Charles Leclerc made an unheard Lewis Hamilton radio demand before failed Baku position swap

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Another race without a victory passes Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc by, with teammate Lewis Hamilton’s wait for a podium for the Scuderia continuing after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Ferrari are currently sitting second in the constructors’ championship, and kept their hopes of winning the title alive by the smallest margin at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

However, team principal Fred Vasseur has had to watch 17 race weekends where his team haven’t been the quickest outfit in the paddock.

Lewis Hamilton topped FP2 earlier in the weekend and admitted that he entered qualifying hoping to challenge for pole position.

The seven-time world champion didn’t even get a chance to take part in the top 10 shootout, being eliminated in Q2 before watching Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari in the barriers before setting a lap in Q3.

With both McLarens also out of position ahead of them, it was set to be a fascinating race to see how all four drivers fared trying to make up positions.

Oscar Piastri crashed out on the opening lap after a false start, bringing an awful weekend to an end.

Norris could only finish where he started in seventh, but that was still better than Hamilton and Leclerc, who came home in eighth and ninth.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Charles Leclerc demanded to know Lewis Hamilton’s lap times at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Leclerc was initially ahead of Hamilton going into the first round of pit stops while racing against the likes of Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Norris.

However, Ferrari decided to split their drivers’ strategies, meaning Hamilton went into the final stint on the quicker medium compound.

During an unheard radio message, Leclerc demanded: “Give me a bit more pace. I’m going to go too slow.”

He then continued and said: “Yeah, come on. Give me Lewis’ lap time, because we are fighting with him.”

Ultimately, Leclerc was the quicker driver at that point until his race engineer Bryan Bozzi asked: “So Charles, do you want to swap the cars in turn one and let Lewis try with the mediums?”

There wasn’t an answer from Leclerc, but after the swap, Bozzi got back on the radio and said: “Thank you.”

Hamilton was asked to give P8 back to Leclerc going down the final straight before taking the chequered flag.

However, with Isack Hadjar lurking a couple of seconds behind Leclerc, the 40-year-old mistimed his slowdown and ended up beating his teammate by less than half a second.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Charles Leclerc admits ‘I really don’t care’ about Lewis Hamilton position swap in Baku

Speaking after the Grand Prix, via The Race, Leclerc was asked about not being given eighth place back by Hamilton, and he admitted: “I really don’t care. For an eighth place, I don’t think that this should be the talking point.

“Unfortunately, we have been very slow all weekend, and that’s what we should focus on. P8 and P9, or P9 and P8, is not something that really interests me. It’s fine.”

“I mean, there are rules that we know we’ve got to work with. And today, maybe those rules were not respected.

“But, again, P8-P9, P9-P8, that’s more going forward obviously, if we are fighting for sexier positions, which I hope it would be the case, then I hope that we will work in a different way. But on a day like that, honestly, I don’t really mind.”

Hamilton admitted that he was ‘zoned in’ on catching Norris when he received a very late call to give the place back to Leclerc.

However, he also said he would ‘apologise to Charles’ when he saw him for not giving the position back.

There’s clearly a lot of respect between Leclerc and Hamilton, but the lack of clarity when making the final swap is the perfect example of how things simply aren’t quite going to plan at Ferrari this season.