"Never beating the caring about PR over winning allegations": Fans react to Ferrari's outcry over the Lewis Hamilton team radio controversy 

F1 fans were despondent after FOM reached out to Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur over the Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc team radio controversy at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix. The two Ferrari drivers started the race from the third row of the grid and eventually moved up a place after overtaking Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who had a slow start.

However, the Italian team decided to swap cars after executing their round of pitstops, as Leclerc had more pace than Hamilton despite having a damaged front ring endplate after colliding with the rear tires of his teammate.

On the broadcast, Lewis Hamilton could be heard disagreeing with his race engineer Ricardo Adami's call to swap the cars on Turn 14 and let his teammate by. The seven-time F1 champion relented the team orders call for a couple of laps but ultimately let Charles Leclerc pass at Turn 1.

When Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur was asked about the Brit being reluctant to the swap, the Frenchman revealed that Lewis Hamilton initiated the call to implement team orders as he was struggling.

Vasseur mentioned that he would talk to Formula One Management [FOM] about the reasons behind omitting the message as it provided further context. As per The Race, F1 reached out to the team and resolved the matter. An F1 spokesperson said:

“There was absolutely no intention of presenting a misleading narrative regarding the Ferrari team radio. Due to other situations developing during the race the message from Lewis was not played but this was not intentional.”

F1 fans on X gave their reactions to the explanation for the team radio controversy, with one believing that Ferrari cares more about the PR side:

"Never beating the caring about PR over winning allegations."

"I'm sure it's Lewis who "asked" Fred to clear it up. Like this is what truly matters - his PR."

"They miss radio messages all the time but now because it's hamilton it's a problem?"

"So you saying Lewis was slower than Charles," said a fan.

"There are more important things that they need to focus like kick their strategy team for example." wrote another.

"This team's priorities," mentioned another.

Ferrari driver analyzes his performance at the Chinese GP

Charles Leclerc stated that he believed he stepped up in terms of performance in the SF-25 in the main race after being second-best to his teammate Lewis Hamilton for the majority of the weekend.

As per RacingNews365, the 27-year-old spoke about the race and said:

"I made a step with the car, and there was a lot of potential but I was destroying the fronts and had 30 points less downforce, which is a huge amount.

"I honestly think we had the pace to fight with the guys in front, and when I mean the front, I mean the McLarens, Lewis showed it [in the sprint]."

However, Charles Leclerc's P5 finish came to no avail as he was disqualified from the race for having an underweight car by 1kg.