Lewis Hamilton calls for FIA action after Max Verstappen exchange emerges
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen: the best of enemies
Untelevised team radio from the Mexican Grand Prix has revealed the moment Lewis Hamilton admitted he had no hope of passing Max Verstappen and the Red Bull Powertrains engine.
It comes after Hamilton quipped that Verstappen and Red Bull have “too much power on the straights” in the post-race cooldown room, with the Ferrari driver calling for the FIA to address the problem of cars clipping at the end of straights to improve overtaking.
Untelevised Lewis Hamilton team radio after Max Verstappen exchange
Verstappen claimed his third victory in four races in Mexico last weekend, seizing the lead after a heated clash between Hamilton and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc was handed a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage in battle with Hamilton, who lost a further place to Verstappen in the incident.
Verstappen held off the advances of Hamilton following a late red flag to cross the finish line 0.799 seconds ahead of the Ferrari.
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Untelevised footage from the Mexican Grand Prix has uncovered the moment Hamilton conceded that he had no chance of passing Verstappen due to the superiority of the RBPT engine.
Hamilton was told by his race engineer, Carlo Santi, on Lap 64 of 71 that he had both overtake mode and boost available to make a move on Verstappen.
However, Hamilton sounded resigned to defeat as he followed the RB22.
The full exchange, which cannot be reproduced here due to broadcast rights restrictions, went as follows:
Santi: “You have overtake and boost on the main straight.”
Hamilton: “How am I supposed to overtake the Red Bull engine?”
The emergence of Hamilton’s radio message comes after he light-heartedly told Verstappen in the cooldown room ahead of the podium ceremony that Red Bull has too much power.
Verstappen responded by quipping that he needs so much power to counteract the Ferrari’s superior speed in the corners.
The full exchange went as follows:
Hamilton: “You guys have just got too much power on the straights as well. Frickin’ heck.”
Verstappen: “I mean, I needed it with your cornering!”
Hamilton and Verstappen both highlighted clipping – the phenomenon that sees cars harvest energy and lose power on the straights – as an issue behind a lack of overtaking in Mexico, denying the drivers the chance to make a move.
Hamilton: “It’s so stupid, the clipping they have.”
Verstappen: “Yeah, that’s true. It really kills the overtaking into Turn 1.”
Hamilton: “I don’t understand why they… it’s like they’ve got no sense.”
Appearing in the post-race press conference, Hamilton called for the FIA to address “these silly clips” as well as suggesting a change to the final corner in Mexico to improve overtaking on the long straight towards Turn 1.
Hamilton said: “We had let Max past and the race was done from there. You can’t overtake here.
“I think it’s something the FIA need to do and it’s just quite bad. I’m sure these guys [Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli] would agree.
“We have this clip at the end of the straight where you can’t go past a certain speed, so everyone just follows.
“It’s the silliest thing when you are behind and you have a little bit more power in the slipstream.
“You should be able to go past that to have a chance to overtake. The engine can go faster. It’s just they have these silly clips.
“It’s the worst engine profile setting that I think they’ve probably ever had in this sport and it doesn’t provide great racing, so today you probably didn’t see much overtaking, unfortunately, because of that.
“Obviously, the starts were fun, but it’s a very hard track to follow with the thin air and low downforce.
“I gave it everything to try and get close to Max, but maybe they needed… I don’t know if they need to change the last corner because it’s so quick. I don’t know.
“There could be a change to the track, maybe, to enable us to have a little bit better racing.
“But everyone having this [clipping] this year just diminishes any opportunity of that.”
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