‘Fire in my belly’ led to team orders controversy

Lewis Hamilton claims that his “still got fire in my belly” contributed to the double controversy over team orders at Ferrari during the Miami Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion requested permission from former teammate Charles Leclerc to attempt to attack Kimi Antonelli in the race, but quickly received a request to take a tea break while he was at it.

Ferrari had two team orders during the race. The team asked Hamilton to let Leclerc back ahead a few laps later when he had failed to make an adequate impression on Antonelli and was unable to catch him before the race was over.

After that, Hamilton declared, “I still have my fire in my belly. A small portion of it was really coming up there.

I won’t make excuses for my fighter behavior. I won’t beg you for wanting it any longer. Everyone on the team knows that, as well.

“I didn’t believe the decision was made quickly enough. And for sure, you’re like, “Come on! ” at that moment. But that’s actually quite a bit of it.

The Briton appeared to not do this right away when Hamilton was later asked to let Leclerc go back ahead of him. Leclerc suggested they just talk about it after the race, and when told that the swap would take place the following lap, he said, “don’t bother.”

Leclerc was then allowed back by Hamilton, who finished with the Monegasque ahead.

It wasn’t even anger, Hamilton said. It wasn’t anything like that: it was effing and blinding and everything. Make a decision, for example.

You’re sitting on a chair, you’ve got the things in front of you, and you need to make a quick decision. That is how I was. We’re trying to keep the car on the track because we’re in a panic. Things are being quickly processed.

Ferrari used different strategies to work with the two drivers, which led to the issue.

Leclerc stopped earlier to switch to the hard compound and started on medium-sized tires. Prior to switching to mediums, Hamilton started on hards and ran longer, which meant that he was faster than Leclerc’s at the time.

Before Hamilton addressed the media, team principal Frederic Vasseur met with the 40-year-old in Hamilton’s room in the Ferrari building in the paddock to talk about the incidents.

Vasseur asserted, “It’s not that he has to talk to TV.” We need to be clear about the fact that he needs to understand what I was feeling on the pit wall in this situation. He and I can trust each other, and Charles can too.

And I’m making a decision for Ferrari when I have to.

“Fred came to my room,” Hamilton exclaimed. I shook his shoulder and said, “Dude, calm down,” before moving my hand. Be less sensitive.

On the radio, I could have said much worse things. Some of the things that have been said in the past are heard.

“Some of it was sarcasm,” she said. Look, you need to realize that the car is under a lot of pressure. In the midst of a battle, the most tranquil messages will never be delivered. It worked out fine.

Leclerc echoed Hamilton’s demand that the drivers dissociate their faults.

He claimed that Lewis and he have no bad feelings. I appreciate Lewis’s attempt to do something different, which I understand. With the medium tires, I would have tried to be a little bit more aggressive than he would if I had been him.

Their relationship is accurately expressed in this. No two opposing team members ever have best friends. However, Hamilton and Leclerc have a mutual respect for one another, like each other, and are at ease in each other’s company at official events and on-team.

Vasseur claimed that the team’s decision was premature and that he had only been trying to make sure Hamilton’s apparent extra pace was not just a matter of being within the one-second range that allowed him to use the DRS overtaking aid. The driver using it notices a 0.6sec improvement in lap time.

It took us one lap, according to Vasseur, and the translation was done in one minute, thirty seconds.

We weren’t sure if it was the DRS effect, so perhaps you can argue at the conclusion that it would have been preferable to do it directly.

We made the difficult choice because Charles or Lewis is never quick to switch jobs, but we did it.

“I have no control over what happened today,” I say. When we ask something like this, I fully understand their frustration.

They feel as though they have given up on a position, which is frustrating. We did it solely to help the team.

Both drivers claimed that the car’s lack of performance made them more irritable. Before advancing to their final positions, they made the eighth and twelveth positions.

Leclerc once said, “We need to separate the two things. Yes, we must address those (strategie) issues that most likely cost us one position, but the remaining seven or six positions, which are car seats, need improvement.

“I hope that this will help us take a step forward because there will be things coming at some point.”

Hamilton claimed that he felt like he had improved his understanding of the Ferrari car in Miami after coming much closer to Leclerc’s pace than in his previous three races.

“I sincerely believe my weekend was better. In general, he said, “I had a good day.” Eighth doesn’t actually resemble that. I have hope for the future. This vehicle has excellent performance, in my opinion.

Something is currently preventing us from moving forward. Since the second race in China, our performance has decreased. We can’t use it, but it’s there. This is where we are pending a fix for that.

“To receive the third place in the sprint race yesterday was a positive. I only lost by half a tenth after better qualifying. We’re still fighting with the Williams, so it’s obvious that we’re not as quick as we’d like to be.