Lewis Hamilton's subtle dig at Max Verstappen over team radio backlash: "People say worse things"

Lewis Hamilton's latest confession about his team radio from the 2025 Miami GP was a subtle dig at Max Verstappen. Hamilton, who was enormously active on the team radio during the Miami race, spoke about the ordeal, and justified his stance by saying other drivers say "far worse things" on the team radio.

Hamilton was left frustrated during the Miami race as Ferrari struggled with their strategy, as well as the team orders. The Briton started from P12, but crossed the finish line in P8. However, according to him, he could have done better if the Ferrari team had acted quicker.

“I think a decision should have been taken sooner," Lewis Hamilton said in the post-race interview. "I wasn’t getting there. And in those moments it’s frustrating because what’s our goal: ‘Race each other, or try to pass the others?’ Then switching position twice made us lose even more time."

Ferrari were in a tussle with Mercedes as they had two drivers who wanted to charge down at Kimi Antonelli, but both failed. As a result, Hamilton, who seemed to be in a prime position to hunt Antonelli, lost too much time while swapping with Leclerc.

In doing so, he vented out his frustration on the team radio, and this resulted in a severe backlash. Now, establishing his stance, Hamilton stated that he was being sarcastic, and also pointed out that there are drivers who say "far worse things."

"We’ll talk about it internally," Hamilton added. "I was frustrated at the time, and now I’m not. That’s racing. People are very sensitive and will take it out of context. And people say far worse things than I do, I just used sarcasm!”

Notably, Hamilton's dig is pointed towards Verstappen, who is known for fiery exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. On more than one occasion, the Red Bull driver had stern words to say to Lambiase during races.

For instance, during the 2024 Hungarian GP, Verstappen and Lambiase fought over the team radio after the Dutchman finished fifth. He slammed the team and Lambiase for a poor finish after he collided with Lewis Hamilton, after which Lambiase shut down his driver with a strong stance.

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When Lewis Hamilton directly called Max Verstappen out over team radio ordeal

During the 2025 Australian GP, Lewis Hamilton had a back-and-forth on the team radio with his new race engineer Riccardo Adami. To some, it seemed to be a heated exchange, something Hamilton felt was over exaggerated to a great extent.

Calling it out and comparing Verstappen often 'abuses' his race engineer Lambiase over the team radio, here's what Lewis Hamilton said after the Melbourne race:

"Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers, far worse," Hamilton said. "But unfortunately, you [the media] make… the conversation that Max has with an engineer over the years, the abuse that the poor guy's taken and you never write about it, but you wrote about the smallest little discussion I had with mine."

Apparently, Max Verstappen's team radio exchange with Gianpiero Lambiase is often heated, widely known, and at the same time engaging, especially when the four-time world champion is struggling with his performance.