Fred Vasseur is furious with the FOM, as not all of Lewis Hamilton‘s on-board radio messages to his race engineer Riccardo Adami during the Chinese Grand Prix were broadcast. This led to a misinterpretation, as the Ferrari team boss asserts that the seven-time world champion was not given an order, but suggested himself to let Charles Leclerc pass.
Lewis Hamilton was struggling and told the pit wall that teammate Charles Leclerc could pass him in fifth position to prevent both cars from losing time. Riccardo Adami, Hamilton’s race engineer, informed him that the cars would be swapped in turn fourteen. None of these messages were broadcast, but the message in which Adami ordered to clear the way for Leclerc was. Hamilton’s response: “If he’s closer, yes,” seemed a seeming refusal to follow the team’s order.
“This is a joke from FOM, because the first call came from Lewis, that Lewis asked us to swap,” Vasseur told the media present. “But to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they only broadcast the second part of the question. I will discuss it with them.”
Lewis was allowed to keep position
The Ferrari team boss elaborates on the situation. “Then it took us a lap to ask him to swap with Charles, but then the pace was back. Lewis was then suggested: ‘Let’s stay like this for a while’. But he said: ‘No, I don’t have the pace, I will swap’,” he gave an insight.
Vasseur appreciates Hamilton’s action, but why it was handled so carelessly in the broadcast, he dares not say. “We appreciated the call from Lewis to say: ‘Guys, I’m losing the pace, I’d like to swap’. Honestly, the cooperation between the two boys is mega and I can’t complain for a second. You have to ask Stefano Domenicali, because I’m not in charge of the broadcast.”
