Unheard radio reveals why Hamilton missed Russell’s (nearly) race-winning technique · RaceFans

Throughout the two-and-a-half hour window between George Russell profitable the Belgian Grand Prix and him being disqualified, a dismayed Lewis Hamilton was making an attempt to work out how his crew mate had come from behind to beat him.

Hamilton took the lead early within the race however when he made his second pit cease Russell rose to the entrance. Russell then persuaded Mercedes to not carry him in a second time, which received him the race on-track, although the extra put on this induced to his tyres might have led to his subsequent disqualification.

That element was not but identified when a despondent Hamilton claimed he had wished the identical technique as his crew mate. “In the event you pay attention [to the radio chatter] you possibly can have heard what I mentioned to the crew more often than not.

“I feel the tyres had been fairly good. I nonetheless had loads of tyres and I used to be going faster. I didn’t need to cease.”

However as Mercedes’ radio chatter from the race reveals, whereas Hamilton was clearly starting to suppose his second set of tyres may go the gap as he approached the pits on lap 26, he wasn’t able to decide to it.

Hamilton and Russell’s Belgian GP radio

Bounce to:

“Goal plus eight”
“The tyres are nonetheless good although”
“I’m nonetheless going inexperienced”
“So that’s George forward”
“Am I on the right track to beat him or not?”
“Are you saying Piastri’s behind me?”
“Give one another loads of house”
“Tyre whisperer!”

“Goal plus eight”

By lap 20, all of the entrance runners had made their first pit stops. Hamilton was main Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

Russell had simply moved up into fourth place by overtaking Sergio Perez with a transfer which inspired his race engineer Marcus Dudley.

At this stage Mercedes anticipated to pit each their drivers a second time. Nevertheless they’d already seen the tyre life was higher than they forecast: Hamilton was instructed he would make his second cease 4 laps later than deliberate, Russell eight:

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“The tyres are nonetheless good although”

Leclerc made his second pit cease on lap 25, which prompted Mercedes to take motion. Hamilton was summoned in on the subsequent lap.

He was clearly hesitant about committing to a second cease, telling the crew greater than as soon as his tyres had been nonetheless in fine condition. However his race engineer Peter Bonnington instructed him the crew wished to make sure they didn’t fall behind Leclerc.

Russell, who was keeping track of his rivals’ actions utilizing the video screens across the circuits, would have understood the implications of Leclerc’s pit cease for Mercedes’ technique. Approaching the ultimate chicane and the pit lane entrance, he additionally instructed Mercedes his tyres had been in fine condition:

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“I’m nonetheless going inexperienced”

Whereas Mercedes started to fret the place Russell’s second pit cease was going to depart him, he pressed the crew to gamble on not bringing him in once more. Inside a few laps they’d come round to the concept:

“So that’s George forward”

Hamilton emerged from his pit cease behind Piastri and Russell, who had been but to pit.

His second pit cease gave Mercedes essential data which seemingly emboldened them to stay with Russell’s one-stop technique. Neither driver had run the onerous tyres in follow, and when the primary set got here off Hamilton’s automotive within the race they found the damage was decrease than anticipated. They reported this again to Hamilton, and checked that Russell was comfortable to not pit once more:

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“Am I on the right track to beat him or not?”

McLaren didn’t threat a one-stop for Piastri, which put Russell within the lead of the race forward of Hamilton, who was gaining by round half a second per lap. Hamilton checked along with his crew whether or not he was on target to catch Russell, and was instructed there wouldn’t be a lot in it:

“Are you saying Piastri’s behind me?”

In a short second of confusion, it emerged Hamilton hadn’t instantly realised Piastri had pitted and dropped behind him. Other than updates on the gaps between the 2 Mercedes drivers, the radios more and more fell quiet as they raced to the top.

Russell later mentioned this was the stage within the race the place he realised he had a real probability to win.

“I used to be watching the TV screens each lap, down after Eau Rouge, and searching on the hole. They only weren’t catching me as fast as I anticipated and my lap occasions had been simply enhancing each single lap.

“That was removed from what all of us anticipated. However it simply goes to indicate how tough it’s to foretell. I feel each lap we had been driving, 20 drivers, full gasoline round this circuit and it was simply getting sooner and sooner. The grip was enhancing and the tyres simply felt actually in an important state.”

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“Give one another loads of house”

As Hamilton lastly drew inside vary, the Mercedes pit wall grew anxious on the chance a late collision may price them a one-two. However overtaking proved so tough at Spa it by no means seemed like a practical end result.

“Tyre whisperer!”

At the same time as Hamilton drew nearer in his crew mate’s turbulent air, he continued to chip down his lead till the penultimate lap. With that, Russell had seemingly made it.

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Russell wasn’t the one driver to finish the race with a single cease – the Aston Martin drivers did the identical, as did Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda. However he was the one driver among the many 4 main groups to take action.

“I used to be nonetheless questioning why no person else did it,” he admitted afterwards. “I assumed ‘I have to be lacking one thing right here’ as a result of all people’s peeling into the pits.”

Sadly for Russell, his doubts turned out to be misplaced as his automotive fell one-and-a-half kilograms shy of the minimal weight restrict after the chequered flag and he was disqualified. Suspicion inevitably fell on the unanticipated further tyre put on as the reason for the infringement, although it stays to be seen whether or not another issue was additionally at play.

As for Hamilton, if he felt silly at first for not pushing for a similar technique as his crew mate, that will need to have been changed by reduction when phrase of Russell’s disqualification got here by means of.