Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy · RaceFans

During the two-and-a-half hour window between George Russell winning the Belgian Grand Prix and him being disqualified, a dismayed Lewis Hamilton was trying to work out how his team mate had come from behind to beat him.

Hamilton took the lead early in the race but when he made his second pit stop Russell rose to the front. Russell then persuaded Mercedes not to bring him in a second time, which won him the race on-track, though the additional wear this caused to his tyres may have led to his subsequent disqualification.

That detail was not yet known when a despondent Hamilton claimed he had wanted the same strategy as his team mate. “If you listen [to the radio chatter] you could have heard what I said to the team most of the time.

“I think the tyres were pretty good. I still had plenty of tyres and I was going quicker. I didn’t want to stop.”

But as Mercedes’ radio chatter from the race reveals, while Hamilton was clearly beginning to think his second set of tyres could go the distance as he approached the pits on lap 26, he wasn’t ready to commit to it.

Hamilton and Russell’s Belgian GP radio

Jump to:

“Target plus eight”
“The tyres are still good though”
“I’m still going green”
“So that is George ahead”
“Am I on target to beat him or not?”
“Are you saying Piastri’s behind me?”
“Give each other plenty of space”
“Tyre whisperer!”

“Target plus eight”

By lap 20, all the front runners had made their first pit stops. Hamilton was leading Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

Russell had just moved up into fourth place by overtaking Sergio Perez with a move which impressed his race engineer Marcus Dudley.

At this stage Mercedes expected to pit both their drivers a second time. However they had already noticed the tyre life was better than they forecast: Hamilton was told he would make his second stop four laps later than planned, Russell eight:

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