F1 Monaco Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton denied famous win after team 'screwed up'

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Monaco, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Lewis Hamilton denied famous Monaco Grand Prix win after team 'screwed up'

It was a bad day for Hamilton in the principality

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Sunday 7 June 2026 08:30

Lewis Hamilton lost the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix thanks to a team blunder for the ages - you would think this could only happen to Ferrari.

Some 11 years ago Hamilton was heading towards his third world title and his second with the Silver Arrows when F1 arrived in the principality for the annual showpiece.

Somehow a normally stellar Mercedes team dropped one of the biggest strategic errors of all time to cost Hamilton the win... and hand victory on a plate to his main title rival, team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Article continues under video

The race itself for the most part was classic Monaco. Boring and a waste of everyone's time as pole sitter Hamilton led comfortably from Mercedes team-mate Rosberg - who in turn had an easy ride in front of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

But on lap 64 with just under 15 laps to go, a Toro Rosso rookie named Max Verstappen would be the catalyst to trigger Mercedes mayhem and safety car pain for Hamilton long before Abu Dhabi 2021 was even a concept.

Max Verstappen role in Lewis Hamilton carnage

The Dutchman was trying to hunt down Romain Grosjean for the final point in 10th place when on the run to the first corner he crashed into the back of the Lotus, ending up in the barrier.

For the first time in F1 history a virtual safety car was called and Hamilton's race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington tried to calm the race leader.

He radioed: "Virtual safety car, virtual safety car, virtual safety car, virtual safety car (YES, FOUR TIMES!), so look at your dash, look at the boards, keep positive, stay positive and you are staying out.

"So we are staying out and you are staying positive."

Mercedes' fatal pit call

It soon became clear the Verstappen incident could not be cleared up under VSC conditions, bringing out the safety car proper, leading to an uncertain radio exchange between Bono and Hamilton. Things were now beginning to get messy.

Bono: "Ok Lewis a safety car has been deployed"

Hamilton: "Are you sure it's the best thing to stay out?"

Bono: "No, we will be boxing the end of the lap, boxing the end of the lap so just stay positive, stay positive, we are going to go plus-one-and-a-half-turns for the option tyre unless you tell us different."

Bono: "Just give us pit confirm"

Bono: "Ok, so we are now staying out, staying out, staying out, staying out, just confirm on the radio."

Hamilton: "Guys, that's not good. These tyres have lost all their temperature, everyone is going to be on options now."

Bono: "Ok, copy, copy. Box, box. Box, Box."

Hamilton then pits without dramas but is panicked when he exits the pits and sees Rosberg and Vettel drive past him, asking his team 'what's happened, guys... guys what's happened?'

Bono does remarkably well to deflect the reality that Mercedes have just cost Hamilton the race, saying: "Ok Lewis so, we got caught behind.

"So we're just getting a look now, just having a look now. Just reviewing the video, just reviewing the video, so stick the brake warming on let's get some temperature into these brakes."

The awful reality for Hamilton

Moments later it all dawns on Hamilton, who says: "I've lost this race haven't I?"

Bono, bless him, does his best to keep up hope, retorting: "Not if they lose all their tyre temp. They're on the prime tyre... you've got very good options (tyres) on the car at the moment."

Hamilton then asks how many laps are left with Bono telling him 13, but there could have been 113 laps left and Hamilton was never going to pass a rival like Vettel, such are the constraints on overtaking at Monaco.

It was Nico Rosberg who claimed the win in Monaco.

Hamilton post-race anger

A delighted Rosberg cruised to victory in front of Vettel and Hamilton, hardly believing his luck. So crestfallen was Hamilton, he stopped his car at Portier corner in disbelief and anger at how the race had fallen away from him to the point Bono had to tell him to bring the car back.

Bono said: "Ok, Lewis, I know you don't want to mate, but if you could drive round to the Royal Box, just as part of the... normal procedure."

Any questions over whether Hamilton had calmed down by the time he reached the Royal Box were soon answered when he drove straight into the P3 board with rage rather than error. Hamilton then took his time before joining Rosberg and Vettel on the podium, eventually shaking the former's hand.

Hamilton was struggling to contain his rage in the post-race interview with Martin Brundle, saying: "It was not the easiest of races. The team has done an amazing... all year long, and we win and we lose together, so you know I'm just grateful for the job that they did. And congratulations to Nico and Sebastian".

Hamilton refused to elaborate on the botched pit call, saying: "I'm sure we'll sit down afterwards and try and think of ways we can improve."

By this point Brundle asks: "How bad is it? How bad do you feel now? You've lost the Monaco Grand Prix, it's been taken away from you. What's going to your mind?"

Lewis, clearly wanting to get out of the place, just says: "Come back to win the next one."

In regards to why Hamilton's pitstop went wrong, it was a case of Mercedes thinking they could pit Hamilton for a set of tyres given his lead, allowing him to emerge in front of Rosberg and Vettel on fresher rubber. If the time gaps added up it was a sensible call.

There was miscommunication too as Hamilton feared rivals would be pitting for option tyres (super soft in this silly era of naming tyres) as the only reason he wanted to pit. Once it became clear this was not the case he should have been told this.

Toto Wolff admits Mercedes to blame

Team boss Toto Wolff confirmed Mercedes' error after the race, telling Motorsport: “The verdict is that often in life simple things have a big impact. And in that particular case the system showed us wrong data, and based on those data we decided to pit. We thought that we had a gap, but we didn't have a gap, and because in Monaco you have no GPS it makes the whole thing more complicated.

“He [Lewis] thought that we had pitted Nico, but he didn't realise the others didn't pit, he didn't see that. Our data said we had the margin, and when he said the tyres were gone and they will not come back, it just added up to a whole lot of information, and that made us pit. But the main call was that we had the margin.

“We got the wrong call at the wrong time, him saying the tyre temperatures dropped. We thought we had a gap, but the gap wasn't there...”

How did Mercedes get their sums wrong? Simply put their numbers were based on Hamilton's pace on the virtual safety car. Once he got caught up behind the real safety car his pace dropped sharply, creating a time window that allowed Rosberg and Vettel to pass him once he pitted.

Wolff admitted Mercedes made the wrong Hamilton call.

Niki Lauda summed it up best of all

Sometimes you just need a plan and simple explanation for these things, so over to Mercedes chief Niki Lauda.

He said: “There was no challenge, there was no stress, there was confusion among the strategy people about what to do, and this is the end of it.

“We have to analyse it first. and then see what we can improve on these matters. I feel sorry for him, because we screwed his race up...”

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Monaco Grand Prix Nico Rosberg