Did F1’s radio editing create a false narrative Hamilton was disobeying Ferrari?

Did Lewis Hamilton refuse to obey Ferrari when they ordered him to let his team mate past?

Or did Formula 1 misleadingly edit Ferrari’s radio messages during their live Chinese Grand Prix broadcast, giving a false impression that Hamilton had disobeyed his team?

Comparing what was actually said on the radio with what was played out, Ferrari could justifiably claim Formula One Management misrepresented Hamilton’s words. Those who only heard the portion played on the world feed could easily have formed the wrong impression.

However, listening to Ferrari’s radio messages in full also reveals why the radio confusion happened in the first place. Moreover, it shows Leclerc had to wait much longer to be let by than it seemed from the world feed.

The situation began to play out on lap 18, after the Ferrari drivers had made their first pit stops. Hamilton pitted first, but although he gained the benefit of the ‘undercut’, he lost time passing Liam Lawson. Leclerc cleared the Red Bull more quickly and arrived on the tail of his team mate, who was now trying to find a way past Oliver Bearman.

By lap 17 both had passed Bearman and were now closing on Stroll. But on the next lap Hamilton gave his race engineer Riccardo Adami an unusual message: He said he was considering whether to let Leclerc by. Significantly, this message was not played on the world feed.

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Hamilton may have only tentatively suggested switching positions but Ferrari reacted immediately, ordering their drivers to swap places that same lap. Clearly, Hamilton was not prepared to go along with that right away, and drove past turn 14 without backing off as instructed.

The next time around Ferrari went through the same process and got the same result. Hamilton told them he was waiting for Leclerc to get closer to him.

By the end of lap 19 Leclerc had been waiting two laps to get by and those watching the world television feed had heard no messages indicating this was the case.

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FOM played the first radio message indicating the discussions taking place at Ferrari on lap 20. This was a message from the previous lap, when Adami told Hamilton: “We are swapping cars turn 14,” to which the driver replied: “When he’s closer, yeah.”

Anyone watching the feed without access to the drivers’ full radio communications would have been unaware that Hamilton had suggested the position swap two laps earlier. They would also be unaware Ferrari had told Leclerc shortly afterwards the swap was about to happen.

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

That provoked Leclerc’s disappointed reaction, which was broadcast around the same time Hamilton finally let him through, at turn one instead of 14.

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Clearly, the impression FOM created of Hamilton’s messages is misleading. What’s more, they did so mere days after Hamilton complained about the negative reaction to clips of his radio which were played during the Australian Grand Prix, which arguably gave the impression his relationship with Adami was not going well.

However the full exchange also shows how Hamilton’s original, equivocal message was at odds with Ferrari’s immediate reaction to it. He expected to have time to dictate the position swap on his terms, while Ferrari were eager to get the position swap done immediately.

Ferrari needs to improve how it handles this sort of communication. But it is not a new problem they have developed since Hamilton joined. In Las Vegas last year Leclerc was aggravated by how the team managed him and his previous team mate.

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