In a thrilling turn of events at the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the dynamic Ferrari duo, swapped positions on the track. Initially, this seemed like a contentious move, but previously unaired radio messages provide further clarity and context.
In the early stages of the race, Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, found himself trailing behind his new teammate Leclerc. After an initial contact on the opening lap, Leclerc’s front wing endplate was left damaged. Fortunately, this didn’t hamper his speed. Hamilton, acknowledging his teammate’s superior pace, communicated with his team via the radio saying, “I think I’m gonna let Charles go because I’m struggling.”
However, this crucial exchange wasn’t aired live. Neither was the team’s guidance to Hamilton to manage his tyres at high speed, nor the instruction that the two drivers would swap positions at Turn 14. It was only the second prompt about the Turn 14 switch that was broadcasted, which occurred just after both Ferrari drivers overtook Lance Stroll and Leclerc had fallen out of DRS range.
Hamilton, during this second reminder, stated,“When he’s closer, yes.” Meanwhile, a frustrated Leclerc radioed his engineer, Bryan Bozzi, lamenting, “This is a shame. The pace is there,” when he found himself stuck behind Hamilton.
The scenario took another turn when Hamilton began to narrow down the gap to George Russell. Unaired radio messages reveal that Hamilton requested a bit more time to try and overtake the Mercedes. Responding to Riccardo Adami’s command, “We want to swap this lap. Swap now,” Hamilton asserted, “I’ll tell you when we can swap.” Two corners later, on lap 21, the champion lived up to his word and let his teammate pass.
Given the limited airing of their exchange, fans have been left with a distorted view of the episode. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur even criticized the broadcast direction, calling it “a joke.”
Post-race, the radio messages were the talk of the town. Hamilton, when questioned about his decision to swap, clarified, “He just had more pace than me. I was struggling with the car, so I told the team that I was going to let him pass.”
The Scuderia had shown promise during the earlier stages of the weekend, with Hamilton winning the sprint race from pole position and leading with a seven-second gap. But the actual race told a different tale. Hamilton attributed their performance to wrong setup changes going into qualifying.
Hamilton confessed, “the [performance] window is quite narrow,” yet maintained there is potential, given they can find it. He also expressed that a race-day setup similar to the sprint might have been a wiser choice in retrospect. Nonetheless, he emphasized the positive aspects of the weekend, stating, “I think we got a clear race run in the dry. You can see where we are performance-wise; we clearly have to improve our pace.”
However, all the position manoeuvering turned out to be moot as both drivers were disqualified following the Chinese Grand Prix due to technical infringements. Leclerc was disqualified for his car being 1kg under the 798kg weight limit, and Hamilton for excessive skid plank wear. This eventful race certainly left fans and the media with much to ponder and discuss.