Lewis Hamilton expressed his frustration during the Monaco Grand Prix, describing his fifth-place finish as being in `no man`s land`.
Despite this, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur insisted that the British driver was `not upset` after the race, addressing the focus on Hamilton`s radio conversations with his race engineer, Ricciardo Adami.
After receiving a penalty for impeding Max Verstappen during qualifying, which demoted him from a potential fourth starting spot to seventh, Hamilton managed to climb two positions to finish fifth. This was in the first-ever Monaco race that mandated two pit stops for all drivers.
However, he finished 30 seconds behind the fourth-placed Verstappen and a significant 51 seconds behind the race winner Lando Norris. Isack Hadjar, who finished sixth, was 16 seconds adrift of Hamilton.
“I can`t comment on the rest of the race, for me I was in the middle of nowhere,” Hamilton commented afterwards.
“I started seventh, was behind two cars for some time, managed to clear them, then I was in no man`s land after that,” he explained.
“The gap was relatively big and I was not racing anyone. I needed a Safety Car or something to come into play but it didn`t happen. It was pretty straightforward from there.”
Despite being isolated from the leading cars, Adami instructed Hamilton on lap 17 to “push now, this is our race.” This message came while Hamilton was still stuck in seventh behind Fernando Alonso and Isack Hadjar during his initial stint.
Hamilton admitted after the race that he was confused by his engineer`s comment.
“The information wasn`t exactly that clear,” he said. “I didn`t really understand `this is our race`.”
“I didn`t know what I was fighting for. Was I fighting for the next spot ahead? But, in actual fact, when I look at the data I wasn`t anywhere near any of the guys up front. I used up my tyres a lot in that moment but I was so far away from them anyway.”
Vasseur: Hamilton `not upset at all` post-race
Another radio exchange that drew attention occurred on the cool-down lap after Hamilton finished the race.
After Adami confirmed Hamilton`s fifth position and mentioned time lost in traffic, Hamilton thanked the team for their work (including repairing his car after a practice crash) and stated they would “live to fight another day.”
Later on the lap, Hamilton asked his engineer, “Are you upset with me or something?”
Addressing Hamilton`s radio communications during and after the race, Vasseur clarified: “Because when the driver is asking something between turn one and turn three, we have to wait [until] the tunnel to reply, to avoid to speak with him during the corners.”
“It`s not that we are sleeping, it`s not that we are having a beer on the pit wall, it`s just because we have a section of the track, where we agreed before to speak with him,” he added.
“Honestly, it`s not a tension that the guy is asking something. He`s between the wall, he`s under pressure, he`s fighting.”
Vasseur concluded by confirming, “I spoke with him after the race, he was not upset at all.”
Marcus Prine