It came as one of those awkward spats you might see in public. The kind when you’re not sure where to look.
“I can’t believe you guys f***ing screwed me, man,” fumed Lewis Hamilton on team radio during the Dutch Grand Prix.
“I can’t tell you how pissed I am right now.”
This from a seven-time world champion, chomping at the hand that has fed him for so long.
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Snappy remarks from driver to team are a dime a dozen but they rarely come this aggressively. Rarer still from a 37-year-old veteran and legend of the sport.
An apology might’ve come later, but it was too late as Hamilton had already shown his hand.
The 2022 F1 season has been one of the most testing of Hamilton’s decorated career — and he’s hit breaking point.
What got him there is up for the debate.
It could’ve been seeing his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen claim win after win as the Dutchman almost certainly closes in on a second world title.
Perhaps it was the lingering anger from last season, when he was robbed in Abu Dhabi by a bizarre, ad hoc ruling from race director Michael Masi that cost him the world championship on the last lap of the last race.
Then there’s the porpoising issues that effectively wiped out any Mercedes title challenge this year before it could even start.
Most likely a combination of all three has played a role in Hamilton’s anger boiling over.
A first win of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix would have been the ultimate pressure release for Hamilton, and he was robbed of that chance.
But it’s worth noting the role of his teammate George Russell in all this, too.
Hamilton was leading the Dutch Grand Prix but was left out on-track on a set of cold, worn medium-compound tyres during a late safety car period.
Russell and Verstappen, meanwhile, pitted for fresh, soft tyres, making Hamilton a sitting duck in the final dash to the flag.
Hamilton raged all the way home to a fourth-place finish, while Verstappen won — again — and Russell came second.
It’s not the first time Russell has gained the upper-hand over Hamilton after a safety car period.
Luck had been on the 24-year-old’s side earlier this season, firstly at the Australian Grand Prix and then again in Miami.
In Melbourne, Russell jumped Hamilton thanks to the timing of a safety car that came soon after the veteran driver had pitted, but before his junior teammate could stop.
Then in Miami, Hamilton argued with his team about the timing of a stop under a late safety car while Russell instinctively took the gamble and pitted.
Hamilton was furious, saying about his team: “That’s what your job is, make the decision for me.
“You’ve got all the details I don’t. That’s what you rely on the guys for but they didn’t give it to me and I don’t understand it.”
So when for a third time, the highly-rated Russell — widely considered as the heir to the Mercedes throne — came out on top after a safety car, Hamilton snapped.
When the dust settled, Hamilton apologised to his team, while team boss Toto Wolff said there were no hard feelings.
“First of all, we are the trash bin for the driver,” Wolff said. “It’s highly emotional, you’re that close, racing for the win and then you’re being eaten up. So it’s clear that every emotion comes out, and as a driver, you’re in the cockpit, you’re alone, you don’t see what’s happening.
He added: “You can do two things, you can either pit Lewis, lose track position against Verstappen, and leave George out – screwed. You can pit both – screwed. So it was worth taking the risk (to keep Hamilton out).”
Meanwhile, Hamilton said that he had a car that could win in the Netherlands and he let the emotions get the better of him.
“Our pit stops were the best. I was really hopeful we’d get a one-two together as a team, but the safety car really didn’t help and I was on the edge of breaking point with my emotions so my apologies to the team,” Hamilton said.
“I don’t really know what I said!
“I just lost it for a second, but I think they know there’s just so much passion.”
He later issued a statement saying: “We are a team, we aren’t world champions and we don’t always get it right.
“I didn’t get it right last week and we didn’t get it right today but we win and we lose as a team. We have been through way worse, everybody’s trying their best and that’s all we can do.
“We will rise again and we will win again! I have 100 per cent faith in this team and where we are heading.”
Nonetheless, that initial reaction is often more telling of someone’s mindset than the carefully-worded statement crafted with the PR team after the fact.
Hamilton is feeling the pinch with a power struggle looming at Mercedes.
Russell leads him by 30 points in the drivers’ standings, while the Briton has been a beam of positivity at Mercedes, having not suffered the scarring inflicted on the team, especially Hamilton, in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was a figure of doom and gloom throughout the year’s earlier rounds. He’s already been subject to heavy speculation about his retirement since the end of last season, and has a contract that runs out at the end of 2023.
His outburst shows that there’s still plenty of fire in the belly, but also tension.
We’re about to find out what’s stronger in the final stages of Hamilton’s career; that tension, or the passion.
