Lewis Hamilton the target of team radio rant after ‘dangerous’ Belgian GP near miss
Lewis Hamilton has had a disappointing start to his Ferrari career
Lewis Hamilton was the target of an angry team radio rant by Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto during FP1 at the Belgian Grand Prix.
And Hamilton’s Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc weighed in on the incident, calling the near miss at Eau Rouge “dangerous.”
Gabriel Bortoleto: Lewis Hamilton ‘always in the middle of the track’
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Bortoleto was following Hamilton at slow speed in the early stages of practice at Spa when he suddenly pulled to the left and off the circuit as Leclerc’s car whizzed by at speed.
The Brazilian was frustrated by being tucked up behind Hamilton’s car at slow speed through a notoriously risky part of the track, resulting in the near miss with Leclerc.
Bortoleto took to team radio to air his frustrations, telling his race engineer: “Mate, what the f**k is Hamilton doing? He’s always in the middle of the track.”
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Leclerc was similarly unimpressed by the sight of two cars dawdling at a dangerous part of the circuit.
He responded: “Ah, come on. This is dangerous.”
Hamilton was eventually classified seventh in FP1 in Belgium, more than a tenth slower than fifth-place Leclerc as McLaren driver and F1 2025 championship leader Oscar Piastri set the pace.
Bortoleto, meanwhile, ended the session 13th and around two tenths faster than Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who claimed an emotional maiden podium at the last race in Britain.
Hamilton’s FP1 adventures came after the seven-time World Champion cut a defiant figure in Thursday’s press conference at Spa, insisting that he will not follow the same fate as Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel who both failed to win the title at Ferrari.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, Hamilton revealed that he held a series of meetings with Ferrari’s top brass ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix in a bid to turn around his stuttering season.
He said: “I hold a lot of meetings. I’ve called lots of meetings with the heads of the team.
“I’ve sat with John [Elkann, Ferrari president], Benedetto [Vigna, CEO] and Fred [Vasseur, team principal] in several meetings.
“I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], also with the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, talking about front suspension for next year, talking about rear suspension for next year – things that you want, issues that I have with this car.
“I’ve sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team.
“Then during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in and so then I come in and want to address those.
“Some of it’s structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better and all the areas that we want to improve.
“The other one was really about the car, the current issues that I have with this car, some things that you do want to take on to the next year’s car and some that you need to work on changing for next year.
“We did development for [next year], tried the 2026 car for the first time and started work on that.
“Thirty engineers come into the room and you sit and debrief with every single one of them, so big, big push.”
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He added: “The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion? Nothing comes close to that.
“It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that need to be.
“That’s ultimately why the team’s not had the success that I think it deserves.
“So I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top making the decisions.
“If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers.
“You’ve had Kimi [Raikkonen], you’ve had Fernando, you’ve had Sebastian. All world champions.
“However, they didn’t win a World Champion[ship] with Ferrari. And I refuse for that to be the case with me, so I’m going the extra mile.
“I’ve obviously been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams.
“And whilst things are for sure are going to be different, because there’s a different culture and everything, I think sometimes if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results, so I’m just challenging certain things.
“They’ve been incredibly responsive. We’ve been improving in so many areas, through marketing and everything we’re continuously delivering for sponsors, the way the engineers continue to work.
“There’s lots of work and improvements to be made, but very responsive and I guess ultimately just trying to really, really create allies within the organisation and and get them gee’d up, get them pushing.
“I’m here to win. And I don’t have as much time as this one here [Antonelli], so it’s like: It’s crunch time.
“I truly believe in the potential of this team. I really, really believe that they can win multiple World Championships moving forward.
“They already have an amazing legacy, but during my time that’s my sole goal.”
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