“Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy. My call, and I lost us valuable points. I’ll try and make up for it in the next one.”
That was Lewis Hamilton on the Ferrari radio late in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, as reported by Sky Sports.
Soon after, Fred Vasseur stood in front of the microphones and refused to let the question be reframed as a Ferrari failure. The Ferrari principal pointed to Saturday’s sprint collision between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and turned on the room.
“Did you ask so many questions to McLaren yesterday?”
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The lap-39 call
The podium slipped away on lap 39 of 62, when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin broke down and triggered a virtual safety car. Ferrari called both drivers in for a free pit stop. Charles Leclerc took it and kept third; Hamilton stayed out.
“We called him, we called them both to pit. It would have been P2-P3 because we were P2-P3 on track, and he missed the pit entry, and honestly it’s a bit of a shame because he’s losing a podium also,” Vasseur told reporters.
Stuck on tyres that had already done the long first stint, Hamilton had no answer when the race restarted. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli slipped past for third, Norris and Piastri followed, and Hamilton came home sixth. Max Verstappen won the race, with Leclerc second and Antonelli completing the podium.
Vasseur did not sugar-coat the decision itself. He called it “a mistake overall” and said Ferrari would have had both cars on the rostrum.
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Hamilton: ‘I let you down’
What the Ferrari principal would not accept was the premise that his pit wall had somehow mishandled it. He quoted Hamilton’s radio apology back at the journalists to make the point.
“We asked him to pit, it was. Don’t blame the team, guys. Clearly on the radio, he said: ‘I apologise, I let you down, it was my call.’”
Hamilton repeated the same admission on the cool-down lap, according to Vasseur, who said the driver had wanted to stay on track and had seen for himself that it had cost him a podium.
“It was crystal clear on the radio,” Vasseur said of the pit instruction.
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“But now let’s be focused on Austin.”
The United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas runs 23-25 October, with the race on Sunday 25 October.
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