‘Shall we wait?’ – Untelevised Lewis Hamilton team radio emerges after Singapore GP
Lewis Hamilton has taken responsibility for Ferrari's disastrous strategy in Singapore
Untelevised team radio footage from the Singapore Grand Prix has revealed the moment Lewis Hamilton encouraged Ferrari to “wait” for a virtual safety car before pitting.
However, Hamilton failed to stop when the VSC was deployed, with the seven-time world champion admitting the strategy mistake was “on me.”
Lewis Hamilton team radio emerges after Singapore GP strategy disaster
Hamilton fell from third on the grid to a disappointing sixth in Singapore last weekend after a one-stop strategy backfired.
The Ferrari driver became the first of the leaders to pit on Lap 18 (below), with Hamilton losing positions to Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the closing stages after his soft tyres lost grip.
Hamilton was heard apologising to the Ferrari pit wall over team radio after the chequered flag.
He said: “Sorry, boys. I let you down today with that strategy. My call.”
Further untelevised messages from Singapore have revealed that Hamilton specifically told Ferrari to delay a second pit stop in the hope that a virtual safety car would minimise his time lost in the pits, but failed to stop when the VSC was deployed.
On Lap 32, Hamilton commented that he was confused by Ferrari’s strategy. The full exchange with race engineer Carlo Santi went as follows:
Hamilton: “What’s the goal here? What’s the plan? I have no idea what the hell we’re doing. I see people are on one stop.”
Santi: “Plan B. We are on Plan B.”
Hamilton: “I know we’re on Plan B – what are other people doing, man?”
Santi: “Everyone else is one stop.”
As revealed by PlanetF1.com in the hours after the race, Santi failed to provide Hamilton with a clear answer when the driver asked about the pace of other cars at the end of their stint on soft tyres, potentially resulting in the strategy errors later on.
Hamilton: “How was everyone’s pace at the end of their run?”
Santi: “It’s high 36. High 36.”
Hamilton: “What’s high 36?”
Santi: “It’s the pace of the other cars. They are doing 36.5, seven, eight.”
Hamilton: “Yeah, they’ve got new tyres. I said: ‘At the end of their stint, how fast were they going?'”
Santi: “Pace will be similar by the end of the race. At the moment, we don’t think you have the [tyre] life.”
A short time later, Hamilton asked the team to check the data.
Hamilton: “Something’s happened, I don’t know what. Check my tyres.”
Santi: “Understood, we are checking.”
Santi: “Car looks fine.”
Hamilton: “OK.”
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Santi informed his driver that a second pit stop was “getting close” when Hamilton suggested that the team should gamble on a VSC.
Santi: “We are on Plan B. We are getting close, we are getting close. Flap update.”
Hamilton: “Can I not just hold it out?”
Santi: “I’ll get back to you.”
Santi: “And we are six laps short to do Plan C.”
Hamilton: “Can I hold position? Like, if I pit, what do I lose?”
Santi: “We are losing two positions with a delta pace advantage.”
Hamilton: “Well, if we’re already losing two positions, should… shall we wait to see if VSC or something comes out?”
Santi: “We can try.”
Having missed the chance to pit under VSC, Hamilton found himself losing considerable lap time in the second half of the race, with Antonelli and Norris passing the Ferrari in quick succession after Hamilton went off at Turn 1 and had to rejoin.
Hamilton: “I locked up and went straight.”
In the closing laps, Hamilton asked about his chances of hanging on to sixth with Piastri.
Hamilton: “Can I hold this position?”
Santi: “We need 38.0. Seven laps to go when you cross the line. Piastri 13 behind.”
Meanwhile, Piastri was left frustrated by a lack of information from his race engineer Tom Stallard.
Stallard: “They’re fighting and losing a lot of time. Gap to Hamilton and Lando now 14 seconds. Hamilton is losing a lot of time.”
Piastri: “Yeah, tell me the lap times! You’ve got the numbers in front of you. Tell me!”
Stallard: “Last lap was a 41.0, 41.0. They’ve lost time with fighting.”
Piastri went on to overtake Hamilton on the penultimate lap.
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