Lewis Hamilton: “Sarcastic” Miami GP team radio due to slow strategy calls

Lewis Hamilton addressed comments he made over team radio during the Miami Grand Prix, where he tried to convince his Ferrari Formula 1 team to grant him a switch with Charles Leclerc, suggesting “people might not like them” and brushed them off as just “sarcastic.”

Reflecting on his race, Hamilton noted that he felt pent up behind Leclerc while on the medium tyres, and was of the opinion that he could catch Andrea Kimi Antonelli had the Ferrari pit wall taken action sooner.

Ferrari eventually acquiesced and Hamilton made up ground on the Mercedes driver, but progress appeared to stall out and the Scuderia decided to enact a switch-back to give Leclerc the chance to catch Antonelli.

Although Hamilton admitted being frustrated while stuck behind Leclerc, he seemed generally enthused by his race and stated that he was optimistic of making progress before tucking up behind his team-mate’s rear wing.

“Firstly, I generally enjoyed the race – I think this weekend, whilst we’re not as quick as we want to be, I feel like I had a better weekend in general,” Hamilton said.

“It might not show necessarily today, but starting 12th it was very hard to overtake here. I got onto the medium tyre and I felt the car really come alive and I felt super optimistic in that moment.

“All I could see is a Mercedes ahead and I was thinking maybe we can get up to sixth or something, but we lost a lot of time in those laps [behind Leclerc].

“I was clearly good for it in that moment, and I didn’t think the decision came quick enough. I have no problems with either team or with Charles, but I think we could do better.”

On his radio comments, Hamilton accepted that the team had a difficult job in trying to ensure it treated both drivers equally, but he was of the view that the team should prioritise the faster car and switch back if the move couldn’t be made.

His main issue was in the team’s insistence that it would “come back to him” over his radio calls, and he asked for snappier decisions from the team.

“Fred came to my room [after the race]. I just put my hand on his shoulder, like calm down, don’t be so sensitive. I could have said way worse things on the radio, like some of the things that other people have said in the past.

“Some of it was sarcasm. You’ve got to understand that we’re under a huge amount of pressure within the cars. You’re never going get the most peaceful messages come through in the heat of battle.

“It wasn’t even anger, it wasn’t like I was effing and blinding – just make a decision! You’re sitting there on the chair, you’ve got the stuff in front of you, you make the decision quick. For me, I’m like ‘we’re in a panic, we’re trying to keep the car on the track, and a computer thinks fast’.”

Photos from Miami GP – Race