Well discuss what went wrong: Hamilton and Verstappen team radio transcript analysis · RaceFans – RaceFans

When Max Verstappen seized the lead of the Spanish Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver began a race-long pursuit of his rival.

Desperate not to lose his lead through the pit stops, Verstappen took the surprising step of pitting before his team told him to. That led to a sluggish pit stop, which Mercedes could have taken advantage of.

Instead they decided against bringing Hamilton in, and used a second pit stop later in the race to chase down the Red Bull on fresher tyres.

Both drivers felt the strain. Hamilton doubted he would be able to overcome Verstappen’s 22-second lead, while his rival grew frustrated at the need to push as hard as possible while preserving his fading tyres. Hamilton finally caught passed his rival for the lead with six laps to go.

Their team radio communications between the drivers and race engineers Peter Bonnington and Giampiero Lambiase reveal every punch and counter-punch of a fight for victory which was fought on the track and in the pits.

Laps 1-7: Verstappen seizes the lead

Verstappen made a fractionally better start from second place on the grid and dived past pole-winner Hamilton to lead the race. He reported some hesitation from his car early in the race, but that was the only time either driver reported any technical trouble during the grand prix.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
1	Bonnington	So Leclerc car behind at 0.9.
2	Bonnington	So Verstappen 1.6 ahead, Leclerc, 1.8 behind.	Lambiase	Mode six, mode by six before turn 10. Gap at 1.3.
2	Bonnington	HPP3 position two when you can, three position two.	Lambiase	And display eight, not urgent.
2	Bonnington	Verstappen at 1.8, last lap 23.5.	Lambiase	Gap at 1.5, 1.5.
2			Verstappen	Massive lag out of turn 10 again, odd gear.
3	Bonnington	And DRS has been enabled. Verstappen at 1.9. Last lap was a 23.2.	Lambiase	Copy that Max. Gap behind at 1.7.
4			Lambiase	Gap at 1.9. Leclerc’s P3. Gap to Leclerc, 5.7.
4			Lambiase	Okay, the only loss at this stage to Hamilton was at turn 14, different compromise, Hamilton quick in, slow out of 14, 15.
5	Bonnington	Verstappen 1.7, lap time 23.2.	Lambiase	Gap at 1.6.
5	Bonnington	Verstappen at 1.6, last lap 23.2.	Lambiase	That was all sector one in the last lap.
6	Bonnington	Only loss to Verstappen min speed turn 12.	Lambiase	Hamilton, less management turn three and turn nine at the moment.
6	Bonnington	And gap to Verstappen 1.5 last lap 23.2.
7			Lambiase	Okay Max, how’s the balance please?
7			Verstappen	All okay.

Laps 8-12: Safety Car

Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri came to a stop at turn 10 with a loss of power. The Safety Car had to be deployed to recover his car.

Verstappen kept his lead from Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas behind them regained the nine seconds they had lost before it came out.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
8	Bonnington	Gap at 1.6, last lap, 23.1.	Lambiase	Understood.
8	Bonnington	And we have a yellow down at turn 11.	Lambiase	Double yellows, turn 10, 11. Double yellows, turn 10, 11.
8	Bonnington	Double yellow, double yellow. So car on the outside.	Lambiase	Safety Car deployed. Safety Car deployed. Dash positive, dash positive. Recharge on.
8	Bonnington	So Safety Car, staying out, staying out. Keep the delta positive.
9	Bonnington	So just stay on that delta. Safety Car exit turn two at the moment.	Lambiase	Safety Car at turn one ahead of you. So Leclerc stayed out, Bottas has stayed out, Ricciardo stayed out, Perez has stayed out.
9	Bonnington	Lewis just give us an update on balance.	Lambiase	Okay focus on keeping some temperature in your tyres for the moment.
9	Hamilton	Rear’s, rear’s starting to wear.	Lambiase	B-bal seven, b-bal seven.
9	Bonnington	OK, copy.	Lambiase	Okay Max as I said, other than Hamilton’s tow, he’s using a little bit more of his tyres in turns three and nine initially.
9	Hamilton	It’s hard to get close here.	Lambiase	Are you happy with your tools available?
9	Bonnington	Yeah, copy. We’re happy with the pace. Looks good.	Verstappen	Yeah all good so far.
9	Bonnington	So Lewis, nobody’s taken the Safety Car pit stop. So it looks like most people are on the one-stop.	Lambiase	Understood.
9	Bonnington	So Safety Car is in this lap, you’ve got strat mode five selected, so you’ve good to go. Overtake is available.	Lambiase	In terms of the field spread behind us, it was opening up pretty quickly. We pretty much had a Safety Car stop over Leclerc who was in P3.
9
10	Bonnington	Just cancel magic, good to go.	Lambiase	Okay brake warming procedure Max. And use your DRS.
10	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen one second, Leclerc 1.4 behind.	Lambiase	So the main tyre to look after it is still the front-left, that’s the leading corner, Max, but you’re doing a relatively good job with those temperatures.
10			Lambiase	Okay mode three and b-bal three, the Safety Car is in this lap. Mode three, b-bal three and the b-bal offset, we will leave to you. Tyres are cold at this stage, so bring them in nicely, don’t over-slip the fronts. And reminder you are racing from the line.
10			Lambiase	So from here, it’s just recharge off when you’re ready. Safety Car is at 15. Safety Car is in pit lane now.
11			Verstappen	Which mode?
11			Lambiase	As you are.
11			Lambiase	Gap at one second.
12	Bonnington	And gap at 1.1.	Lambiase	Gap at one second.

Laps 13-21: Verstappen feels the pressure

When the race restarted, Verstappen couldn’t draw away from Hamilton. The Mercedes driver sat within two seconds of him, threatening to jump into the pits as soon as the opportunity presented itself to get onto fresher tyres and ultimately take the lead of the race, as he had in Bahrain.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
13	Bonnington	And DRS has been enabled. Gap at 1.1, last lap 23.0.	Lambiase	DRS now enabled.
13			Lambiase	Gap?
13			Lambiase	One second.
14	Bonnington	Gap at 1.1, last lap 23.2.
15	Bonnington	Gap at 1.3, last lap a 23.2.	Lambiase	One second. Gap 1.2, 1.2.
16			Verstappen	I need the more aggressive pull toggle.
16			Lambiase	Display 14, display one four, position 11, position one one.
17	Bonnington	Gap at one second, last lap 23.5.	Lambiase	Mode six, mode six.
17	Hamilton	Tyres are starting to drop.	Lambiase	Strat nine, position two, not urgent.
17	Bonnington	OK copy. Gap at 1.2. Last lap 23.3.
18	Bonnington	Lewis can you go menu dash position five, position five. You are target minus two, target minus two.	Lambiase	Gap at 1.2 gap at 1.2.
18			Lambiase	Okay Max, can you toggle the engine for me, please? Engine 11 position four. Engine 11 position four, then back to position five. Thank you.
19	Hamilton	We’re going to have to take wing out. A hole and a half down.	Lambiase	Strat 10 position two when you can. Strat 10 position two when you can.
19	Bonnington	Copy.
19	Bonnington	And gap at 1.3. Last lap 23.3.
20	Bonnington	Gap at 1.5 last lap 23.3.	Lambiase	And Max could I have a strat six update please when you can for the next stint. Not urgent. Strat six update.
20			Lambiase	Gap at 1.4.
21	Bonnington	Lewis can you go HPP three position four, three position four. Then HPP seven position four.	Lambiase	Gap 1.5. Keep it up Max, good job.

Laps 22-27: Verstappen’s surprise pit stop

Whatever Red Bull’s intention for Verstappen’s first pit stop was, he caught them off-guard when he appeared in the pits unannounced on lap 24. They sent him on his way with a fresh set of medium tyres, but lost around two seconds compared to a normal pit stop.

On the lap before he came in, Verstappen told his team to look at his tyre set and they discussed his “final front wing update”. Perhaps these were intended as coded triggers for a pit stop without alerting Hamilton behind.

“We’ll discuss after the race what went wrong,” Verstappen said after he returned to the track. Mercedes chose not to respond to Verstappen’s pit stop immediately.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
22	Bonnington	And Lewis can you go menu dash position six, dash position six. Gap at 1.1 last lap 23.5.
23	Bonnington	Lewis you’re now target minus one.	Lambiase	Gap at one second.
24			Lambiase	Strat…
24			Verstappen	Mate, look at my tyre set.
24			Lambiase	Strat seven position one, please, strat seven position one.
24			Lambiase	Blue flags for Mazepin ahead. And Max final front wing update for next stint please.
24			Verstappen	Yeah it’s okay.
24			Lambiase	Understood.
25	Bonnington	Tyres are okay.	Lambiase	Strat 12.
25	Bonnington	Copy.	Lambiase	Strat eight, white line on the exit. Strat eight, white line on the exit.
25	Bonnington	Slow stop for Verstappen.	Lambiase	Ricciardo is pitting ahead.
25	Bonnington	He has Perez and Riccardo as traffic.
25	Hamilton	Do I keep going?
25	Bonnington	Affirm. Keep it down.
25	Hamilton	Blue flags.
25	Bonnington	Copy.
25	Hamilton	Blue flags.
26	Bonnington	Copy Lewis. We are going to go target plus six.	Lambiase	Currently one second safe to Hamilton.
26	Bonnington	Understood.	Lambiase	Okay Max we’re currently 2.5 seconds safe to Hamilton now. So look after your tyres, both front left and rear left were a limitation. Hamilton going long.
26	Bonnington	Verstappen predicted 22.3.	Verstappen	Yeah okay. We’ll discuss after the race what went wrong.
27	Bonnington	So Lewis, it won’t be long. Currently unsafe to Verstappen, four seconds, predicted a 22.9.	Lambiase	Yeah I know what’s happened.
27			Verstappen	It’s okay.
27			Lambiase	Reset all your switches please Max for the moment. Reset your switches including tyre.
27			Lambiase	23.1 for Hamilton.

Laps 28-29: Mercedes respond

By pitting four laps later than Verstappen, Hamilton passed up the chance to jump into the lead, ensuring instead he banked a tyre life advantage over his rival.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
28	Bonnington	Let us know if you’re happy down 1.5.	Lambiase	Okay so Hamilton in pit lane. You’re past him now.
28	Hamilton	Yep.
28	Bonnington	Okay Lewis, box box.
29	Bonnington	So out-lap normal, reset your diff.	Lambiase	Gap to Hamilton 5.5.
29	Bonnington	Valtteri car behind.	Lambiase	Gap at six seconds.
29	Bonnington	Lewis you’re five laps offset on tyre. Gap to Verstappen six seconds.	Lambiase	Okay so think about your tyre management now for this stint Max. Could be 42 laps, 42 laps on this tyre to the end.
29	Bonnington	Verstappen 23.2.
29	Bonnington	That gap now 5.8. Your B mig is in error. So last lap was a 22.5.

Laps 30-41: Hamilton closes in again

With fresher rubber and a quicker car, Hamilton cruised up to the back of Verstappen. While Mercedes had another set of medium tyres ready for Hamilton, Red Bull had only softs for Verstappen, so a second pit stop for them at this stage was out of the question.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
30	Bonnington	That gap down to 4.4. Last lap 22.6.	Verstappen	Are you happy with these inputs?
30	Bonnington	Now at 2.8, last lap 22.7.	Lambiase	Stand by, Max.
31			Lambiase	Gap 4.2.
31			Lambiase	Okay Max, the limitation is the rear-left, rear-left tyre.
31			Lambiase	Happy with your metrics so far.
32	Bonnington	And gap at 1.7 last lap 22.4.	Verstappen	Can you repeat that last one?
32			Lambiase	Happy with your tyre metrics. Gap at 2.7.
32			Lambiase	Mode six, mode six.
33	Bonnington	And gap at one second. Last lap 22.1.	Lambiase	There’ll be blue flags for Mazepin ahead. Gap behind 1.6. Last lap 21.4.
34	Bonnington	Gap at one second.	Lambiase	Gap at 1.0.
35			Lambiase	At one second.
35			Verstappen	Can you let me know the gap a bit sooner?
35			Lambiase	Understood.
35			Lambiase	Gap at 0.9.
36	Bonnington	Go menu dash position three, dash position three.	Lambiase	Engine eight position four when you can, engine eight position four.
36			Lambiase	Gap at 1.1.
37			Lambiase	And you are approaching blue flags for Schumacher ahead.
38	Bonnington	May be traffic on exit.	Lambiase	Gap at 0.9.
38	Hamilton	Hard to follow here.	Lambiase	1.1.
39	Bonnington	OK copy. Can you go SAM Mode two, SAM Mode two?	Lambiase	1.1.
39	Bonnington	Lewis can you go HHP three position two, three position two.
40	Bonnington	Gap ahead 1.2.	Verstappen	Is the wind picking up?
40	Bonnington	Lewis can you go menu dash five, menu dash five and let us know if the balance is better on this medium.	Lambiase	I think it’s just variable gusts at the moment, Max. On average, wind speed looks similar.
40			Lambiase	0.9. And strat nine position two, strat nine position two when you can.
41	Hamilton	Nope, need more out.	Lambiase	Gap at 0.9.

Laps 42-44: Mercedes gamble on a second stop

Hamilton appeared quick enough to pass Verstappen on the track. But Mercedes thought he would have a better chance later in the race when Verstappen’s tyres were even older.

As Hamilton arrived at the chicane on lap 42 he was told to pit – as late as Mercedes dared to leave it, to avoid tipping off Red Bull. Even so pitting at this stage was a risk. Had another Safety Car period occured, Verstappen would have had the chance of making a ‘free’ pit stop.

Strikingly, both strategists immediately recognised the similarity to a previous race. Hamilton used the same tactics to win the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, and they proved just as successful the second time.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
42	Bonnington	Okay Lewis box opposite Verstappen, box box opposite Verstappen.	Verstappen	(Unclear)
42			Lambiase	Blue flags for Latifi ahead.
42			Lambiase	Gap 0.8.
42			Lambiase	Hamilton in this lap. Could be Hungary all over again here.
43	Bonnington	Out-lap critical. Let’s go strat five.	Lambiase	And strat 10 position two please Max. Strat 10 position two when you can.
43	Bonnington	You’re all clear on exit. Leclerc car behind, six seconds.	Lambiase	24 laps remaining, 24 laps.
43	Bonnington	Front brakes are really hot.	Lambiase	Hamilton scrub medium.
43	Bonnington	So Verstappen hasn’t reacted.
43	Bonnington	Can we have chassis default 84 chassis default eight four.
44	Hamilton	How far have I’ve got to catch up?
44	Bonnington	Currently 22 seconds. We’ve done it before.
44	Bonnington	And target lap time low 21, low 21.
44	Bonnington	Lewis can we go menu position two just get out of the default. And go to strat mode seven when you can.

Laps 45: The chase

Hamilton was concerned about the gap to Verstappen, but not the fact they had a car between them. Bottas could be expected to offer little resistance to his team mate. Though while he was reminded more than once not to hold his team mate up, Hamilton said nothing about the team’s other car as he bore down on it, even as he lost 1.4 seconds diving past on lap 52.

Verstappen never encountered his team mate on the track. But his frustration showed when his team advised him where he might find lap time compared to his team mate, aware that Hamilton was closing in.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
45	Hamilton	That’s a massive gap.	Lambiase	Okay, 22 laps remaining. Gap to Lewis, 21.3. His last lap was a 20.7. At this rate, he would catch us on the last lap.
45	Bonnington	Yeah that’s a cracking lap time, Lewis, though. Verstappen was a 23.0.	Lambiase	Blues for Russell ahead.
45	Bonnington	So P3 at the moment. Valtteri ahead, nine seconds. Valtteri doing 22.0. A
45	Bonnington	And target lap time now high 20s, high 20s.
46	Hamilton	Yeah man, I’m trying.
46	Hamilton	Let me know about my progress.
46	Bonnington	And gap to Verstappen 18.8. Last lap was a 22.4.
47	Hamilton	How many laps left?	Lambiase	20 laps remaining.
47	Bonnington	20 laps.	Lambiase	Mode 10, mode 10.
47	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen 17.6. Last lap a 22.6.	Lambiase	Blue flags for Gasly ahead.
47			Verstappen	I don’t see how we are going to make it to the end.
48	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen 15.7. Last lap a 23.0. He’s reporting struggling with his tyres.	Lambiase	Understood, Max. Keep focussed.
50	Bonnington	And gap to Verstappen 13.7, last lap 23.0.	Lambiase	Engine 11 position six, engine eleven position six.
50	Bonnington	Valtteri ahead, 2.6 seconds. Verstappen, 12.6, last lap 22.3.	Lambiase	There’ll be blue flags for Mazepin ahead.
51	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen 11.1.	Lambiase	Max, losses to Checo turn four, braking turn 10.
51			Verstappen	Yeah but mate I’m fucking racing with Lewis behind me, trying to keep up with him with his pace and I’m fucking my tyres so what do you want me to do?
52	Bonnington	Okay Lewis is back in P2. Got Verstappen 11.5 ahead, 14 laps remaining.	Lambiase	Just information.
53	Bonnington	And gap to Verstappen at 10.9. Last lap 22.2	Lambiase	14 laps remaining. Gap to Hamilton 11 seconds.
54	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen at 8.9. last lap 22.5,	Lambiase	That’s much better pace Max, keep it up. It is just turn 10 entry, that’s all.
55	Hamilton	Might not have any tyre left at the end.	Lambiase	You’ll be getting blue flags for Ocon ahead.
55	Bonnington	Copy Lewis, we think Verstappen may have less.
55	Hamilton	He definitely will, he will.
55	Bonnington	Verstappen 6.9 ahead, gap 22.7.
56	Bonnington	Gap to Verstappen at 4.9. Last lap was a 22.9.
57	Bonnington	And that gap now at 3.2. Verstappen 22.6.	Lambiase	Mode six, Mode six.
57			Lambiase	That’s 10 laps remaining.

Laps 58-60: Hamilton moves in for the kill

There was a brief period of radio silence at Mercedes as Hamilton closed in and performed a straightforward pass on Verstappen for the lead. It looked a foregone conclusion, and neither driver remarked on it.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
58	Bonnington	Okay Lewis gap at 1.7. Last lap 22.4. I’ll just leave you to it.	Lambiase	Nine laps remaining. Gap at three seconds.
59			Lambiase	Okay so once you use the overtake it will be mode eight in combination with the overtake button.
59			Lambiase	0.8.
59			Lambiase	0.6.
60	Bonnington	That’s what we talk about Lewis, nice work.	Verstappen	Is Bottas in our pit window?
60	Bonnington	So it’ll be six lap remaining.	Lambiase	Negative. Box and pit confirm, please. Box, pit confirm Max.
60	Bonnington	So Verstappen in the pits, six laps remaining.	Lambiase	Strat 12, strat 12.

Laps 61-64: Verstappen’s consolation point

Alert as ever to the strategic options on offer, Verstappen immediately spied the chance to grab the bonus point for fastest lap by making an extra pit stop to fit fresh tyres. He closed on Hamilton quickly enough that Mercedes decided they couldn’t risk doing the same with the race leader.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
61	Hamilton	[Unclear]	Lambiase	Strat eight, strat eight.
61	Bonnington	Negative.	Lambiase	White line on the exit. So Mazepin alongside you. Let’s try to get past him and then we’ll sort ourselves out. So focus on charging the battery at the moment. Bottas six seconds behind. He’s got two cars ahead of him before yourself. So just get yourself ahead of Mazepin.
61	Bonnington	Okay Lewis, five to go, let’s just bring it home.	Verstappen	What is the gap to somebody in front?
61			Lambiase	Mode nine please, mode nine. The gap ahead is 10 seconds, that is not an issue. We’ll monitor that.
61			Verstappen	How much do I need to go faster?
61			Lambiase	So fastest lap currently Checo 19.4. So that’s minus two seconds on your dash. Recharge on now. Recharge on. Strat one and mode one when you’re ready. Obviously recharge off. So as I say minus two on your dash for fastest lap.
62	Hamilton	They going to get the fastest lap?
62	Bonnington	Verstappen will be closing our pit window very soon, so we don’t want to take the risk.
63	Bonnington	Lewis just information but it feels like the wind’s picking up now.	Lambiase	Strat eight and mode nine, please.
63			Lambiase	Four laps remaining.
63			Lambiase	So we just want to stay within Hamilton’s pit window. Last lap 21.6 to Hamilton.
64	Hamilton	Yep.	Lambiase	It’ll be blue flags for Norris ahead.
64	Bonnington	Lewis you can go strat mode five to the end. Two laps to go.

Laps 65-66: Hamilton brings it home

With little else to do in the closing laps, Hamilton’s thoughts turned to the start of the race, and what more he might have done to keep Verstappen behind.

After the chequered flag the Mercedes team congratulated themselves on a well-played tactical win. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reflected that Mercedes were able to do what they did because of the gap behind the leaders. Had Sergio Perez been there, that might not have been the case.

But as Verstappen made clear in the press conference a few minutes later, the reason for Red Bull’s defeat was simple: They were “too slow”.

Lap	Hamilton’s radio messages		Verstappen’s radio messages
65			Lambiase	Two laps remaining.
66	Hamilton	Was my start on target?	Lambiase	Final lap.
66	Bonnington	Copy Lewis, start was on target.	Lambiase	Okay Max fail 84 please, fail 84. Nice work today.
66	Bonnington	Get in there, Lewis. What a great drive, man! You made that strategy work beautifully. And go strat one when you can.
End	Vowles	Lewis it’s James, well done mate, impressive drive.	Verstappen	Yeah just too slow. It’s impossible to keep them behind.
End	Hamilton	Thanks James, great job with the strategy. Definitely had to work for it but that was a good race. Absolutely great. Well done.	Horner	That was a good effort, Max. Yeah, I don’t know what else we could have done there, but good effort.
End	Wolff	Yeah Lewis perfect combination create great strategy and bold and great, great driving. Congratulations.	Horner	Unfortunately, like Hungary, they had a free stop behind them, so they had all the options.
End	Hamilton	Congrats Toto. And to you.	Verstappen	Yeah. It helps a lot when you are clearly just faster. So I think it doesn’t really matter if they would have done a one or a two.
End	Hamilton	To all the men and women at this team, man, you guys just continue to impress me and the more we continue to achieve together. Thank you so much for the hard work. Let’s keep pushing.	Horner	Yeah, they definitely looked like they got the upper hand in race pace today.
End	Bonnington	Copy Lewis, we’ll keep pushing to the end. You certainly impressive today, as always.
End	Hamilton	Set-up was sweet, Bono.
End	Bonnington	Cheers bud. Really great work this weekend.

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