Lewis Hamilton explains what he meant by telling Mercedes they had put him in a “difficult position” by running behind his teammates George Russell at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton overtook Russell in the race until a late arrival of the Safety Car allowed the new Mercedes to stop the pit in less time than usual.
That quick stop gave Russell the lead over Hamilton, who quickly became the podium finisher when Max Verstappen’s The Red Bull has a problem.
During the ending period of Melbourne raceas he was running just over a second behind the other Mercedes, a curious radio message was broadcast from Hamilton over TV coverage.
Hamilton, who finished fourth, said: “You guys really put me in a difficult position.”
F1 driver radio messages are often broadcast out of sync with the time they occur, and sometimes lack the context of the rest of the conversation. This conversation does not come with any of Hamilton’s previous conversations with the Mercedes pit wall.
After the race, Hamilton said it had something to do with his need to step back and run in the open air because his engine was overheating.
“I basically couldn’t race for position because the car was too hot, so I had to step back,” Hamilton said.
When asked to clarify that was not an allusion to being behind Russell, he simply replied: “Because the car was too hot.”
Despite his disappointment at not being able to finish on the podium, Hamilton is elated to see how Mercedes has turned around a difficult weekend.
“It’s an incredible result for us as a team. It’s a positive result,” he said.
“We had more than a second off on Friday and it wasn’t spectacular at the time. We did some great work overnight to qualify in the third row and then a starter. I was in third place and it was great to fight, or to feel like we were fighting for a podium in that moment.
“Obviously we couldn’t hold up to the pace of the Red Bulls. Although we didn’t necessarily improve the car over these three races, I think we really took the best we could. From my side, I allow the team that went down in the last race and didn’t get the points, but to leave with this result is very good.”
