Lewis Hamilton's radio to pit under Singapore safety car 'revealed' but all is not as it seems

One of the biggest stories coming out of the Singapore Grand Prix was the fallout in Ferrari's strategy with Lewis Hamilton.

On the surface it was puzzling, Hamilton failed to pit under the good opportunity of a virtual safety car, committing himself to a one-stop race having already pitted.

But this put him on the wrong side of a huge tyre offset compared to his rivals and having passed his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in the pits, then saw him along with Mercedes Kimi Antonelli and the two McLaren's of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri blitz past to demote him to sixth by the chequered flag.

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur was quick to tell the media after the race that the team instructed both cars to pit under the safety car.

Lewis Hamilton's trip to the medical centre after the race, thus not facing the media, didn't make it any easier to get the full story.

However, the seven-time world champion did apologise to the team after the race for ignoring their strategy through the world feed team radio, and confirmed through a Ferrari press briefing that he 'missed the pit-lane' when asked to come in.

Not helping piece all this together was a lack of onboard or radio communications, due to a blackout common around the Marina Bay racetrack to help get some sort of timeline of the events.

However, a video appeared online showing what appeared to be the missing onboard footage and radio that covered the events, which it is what everyone wants.

But the origin of this video was is shady. It didn't come from any official account, instead just some random burner account on X called 'If' with 13 followers and no profile pic. Basically, I've seen £3 notes look more convincing in terms of reliable sources

Nonetheless, F1 fans on social media went wild about the documented events, with some big fan accounts weighing in on the conversation, which went as follows...

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Fake video: Hamilton and Santi's radio calls to pit

Carlo Santi: "Yea, yellow flag, 15, safety car, stay positive. Mode safety car."

CS: "Now please pit when you can."

CS: "Box, Lewis, Box."

Hamilton then asks about the gap behind him, to see if there is time to double stack under a virtual safety car. In Singapore, eight seconds was enough for him to pit and come out in front of Antonelli, but the 41-year-old was uncertain.

Lewis Hamilton: "Gap behind?"

CS: "Gap behind... Antonelli, eight seconds. Lap update?"

LH: "Good, if we are double stacking we might lose time."

CS: "Understood. And Box, box! So Lewis we are boxing for softs."

After this message, Hamilton goes through two corners and a short straight before failing to even attempt to pit.

LH: "Charles pit. How many laps?"

CS: "23 to go."

Conclusions from the video

Now there were a few things wrong with this video, Santi and Hamilton's conversations don't exactly flow well, not because of it being a Ferrari thing, but it appeared unnatural.

There's a good reason for this, it's because they were spliced together using communications from the Dutch ("So Lewis we are boxing for softs") and Hungarian grands prix ("and box, box") from earlier this season, as illustrated by one smart cookie on X.

Secondly, Hamilton appeared to press the button to communicate with his team at 1.18 in the video but no dialogue is said. He may have decided against it after pressing the button but it's still a bit suspect.

If this was the video, there would be an easy way to source it for many people to look at and verify. We didn't have this, so it's a mystery how a low-lying social media profile can have the video everyone wants, before and uniquely anyone else.

By the time the original upload was deleted, many F1 fans on Twitter had already spread the word that the video was fact, when it was just doctored footage over Hamilton's onboard footage.

Remember folks, in the world of AI and editing software, it's very, very easy to be duped.

Often,a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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