While the message Lewis Hamilton sent to Mercedes on the team radio wasn’t played on live TV, video of it has now emerged online
Looking set to walk away with a record eight drivers’ championship title as he controlled proceedings on the night, Lewis Hamilton had an impending win snatched away from him.
Things went from perfect to dismal for the Brit with a measly five laps left to race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021. As the race was winding up, Nicholas Latifi went crashing into the barriers, an accident which prompted the safety car to come out.
Video Emerges Of Message Lewis Hamilton Sent To Mercedes On The Team Radio After Losing
Michael Masi, the FIA race director went onto inform teams that overtaking wouldn’t be allowed as Red Bull called in Max Verstappen to pit for a fresh change of soft tyres. However, all it needed the Australian were four minutes to change his school of thought with him deciding it was now prudent to allow five lapped cars to overtake.
Race engineer Peter Bonnington informed Hamilton of the decision as he said, “Safety car in this lap, just prepare your tyres, you’ll have overtake for each of the straights, one lap to run.”
Peter came back on the radio as Hamilton ended up losing the race to Verstappen with video footage of what said between him and the Brit surfacing online. While the message wasn’t played on live TV, it was on F1 TV with Hamilton claiming that the race had been manipulated.
Hamilton who sat in silence for two minutes after his defeat went onto say in the team radio, “This has been manipulated, man.”
“I’m just speechless Lewis, absolutely speechless,” came the response from Bonnington.