During the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton found himself struggling for pace and even suggested over team radio to his race engineer, Ricciardo Adami, that he might let his teammate, Charles Leclerc, through.

However, this part of the radio conversation wasn’t broadcasted on the world feed, which is distributed by Formula One Management, as well as the original message about a possible switch at Turn 14.

Instead, the only message that was aired was Adami repeating the idea to Hamilton. This made it look like Hamilton was refusing a team order, especially as he replied by saying Leclerc needed to be closer. But in reality, Hamilton had suggested the idea first.

That’s what upset Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur, who felt the broadcast didn’t show the full story. “This is a joke from FOM, because the first call came from Lewis – that Lewis asked us to swap,” said Vasseur, quoted by RacingNews365.

“But to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question.”

Today, Formula 1 responded to the criticism by saying they didn’t mean to mislead anyone and that other things happening on track at the time took priority.

“There was absolutely no intention of presenting a misleading narrative regarding the Ferrari team radio,” an F1 spokesperson explained.

“Due to other situations developing during the race the message from Lewis was not played, but this was not intentional.”

Hamilton’s idea to swap positions seemed to come after he started losing time to George Russell in front. In the end, he did move aside and let Leclerc through. Even with a damaged front wing from an early incident with Hamilton, Leclerc chased after Russell but couldn’t catch him. He eventually dropped back and finished fifth after coming under pressure from Max Verstappen.

However, the debate over radio messages turned out to be irrelevant in the end, as both Ferrari cars were disqualified after the race as Hamilton’s failed a plank wear check, and Leclerc’s was found to be under the minimum weight.