Why Hamilton's Singapore GP really imploded

Lewis Hamilton’s Singapore Grand Prix imploded after his error in failing to pit during the mid-race virtual safety car period as Ferrari instructed him to.

Hamilton ran third behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the first half of the Singapore race but slumped to sixth as his gamble on staying on old soft tyres to the end of the race backfired.

Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli took the opportunity to make a cheap pitstop during the brief VSC period sparked by Lance Stroll’s stricken Aston Martin.

Had Hamilton done the same, he would likely have emerged just ahead of Lando Norris, who had pitted a few laps before the VSC and gained ground with the undercut.

As he did not, and team radio only existed of Leclerc being instructed to pit, it seemed as though Ferrari had inexplicably left Hamilton out during the VSC.

This appeared doubly odd given Hamilton was on softs - with the other two pitting to switch from mediums - after running the harder compound in the opening stint.

So running a one-stop to the end would mean an unrealistically long second stint.  

But that was the misleading consequence of an unusual fault that prevented Ferrari’s radio communications with Hamilton through and shortly after the VSC period from being heard.

His onboard camera and audio suffered a clear distortion shortly after the VSC began. Ferrari is adamant that Hamilton was instructed - at the same time as Leclerc - around Turn 16, but he did not.

There were no radio messages to or from Hamilton for a short while, even when the VSC period ended. This is always met with a message that the VSC is ending to make sure the driver is ready to resume racing - so it is consistent with the notion that something odd happened to prevent Hamilton’s radio from being captured, not just muted (which sometimes happens).

Whatever issue there was resolved itself after a few minutes. Hamilton apologised to Ferrari on the radio at the end of the race for his call on the strategy being wrong.

Hamilton was not able to clarify the situation post-race as he did not conduct television or written media duties. Ferrari said he felt unwell and, after being seen by the FIA medical team, was given permission not to attend the post-race media pen.

But Vasseur - who grew frustrated about being asked so many questions about the topic in his regular media debrief - said: “We called two cars. ‘Guys, you pit behind the VSC.’ One of my guys said, ‘no, I prefer to stay on track’.

“He said, ‘I missed the pit entry’. Don't blame the team.”

In a quote from Hamilton later issued by Ferrari, he only said “the team called me in but I missed the entry”, and he did relay a similar message over the team radio - if meant literally 'missed', it would seem odd if he was told with plenty of warning and made no obvious attempt to get into the pitlane at the last moment.

It may be that Hamilton actually just chose to stay out, but the outcome was the same.

It put Hamilton at a clear disadvantage and he doubled down by arguing to try to make the one-stop work from there only solidified a poor result as he ran the softs 10 laps longer than any of the other frontrunners did during the race.

A few laps later, Ferrari tried to get Hamilton to pit in normal racing conditions and switch to a two-stop. This would have cost him track position, but at least Hamilton would have had fresher tyres for the end of the race plus a multi-lap offset to try to come back at the likes of Antonelli and the two McLarens.

Ferrari said he was six laps short of making a one-stop viable, but Hamilton argued if he was already going to lose two positions with a pitstop it could be worth trying to hold on and see if another caution period occurred.

He was told he could try, but it failed. Though his softs held on well for a while, they steadily faded and then fell away sharply in the final 10 laps.

In this period, every lap of Hamilton’s was 1m38.6s or slower. The cars he was racing were between 1-2s faster per lap in this period, and the loss of pace was so severe that even Oscar Piastri, who required an unplanned second stop for a slow puncture, was able to catch and pass Hamilton late on.

Hamilton described it as a “painful lesson, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made”.