Button: Hamilton was put in a “tricky” spot by Ferrari radio as red-flag probe fizzles in Singapore
Lewis Hamilton dodged a penalty in Singapore after an awkward bit of radio from Ferrari had him under the stewards’ microscope for a red-flag infringement in FP3 — and Jenson Button says he can see why it got messy.
With Liam Lawson in the wall at the exit of Turn 7 and the session immediately stopped, Hamilton was already peeling into the pit lane when his engineer Riccardo Adami came over the radio: “You can attack pit entry.”
That line turned heads. Under a red flag, the expectation is simple: slow down, keep it safe. The stewards took a look at Hamilton’s approach speed into the lane and, while noting it was “marginally higher than that of other cars in comparable situations,” they ultimately cleared him. Their verdict said Hamilton “maintained full car control at all times and did not drive in a manner that could be considered unsafe,” adding that while a bigger lift “would have been desirable,” there was “no evidence of a breach.”
It spared Hamilton a grid drop on a weekend where he’s already juggling plenty in his first season with Ferrari after a decade-plus alongside Pete Bonnington at Mercedes. The Hamilton–Adami pairing has shown promise, but also the odd wrinkle. This one was visible to the whole paddock.
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz called it “50-50” as to whether the seven-time World Champion would get done for it, pointing to recent precedent: Ollie Bearman picked up a 10-place penalty for a red-flag infraction at Silverstone, and Hamilton himself took a five-place hit at Zandvoort for the same kind of offence in 2023.
“What are you supposed to do?” Kravitz asked Button on air, taking the radio prompt out of the equation for a moment. “Leaving out the fact Lewis was told by his engineer to attack the pit entry, what are you meant to do under a red flag?”
Button, Hamilton’s McLaren teammate from 2010–12, didn’t bother dressing it up. “Slowing down is obviously the main one,” he said. “There’s marshals on track, it’s a red flag, there’s been a massive incident. Obviously passing the incident, slow down, but also you’re supposed to stay at a slow speed the whole time around the lap. The reason is because there might be more than one incident, and attacking anything shouldn’t be happening.”
Then he gave the other side of the coin — the part every driver in F1 will recognise. “For Lewis, it’s also tricky, right? He sees the red light. He knows what he’s supposed to do, he’s been racing for long enough. But when you’re told something from your team, you kind of react to that as being right. They know what they’re doing because they know the rules.”
Hamilton did as he was told. The stewards decided the risk wasn’t there, and that was that.
Still, “attack pit entry” at the exact second a red flag is flying is the sort of phrase that makes sporting directors reach for a headset — and compliance officers reach for a transcript. On street tracks like Singapore, where sight lines are limited and marshals often flood the circuit in seconds, the bar for caution is sky high. The room for interpretation is not.
There’s also the human factor in all this. Ferrari’s radio shorthand isn’t Mercedes’. Adami’s cadence isn’t Bonnington’s. And when the adrenaline spikes mid-lap, drivers lean heavily on the language they hear in their ears. Split-second clarity can be the difference between a routine return to the pits and an avoidable penalty.
On Saturday, the system just about held. Hamilton backed up enough to persuade the stewards he kept things safe; the officials’ wording suggests he was close to the line without stepping over it. Expect Ferrari to quietly tighten up the phrasing for any future red-flag scenarios. There’s a huge difference between hustling into the lane under green and doing so when the session’s been stopped.
As for Hamilton, he gets to move on with his weekend unscathed. In a title fight this close — and in a first campaign with Ferrari where every detail is under the microscope — avoiding self-inflicted wounds is half the battle. The speed is there. The margins, as ever in Singapore, are razor thin. The radio needs to be, too.
