The Lewis Hamilton radio message that suggests he’s no longer in Mercedes pre-race meetings

Follow us on Google Discover

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wasn’t happy throughout the Singapore Grand Prix as he failed to convert a 3^rd-place start into a podium finish.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell should have been in a position to secure a podium finish between them even with a charging Oscar Piastri behind them.

However, the balance issues that have plagued Mercedes season and come and gone in the blink of an eye wasn’t the only problem that both drivers faced.

At one point in the race, Russell complained that he was dealing with both oversteer and understeer.

Reflecting on the Singapore Grand Prix for The Race, journalist and designer Gary Anderson noted something key when listening to Hamilton’s radio messages.

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

It’s no secret that Hamilton is coming to the end of his time with Mercedes.

Hamilton will be joining Charles Leclerc at Ferrari in 2025 who also didn’t have a great weekend after both drivers made mistakes in the final part of qualifying.

The 39-year-old might be hoping he’s on his way to Maranello sooner rather than later, with Mercedes unable to compete against the top three teams regularly, while Ferrari continue to chase down Red Bull in the Constructors’’ Championship.

The Mercedes radio message that suggests Lewis Hamilton no longer takes part in pre-race meetings

Mercedes decided to split their strategy and started Hamilton on the soft tyres with George Russell on the mediums.

Hamilton was the only driver starting in the top 13 not to go with the traditional strategy and appeared to be banking on either an early safety car or jumping Max Verstappen or Lando Norris off the line.

He didn’t achieve either of those feats and it wasn’t long before he was falling away from the Dutchman with Russell complaining that his teammate was slowing him down.

Hamilton pitted before all of his rivals and while the undercut was powerful, it meant he had to try and execute a much longer stint than anyone else around him.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

He was quickly picked off by other drivers and said on the team radio: “Are we the first to stop before everyone?”

His race engineer Pete Bonnington replied: “We are one of the earlier stoppers, but not the earliest,” to which Hamilton said: “Yeah, we’re in trouble there. Way too short.”

Responding to that message, Anderson said: “It seems from the Hamilton radio traffic about his pitstop – in which he’s telling Mercedes it brought him in way too soon – that he doesn’t play a pre-race part in the planning.

“Everything seems to come as a surprise to him.”

Nico Rosberg saw something ‘horrible’ from Lewis Hamilton during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend

Neither Hamilton nor Russell did media duties after the race due to feeling unwell although it’s hard to imagine either one of them would have been positive about the result.

Mercedes were arguably the biggest beneficiaries when Sainz put his car in the wall before his first run in Q3 and Leclerc fell foul to track limits almost as soon as his final flying lap began.

Not being able to finish ahead of both cars, with Leclerc able to pick off Hamilton on much fresher tyres, will be the ultimate source of frustration for Mercedes.

Toto Wolff will know what he’s doing and it’s hard to believe Hamilton isn’t giving any feedback to the team on the car or his strategy, while Nico Rosberg wasn’t a fan of one thing he saw from Hamilton in Singapore.

But given how few other teams decided to split their strategies – especially teams with a good chance of scoring points – it begs the question of what’s happening behind the scenes there.