Ferrari set for talks with F1 over Lewis Hamilton radio 'joke'

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is planning talks with F1 over its use of team radio after being angered by the broadcasting of some of Lewis Hamilton's messages in the Chinese GP. 

In fourth, Hamilton was under increasing pressure from teammate Charles Leclerc. He told the pit wall he would "let Charles go because I am struggling" to avoid costing both cars valuable race time. 

Engineer Riccardo Adami then informed the Briton that the cars would be swapped at Turn 14 - the hairpin at the end of the back straight - but neither of these messages made the FOM world feed broadcast.

After further being instructed to let Leclerc through by Adami, which was broadcast, Hamilton replied: 'When he is closer, yes", indicating an apparent refusal to follow team orders.

Further routine radio traffic followed, with Hamilton eventually letting Leclerc go at Turn 1. He finished sixth, with the Monégasque fifth after being passed by Max Verstappen late on before both cars were disqualified for separate technical infringements.

Looking back on the situation before the first double Ferrari DSQ, Vasseur was unhappy at FOM's portrayal of the incident.

"This is a joke from FOM because the first call came from Lewis - that Lewis asked us to swap," Vasseur told media, including RacingNews365.

"But to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question.

"I will discuss it with them."

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Suggested to Vasseur there was a deliberate attempt by FOM to build a narrative between Hamilton and his new engineer, Vasseur was dismissive.

"You [the media] made a huge mess last week on the message between the engineer and Lewis," said Vasseur. "Honestly, when Lewis came back to the briefing room, he said to his engineer, 'Good job'.

"But because they are discussing how to use K1 and [Hamilton saying], 'Don't speak when I am in the fight, I had tons of questions. 'Is it a mess?'

"No, that's life. We are just there to get performance. We have to know each other. I don't want polemics.

"You can't imagine the number of questions I had about this [walking] from the garage to here [his post-race written media session] asking the same thing - Is it a mess?

"It is Lewis who asked to swap. I'm not even sure you would have this kind of situation 10 times during the season in other teams, and we really appreciated the call from Lewis to say, 'Guys, I'm losing the pace, I'm keen to swap'.

"Then it took us one lap to ask him to swap with Charles, but then the pace was back. [It was then suggested to him] 'Let's stay like this for a little bit'. [But he said] 'No, I don't have the pace, I will swap'. 

"Honestly, the collaboration between the two guys is mega and I can't complain for a single second. You have to ask the question to Stefano [Domenicali] because I'm not in charge of the broadcast."

The talks have since taken place. You can read the outcome here.