LEWIS HAMILTON has refused to apologise to his Ferrari bosses after his heated outburst on the team radio during the Formula One Miami Grand Prix.
Hamilton enjoyed an impressive Saturday by claiming a podium in the Sprint Race with a superb strategy call to change tyres.
But Sunday saw him finish P8 in another frustrating feature race.
The Brit is yet to finish above P5 for the Scuderia in a Sunday race, and was barely able to hold back his anger over the team radio as he blasted the team tactics during the race.
The 40-year-old lost his rag after being told to hold position behind Charles Leclerc despite running on the quicker medium compound tyre as he wanted to catch Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.
He blasted down the team radio to engineer Riccardo Adami: “You want me to sit here the whole race?” with Adami then replying: “I’ll come back to you. Wanna keep the DRS to Charles.”
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Hamilton added: “This is not good team work, that’s all I’m going to say…
“In China I got out of the way when you were on a different strategy… Have a tea break while you’re at it! Come on.”
Hamilton failed to catch Antonelli on his quicker but less durable tyres and was asked to swap back with Leclerc towards the end of the race as his pace faded away.
After swapping positions he was then informed Williams’ driver Carlos Sainz – who he replaced at Ferrari this season – was just 1.5 seconds behind, to which Hamilton sarcastically replied: “You want me to let him past as well?”
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Sainz attempted a late lunge on Hamilton at the end of the final lap, seeing the two drivers bang wheels into the penultimate corner before Hamilton was able to hang on to his spot.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Hamilton revealed he had already spoke to Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur about the situation, but said he would not apologise for “being a fighter”.
He said: “Fred came to my room. I just put my hand on his shoulder and said – ‘Dude, calm down. Don’t be so sensitive. I could have said way worse things on the radio.’
“You hear some of the things other people have said in the past. Some of it was sarcasm. You’ve got to understand, we’re under a huge amount of pressure in the cars.
“You’re never going to get the most peaceful messages come through in the heat of battle.
“I don’t know what you’re going to write, or whether I was disrespectful of whatever. I honestly don’t feel I was. I was just like – ‘Come on guys, I want to win.’ I’ve still got that fire in my belly.
“I could feel a bit of it coming out there. And I’m not going to apologise for being a fighter. I’m not going to apologise for still wanting it.”
Ferrari are currently running as the fourth-quickest team in F1, an objective failure considering their supremely talented driver line-up.
They missed out on the Constructors Championship title last season to McLaren by just 14 points, but already sit 152 points behind them this year.
Instead, McLaren’s closest rivals are Mercedes, who have been remarkably consistent with George Russell – who scored his fourth podium of the season – and Antonelli.
The Italian team are also running behind Red Bull, where new dad Max Verstappen has picked up 99 of the teams 105 points this season.
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Oscar Piastri became the first McLaren driver since Mika Hakkinen in 1998 to win three races in a row as team-mate Lando Norris finished second in Miami.
The next F1 weekend will commence at the iconic Imola circuit on May 18 to kick-start the second triple-header of the season.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
