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During the Monaco Grand Prix, a frustrated Lewis Hamilton felt miscommunication from Mercedes may have cost him a place to Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen pits to cover off Lewis Hamilton’s stop during the Monaco Grand Prix. (Image Credit: @F1 on X)This year’s Monaco Grand Prix was one of the least action-packed races of the season so far. One of the moments for potential excitement, which fizzled out to nothing, was when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen pitted. This could have led to a battle between the pair and fifth-place man George Russell.
However, Verstappen left the pits comfortably in front of Hamilton. Afterwards, the seven-time world champion complained over team radio, “Why didn’t you tell me out-lap was critical?”
Following the race, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff revealed that miscommunication between Hamilton and the team was to blame. When questioned about the incident, Wolff said:
“That was a miscommunication first between us on the pit wall that we got that wrong. It should have been an ‘out-lap critical’, trying to undercut. But then there was a debate whether any out-lap would be enough from the new tyre. And so, the message he got was at best confusing, but probably wrong.”
He continued, “It should have been an out-lap critical and the worry in the background was that if we thrashed that tyre in a single lap, then what would happen later? But in summary wrong message to Lewis [Hamilton]. This was the team’s fault.”
The team boss confirmed that they tried to undercut Verstappen with Hamilton but failed to do so after getting “the messaging completely wrong.” In fact, you can hear on the Brit’s team radio that his race engineer Peter Bonnington said, “Out-lap normal.”
"OUT-LAP NORMAL"
PERO ACÁ TENES A LOS EXPERTOS DICIENDO QUE HAMILTON NO TIENE RACECRAFT. pic.twitter.com/HYjQx6PY7x— Lewis⁴⁴ Argento ?? (@LewisHamArg44) May 26, 2024
Could Hamilton have fought Verstappen for P6 had the messaging been correct?
Hamilton provides context to the “I told you” radio message
The confusion regarding the out-lap wasn’t the only intriguing moment between Hamilton and Bonnington. Following the major crash between Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, and Nico Hulkenberg, which resulted in a red flag, Hamilton said, “I told you guys. I told you guys.”
A look at the team radio messages reacting to the red flag ?? pic.twitter.com/EcIJGqeNTs
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 26, 2024
The future Ferrari driver has now explained what he meant:
“Well, I think it was going to be long either way, whichever tyre you were on, but I wanted to start on the hard [sic]. I felt that something was going to happen at the beginning of the race and normally that would create an opportunity to switch over to the hards and go away to the end.”
He concluded, “But I think at the end of the day everyone drove so slow that it didn’t make any difference.”
Mercedes’ P5 and P7 finishes will provide solid points for the team considering Red Bull’s weekend. But close rivals McLaren and Ferrari severely outclassed the Silver Arrows this weekend.
Feature Image Credit: @MercedesAMGF1 on X