“How’d I lose so much ground?” Full radio from Hamilton’s point-less Hungary slog

Lewis Hamilton said almost nothing when reporters asked him about his performance after yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

He went into the summer break after one of his least successful weekends so far. He berated himself on Saturday after failing to make the cut for Q3, taking 12th on the grid.

After making his sole pit stop in the race, Hamilton’s race engineer Ricardo Adami told him he was on course for a potential seventh place. But Ferrari’s lap time projections for Hamilton proved wildly optimistic and he ended up back where he started in 12th place.

The radio exchanges between Hamilton and Adami during the race reveal why their race was such a struggle.

Hamilton’s Hungarian GP radio

Jump to:

“No pace to overtake”
“It’s Alonso P5 slowing down the whole pack”
“The pace is so slow with lift-and-coast”
“Box opposite Mercedes”
“Verstappen car behind, one second”
“Increase lift-and-coast”
“How far behind are we?”
“I just lost five seconds”
“How did I lose so much ground?”
“Really sorry about this weekend guys”

“No pace to overtake”

Hamilton started 12th on a set of hard tyres. With almost every other driver on softer rubber he immediately lost positions to Carlos Sainz Jnr and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

He was also quickly given reminders to ‘lift-and-coast’ – i.e. back off before the braking zones – which he was told was necessary for his brakes.

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“It’s Alonso slowing down the whole pack”

At this stage in the race Hamilton was stuck in a tight queue of cars headed by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin:

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“The pace is so slow with lift-and-coast”

Alonso began to increase his pace from lap 15 and some drivers between him and Hamilton pitted, including Sainz. Hamilton was still being told to lift and coast:

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“Box opposite Mercedes”

Hamilton was following Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman. The latter was dropping back from Liam Lawson. Ferrari prepared to react to the loss of time but told Hamilton only to pit if Antonelli didn’t. The Mercedes headed for the pits so Hamilton stayed out:

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“Verstappen car behind, one second”

Still stuck behind Bearman and Hadjar, Hamilton suddenly had Max Verstappen for company. The Red Bull driver had started ahead of him, pitted for hard tyres and emerged behind him.

When Verstappen lunged down the inside of Hamilton at turn four, the Ferrari driver dived onto the run-off area and allowed his rival past. Hamilton appeared to make no comment about the incident on his radio. The stewards announced they would investigate the incident after the race but Hamilton chose not to speak to them and they took no action against Verstappen.

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“Increase lift-and-coast”

Bearman finally pitted on lap 30. When Hadjar did the same three laps later, Hamilton finally had clear air ahead of him. That allowed him to lap around a second quicker than he had before.

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“How far behind are we?”

However the damage to Hamilton’s race had already been done. Alonso was so far ahead he was able to pit and come out ahead of the Ferrari driver, to his obvious dismay.

By lap 40 Hamilton’s tyres were starting to fade and Ferrari called him in.

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“I just lost five seconds”

Once Hamilton returned to the pits he was so far behind he had to slow to let the leaders pass him. That cost him time in pursuit of the drivers he had dropped back behind, including Sainz and Gasly.

Even so, Ferrari still believed a seventh place finish was possible. They set Hamilton a target lap time of 1’19.5 but he wasn’t able to get close to it.

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“How did I lose so much ground?”

Hamilton began to realise he had lost too much time in traffic earlier in the race to have a chance of racing into the points positions.

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“Really sorry about this weekend, guys”

Over the final laps of the race, Hamilton closed on Antonelli and Hadjar, and had a chance to claim a point if he passed them both. However his efforts were disrupted by the battling McLaren drivers who came by to lap him, costing him more time.

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After finishing one lap down in the same place he started, Hamilton apologised to his team.