The Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc swapped places during the Chinese Grand Prix after it became clear the latter had more pace.

Some unaired radio messages, though, add further context to what may have seemed like a contentious situation on the broadcast.

Lewis Hamilton: “I think I’m gonna let Charles go”

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc made contact on the opening lap of the Chinese Grand Prix, resulting in a damaged front wing endplate for the Monegasque driver — though, thankfully, that damage didn’t seem to slow him down.

In fact, as the early stages of the race progressed, Hamilton came to realize that he was holding up his new Ferrari teammate and radioed in to his team to say, “I think I’m gonna let Charles go because I’m struggling.”

This message, though, was not broadcast live, nor was a message from the team to manage his tyres at high speed, then that the two would swap at Turn 14.

It was only the second reminder about the T14 swap that was broadcast — and this one took place just after both Ferrari drivers had passed Lance Stroll, during which time Leclerc fell out of DRS range.

It was at this second reminder that Hamilton said, “When he’s closer, yes.”

Meanwhile, Leclerc radioed in to his engineer Bryan Bozzi to say, “This is a shame. The pace is there,” when he was stuck behind Hamilton.

The situation changed slightly as Hamilton began to close the gap to George Russell; unaired radio messages clarify that the driver wanted a little more time to try to catch the Mercedes.

As a result, when Riccardo Adami requested, “We want to swap this lap. Swap now,” Hamilton responded, “I’ll tell you when we can swap.” Two corners later, on lap 21, the seven-time champion made way for his teammate.

After that, Bozzi told Leclerc, “Well done, sorry about that…”

Because much of the exchange was not broadcast, fans may have received a much different picture about what happened during that exchange, prompting Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur to call the broadcast direction “a joke.”

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Naturally, the radio messages were the topic du jour in the media pen after the race.

When asked about the call to swap, Hamilton responded, “He just had more pace than me. I was struggling with the car, so I told the team that I was going to let him pass.”

It was a surprising change of fortunes for the Scuderia, which had looked extremely strong during the earlier phases of the weekend. Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race from pole position, drawing out a seven-second gap over the field.

The race, though, was a much different story.

“We made setup changes going into qualifying — one particular one, I think, was the wrong one,” Hamilton explained to media.

“We both had it. But for me, the balance was completely off.”

According to the seven-time champion, “the [performance, ed.] window is quite narrow” but “there is performance there,” if only they’re able to find it. He also acknowledged that, in hindsight, adopting a race-day set up similar to that of the sprint probably would have been the smart call.

However, he still acknowledged that there were positives to take from the weekend.

“I think we got a clear race run in the dry,” Hamilton said. “You can see where we are performance-wise; we clearly have to improve our pace.”

Of course, at the end of the day, the finagling over position didn’t matter, as both drivers were disqualified after the Chinese Grand Prix for technical infringements.

Leclerc was disqualified because his car was 1kg under the 798kg weight limit, while Hamilton was disqualified over excessive skid plank wear.

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