Lewis Hamilton has apologised for the profane radio message he sent to his Mercedes team during the Dutch Grand Prix, but said he would not apologise for being passionate in the car.
Hamilton vented his frustration after Mercedes opted not to pit him under a late safety car — a decision that effectively left him as a sitting duck to be overtaken by race winner Max Verstappen, teammate George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
“I can’t believe you guys f—— screwed me,” Hamilton said over the radio after falling down the order. “I can’t tell you how pissed I am.”
Hamilton, who went on to finish fourth, apologised to his team for the comments after the race but defended his frustration.
“I don’t want to apologise for my passion because that’s just how I am made and I don’t always get it right,” he said. “I am sorry for my team for what I said because it was just an amazing moment but I want to look at the glass half full.
“We have got so many positives to take from this weekend. Yes, I got fourth in the end, but the car felt great. If the car feels like this and the other races we’re going to be fighting for a win. And that’s amazing.
“The pit stops were great. It was the fastest pit stops the team had done all year. Honestly I was so jeed up from that I thought right these guys were on. I am on it, the strategy was great but anyway we just keep looking forwards and hope for a better race.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said there were no hard feelings over the comments.
“You get emotional,” he said. “I do too in the race and when you are the driver in the car, it just comes out of you and you can’t even stop it.
“We are the trash bin, the sick bag in the airplane, and we are taking all of that because we need to. That is how it has always been in a relationship between frustrated driver and the pit wall.
“So we have sat together, we discussed the race strategy. I think this morning we decided to take a risk, it really backfired for him but I think overall, the circumstances and having Max behind him, that was totally unpleasant but there are more positives to take and this is what we have also chatted about; the car is fast here.”
To add to Hamilton’s woes, Mercedes opted to pit his teammate George Russell for soft tyres under the safety car to split strategies, meaning Verstappen was the first car behind him at the restart and able to take the lead into Turn 1.
Hamilton, who was ahead of Russell on track, said he realised his chances had slipped away when he…
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