Ferrari had an eventful F1 Chinese GP as Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Fred Vasseur ended up having a day to forget.
Before the drama of the double disqualification that spoiled the Tifosi’s race day, it seemed that FOM had been attempting to generate drama of their own.
The international broadcast only aired certain team radio messages with regard to Lewis Hamilton swapping places with Charles Leclerc.
Team boss Fred Vasseur says FOM “created a mess” around F1 Chinese GP Leclerc-Hamilton swap team-radio. He called the situation “a joke” – but it is one that he is not laughing at.
The airwaves shaped a very different story
Prior to the DQ, Leclerc came home in P5. He did so after managing to complete almost the entire race with a damaged front wing end fence. An outcome unfortunately caused due to contact with teammate Hamilton on the opening lap of Sunday’s race.
Such is the durability of modern F1 cars, Leclerc’s SF-25 seemed unaffected and had an impressive pace. This saw Hamilton suggest on team radio to swap the cars. However, the airwaves shaped a very different story.
With only partial messages shared on the international broadcast, team boss Vasseur labelled the situation “a joke”. This was in post-race remarks when he claimed FOM are trying to create the show as opposed to present the reality.
A team player and a gentleman all in one message
Having won Saturday’s Sprint, expectation was high for what Hamilton would do next. Unfortunately, P5 in qualifying was the best he could manage. On race day, the much-loved racer never seemed to have the pace he is capable of.
When the Brit saw that his Monegasque teammate had caught him up (after both drivers had pitted), the experience of Hamilton came to the fore: “I think I’m going to let Charles go, because I’m struggling.”
A mature mindset from the seven-time F1 Drivers’ Champion. A noble gesture, a team player and a gentleman all in one message. Yet it was one that wasn’t aired to the wider viewing public either at home or in the grandstands.
Having made this suggestion, Hamilton was told to manage the tyres more and that the team would look to do the swap at Turn 14. Again, this message was not broadcast on the international feed.
At this stage, both drivers had an obstacle ahead in the form of Lance Stroll. The Canadian was passed by Hamilton at Turn 14 but the ‘swapping positions’ window had now closed. This was because it took two more corners for Leclerc to make the move on the Aston Martin driver.
Having been delayed, Leclerc was now out of DRS range so any swap would have to wait. When team radio next occurred it was for Hamilton to be told: “We are swapping cars Turn 14” to which his reply was – “when he’s closer, yes”.
A silver arrow in his sight
This exchange was broadcast and also heard by the sold-out Shanghai GP racegoers. It led to some laughing or cheering Hamilton’s defiance. A rare few were daring to criticise the attitude of the champion.
Soon after, Hamilton had realised there was an opportunity ahead – George Russell. Hamilton could see his prancing horse ironically had a silver arrow in his sight. Hamilton told the team: “If he [Leclerc] can’t get the guys ahead, he can let us back [in front]…right now, I’m closing up a little bit”. To the delight of Team LH in the grandstand – their man was back on it and in the hunt.
Nevertheless, “We want to swap this lap. Swap now,” was the order that followed from race engineer Riccardo Adami to which Hamilton replied “I’ll tell you when we can swap” – and did so a few corners later.
Team boss Vasseur was unimpressed by FOM antics at F1 Chinese GP
This situation epitomised forward thinking from Hamilton – as the swap was his call. As it played out very differently on the broadcast airwaves, Vasseur was unimpressed.
“I think this is a joke [from FOM] because the first call came from Lewis – that Lewis asked us to swap,” said Vasseur in his post-race media session at the F1 Chinese GP, albeit before his team’s double DQ.
“But to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question – I will discuss with them.”
Vasseur was asked if he would have looked to swap the cars anyway had Hamilton not suggested it in the opening stages of the F1 Chinese GP.
“I think we have to work for the team and to consider that we have to do the best for Ferrari,” said Vasseur. “It’s agreed between the cars and the drivers before the race and it’s not an issue. Even the best proof of this is that it came from the drivers: ‘OK, I’m losing the pace that I’m keen to swap’.”
Sunday’s post-race press conference also showed that the Ferrari team boss is perhaps not overly pleased with some sections of the media.
He showed this when asked for his thoughts about the 2030 and 2035 engine. Having explained that this was not the right conference for such a discussion as it is post-race comments, he then said, “I can say that I would love one day to have a V10 or V12 into the car.”
Interestingly though, Vasseur then followed by saying, “Don’t forget the ‘one day’ because today I think everybody is able to forget part of the sentence.”
A deliberate attempt to try and build a kind of narrative?
This apparent distrust of some media showed itself again when Vasseur was asked: is there a deliberate attempt to try and build a kind of narrative – especially with the amount of messages in the main feed in Australia?
Before the question was fully concluded the man steering the ship at Maranello spoke:
“No, but I don’t want to be harsh with all of you but you made a huge storyline,” before giving a lighthearted laugh. “You made a huge mess last week on the message between the engineer and Lewis. Honestly, when Lewis came back to the briefing room he said to his engineer ‘good job’.
“But because they are discussing how to use K1 and ‘don’t speak when I am in the fight’, I had tons of questions: ‘Ah is it a mess?’ but no, that’s life. And we are just there to get performance…You can’t imagine the number of questions that I had about this from the garage when I came here. It’s all about the same thing: ‘Is it a mess?!’
The teamwork between Leclerc and Hamilton in F1 Chinese GP was fantastic says Vasseur
“No, it’s Lewis who asked to swap. I’m not even sure you will have this kind of situation 10 times during the season in other teams. And honestly from the pit wall we really appreciated the call from Lewis to say, ‘Guys I’m losing the pace, I’m keen to swap’. And then it took us one lap to ask him to swap with Charles. Then the pace was back. He said ‘oh no let’s stay like this a little bit.’ And then he said ‘no, I don’t have the pace, I swap.
“Honestly as a team, the collaboration between the two guys is mega! I can’t complain a single second about something.”
Having been able to get these thoughts off his chest Vasseur concluded the press conference saying: “Now, I understand your question, and you have to ask the question to Stefano [Domenicali, F1 boss] not to me, because I’m not in charge of the broadcast and the realisation.”
A change in approach
Netflix Drive to Survive has successfully opened up the world of Formula One to a wider audience. However, one of the criticisms directed towards the streaming series is the editing of certain scenes to generate a narrative.
One of the more controversial moments from the series was a scene of Max Verstappen sat in the cool down room looking dejected after Lando Norris’ Miami GP victory. In actual fact, the scene of Verstappen was actually from Zandvoort. Also, many race fans know how delighted the Dutchman was to see his rival claim a maiden F1 win. Verstappen has previously said he was “not surprised” to see the doctored clip.
This latest broadcasting team radio incident in Shanghai did however surprise many F1 fans on alert. To borrow a famous 2021 phrase from Lewis Hamilton ‘it’s being manipulated man’.
With Vasseur calling the incident “a joke” one can hope that a change in approach will be taken after the Frenchman speaks with FOM. We can imagine the content of that conversation not being broadcast anytime soon.
