{"id":868073,"date":"2026-08-25T17:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868073\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:06:11","slug":"lewis-hamilton-apologises-for-ferrari-radio-fury-that-wasnt-the-best-version-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868073\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton apologises for Ferrari radio fury: &#8220;That wasn\u2019t the best version of me&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lewis-hamilton\/1278\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> says his Dutch Grand Prix frustration &#8220;wasn\u2019t the best version of me&#8221; as he apologised to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/ferrari\/3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ferrari<\/a> Formula 1 team for his frustration boiling over on team radio.<\/p>\n<p>During the second half of the race, Hamilton grew increasingly frustrated at the lack of strategy updates from Ferrari, especially once he got stuck behind team-mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/charles-leclerc\/109611\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Charles Leclerc<\/a>, who was slower than the Briton on older tyres.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat way of wasting time guys, good job,\u201d a sarcastic Hamilton fired over on the airwaves once Leclerc finally pitted on lap 43.<\/p>\n<p>After the race, Hamilton said Ferrari still had steps to make on race weekend execution, pointing to Mercedes&#8217; much slicker swap between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/george-russell\/21167\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">George Russell<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/andrea-kimi-antonelli\/953412\/\" data-custom-text=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kimi Antonelli<\/a> as a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>But for Ferrari, the picture was a little bit more complicated than that, as the team was planning to pit Leclerc earlier but had to extend his stint for another lap to avoid traffic.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the plan for Hamilton was to stay on track until the end of the race, but team principal Vasseur explained Ferrari didn&#8217;t want to alert its rivals to its strategy, so it decided not to communicate it straight away.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to social media, Hamilton has now apologised to his team for his heated radio exchanges, admitting it &#8220;wasn\u2019t the best version of me&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve listened back to some of my radio and TV comments. In the heat of the moment frustration can come out, especially when you care as deeply as I do,&#8221; Hamilton wrote. &#8220;But that wasn\u2019t the best version of me. I take responsibility for that, and I\u2019ll be better.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That passion comes from believing in this team, the people in it, and what we\u2019re building together. The direction is clear. The belief is there. And the fight is absolutely still on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787677571_302_charles-leclerc-ferrari-lewis-.jpg\" alt=\"Charles Leclerc leading Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Charles Leclerc leading Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton was buoyed by Ferrari&#8217;s recent progress as its relentless car upgrade programme has allowed both him and team-mate Leclerc to win a grand prix, with Hamilton holding third in the drivers&#8217; championship on equal points with second-placed Russell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m incredibly proud of everyone back at the factory who continues to bring updates, find performance and push us forward,&#8221; the seven-time world champion added. &#8220;To the team at the track, thank you. The commitment and effort never go unnoticed. We still have work to do, particularly over one lap, but we\u2019ll keep digging in, learning and improving together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, a late virtual safety car helped Mercedes&#8217; Russell defend third place, with both Hamilton and Leclerc stranding off the podium in fourth and fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton says his Dutch Grand Prix frustration &#8220;wasn\u2019t the best version of me&#8221; as he apologised to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,60689,817,826,813,816,823,436910,85,73588],"class_list":["post-868073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dutch-gp","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-lewis-hamilton-apologises-for-ferrari-radio-fury-that-wasnu2019t-the-best-version-of-me","tag-sports","tag-zandvoort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}