charles and then the pace was back. He said 'oh let's stay like this for a little bit' and we said 'no, if you up the pace we swap’.

"As a team the collaboration between the two guys is mega and I can't complain a single second about something.

“I understand the question, but you have to ask the question to Stefano [Domenicali, F1 president and CEO] and not me because I'm not in charge of the broadcast.”

Ahead of the weekend, Hamilton complained about the negative reaction to radio exchanges broadcast in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix which appeared to suggest his relationship with Adami was not going well.

It proved to be a horror day for Ferrari in China. Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth on the road but were later disqualified for failing post-race scrutineering checks.