Lewis Hamilton radio ‘confusion’ uncovered as Sky F1 presenter drops Elkann quip

Lewis Hamilton will start the Las Vegas Grand Prix from the very back of the grid after suffering elimination as the slowest driver in Q1.

Analysis of Hamilton’s radio as Q1 reached crunch time uncovered “confusion”, as Bernie Collins termed it, with Hamilton seeing red on his Ferrari dash and lifting off, despite having actually made it to the line which permitted one more flying lap. Collins’ Sky F1 colleague Simon Lazenby quipped that he wondered what Ferrari chairman John Elkann would make of it all, a nod to what went down after Brazil.

Lewis Hamilton radio ‘confusion’ amid huge Las Vegas GP setback

After Thursday practice in Sin City, Hamilton had declared that he was “happy” with the Ferrari SF-25, and so would not make many changes. But, as the rain arrived for qualifying, Hamilton’s race weekend unravelled.

He ended Q1 as the slowest of all 20 drivers, his final run not helped by wiping out a bollard at Turn 14. What also did not help was failing to make use of a last attempt.

Hamilton made it to the line before the chequered flag flew by the skin of his teeth, allowing him one last shot at escaping the Q1 elimination zone. He would not attempt another push lap, consigning him to last place on the Las Vegas Grand Prix grid.

In the Sky F1 commentary box, 2009 world champion Jenson Button – also Hamilton’s former McLaren teammate – immediately reacted: “When you’re in that position in P20, your team should be telling you to push to the line, to get that final lap first of all. I don’t know if they were, and then giving him a lot of encouragement.

“That’s a real shame. He’s a rain master. To see him down in last, this just doesn’t seem right.”

Hamilton would explain what had happened from his side.

“As I came across the line, it was red,” he said of his Ferrari dash, “so, there was no miscommunication from my side.”

Collins, the former McLaren senior performance engineer and ex-Aston Martin strategy chief, had listened back to Hamilton’s team radio, and discovered that he had been kept informed by Ferrari of his very tight timeframe to make the line.

Hamilton would back off by his own volition when he saw the red on his dash, instead of setting off on one last push lap.

“Just to come in on that a little bit, I was trying to listen to it during commentary, and I went back and listened to it when Lewis went out, because it was clear from radio, there was a bit of confusion over the lights,” said Collins.

“So on the lap before, the lap where he’s coming towards the line, the pit wall does tell him it’s going to be tight for one more lap. Keep pushing to get another lap, I think, is the phrase they used.

“So that’s clear indication to a driver, one, that you’re not safe, if they tell you to keep pushing to get another lap, and two, that it’s tight for the line, but they think it’s possible, or they wouldn’t tell you that.

“So, he was told that earlier on in the lap. Then when he crosses the line, Lewis says, ‘Am I safe?’ His engineer comes on and says, ‘No, keep pushing.’ And Lewis said, ‘I got the light, I got the red light.’ And the engineer comes on again and goes, ‘No, keep pushing.’ But at that stage, it’s too late.

“He was given, before he got to the line, the information that it was going to be tight and he needed to keep pushing. Then when he got the red light, he assumed that maybe Ferrari got the timing slightly wrong, or he didn’t make the flag, or whatever. So he thought he didn’t get it. He instantly lifts off. Then it’s too late.

“As soon as the driver lifts off, there’s no point in telling him to push again, because you’ve already lost the lap. And it was all of those things went together. But I think to defend the Ferrari pit wall, I think the information was there.”

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Button was asked by Sky F1 presenter Simon Lazenby who he believed to be at fault for this one, Ferrari or Hamilton.

“I guess you should know every regulation,” he said in a nod to Hamilton. “It’s really tricky as a driver, though. If you see red lights flash up in front of you, you think it’s over.

“But the timing line is obviously before that, and he knows that, because he gets the time on the dash for the previous lap time. But I mean, when it’s that tricky out there, there’s so much going on, I think he’s just lost focus on what is correct for starting the next lap.”

As Lazenby responded by pointing out that Hamilton has “got a race engineer, and he’s got a whole pit wall that know it’s going to be very, very tight,” Button replied: “Yeah, but they don’t know that he doesn’t know… the timing line is different to the red light gantry.”

Button added: “He’s probably not the first one that’s made this mistake, but the timing line is a different line to the gantry.

“He should know that, because the time comes up on your dash. We all get told what our lap times are when we cross that line.”

Lazenby concluded by making a sarcastic reference to Ferrari chairman’s John Elkann’s blunt statement, following the team’s double DNF last time out in Brazil. As part of that, he told Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc to “focus on driving, talk less”, and suggested that outside of the Ferrari engineers and mechanics, “the rest is not up to par”.

“I wonder what John Elkann might say… Maybe he’ll have some harsh words again,” Lazenby quipped.

Leclerc will start the Las Vegas GP from ninth in the sister Ferrari.

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