Lewis Hamilton has spilt the tea about the heated radio exchanges that took place during the Miami Grand Prix, acknowledging that while “people didn’t like certain comments,” they were made in a “frustrating” moment as Ferrari struggled to optimize their race performance.
The seven-time World Champion faced a challenging weekend in Miami, starting from a disappointing 12th place on the grid and finding himself battling Esteban Ocon on the outskirts of the top 10 with the hard compound tire in the early stages of the race.
However, a mid-race Virtual Safety Car turned Hamilton’s fortunes around, allowing him to make a pit stop without losing as much time compared to his rivals ahead. This enabled him to close in on teammate Charles Leclerc and the Williams of Carlos Sainz, who were engaged in a fight for seventh position.
As Leclerc overtook Sainz at Turn 1, Hamilton, equipped with the softer medium tire, appeared to be quicker than his teammate and requested permission to move ahead. However, Ferrari initially instructed both drivers to maintain their positions, leading to a delay in their decision-making process. This prompted several frustrated messages from Hamilton, including a sarcastic remark suggesting they “have a tea break while you’re at it.”
In a post-race interview with Sky Sports F1, Hamilton clarified that his comments were made in the heat of the moment and that his remarks would be discussed internally within the team.
“I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment for sure I was like, come on let’s make a concise decision really quick, let’s not waste time,” he explained. “I’m sure people didn’t like certain comments but you’ve got to understand it was frustrating, people say way worse things than what I say. It was more sarcastic than anything and I’m not frustrated now. We’ll work internally, we’ll have discussions and we’ll keep pushing.”
Hamilton emphasized the importance of not getting emotional about the situation, stating, “We’re here to race, we’re not where we want to be.”
Despite eventually passing Leclerc, Hamilton was unable to pull away from his teammate, who managed to stay within DRS range and also started complaining about the dirty air while following closely. After conceding the position back to Leclerc, Hamilton ultimately finished eighth, having made contact with Sainz on the final lap as the Williams driver attempted a late lunge into the last hairpin.
Reflecting on the team’s performance, Hamilton admitted, “For us to be battling them and struggling to beat them [Williams] just shows that we have a lot of performance to find. We’re lacking performance in the car but I think we know where we are losing it, particularly since, like, China for example. We’ve got some improvements to make to the car before we can unlock that performance but we won’t give up, we’ll keep pushing.”
