Lewis Hamilton is not Formula One’s most furious radio ranter. His style is typically more temperate and cool, measured responses doled out between scooter sessions around the paddock. But when he does blow his top, it sends shockwaves through the grid. 

The Mercedes star’s latest meltdown came in the aftermath of a disastrous, rain-lashed Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, which saw him crash out of Q1, stutter to 11th in the sprint race, and judder to tenth in the real thing.

‘That was a disaster of a weekend guys,’ he ranted on the radio. ‘That’s the worst the car has ever been.’

The Brit, who is joining Ferrari next season, even threatened to quit the season three races early and take a holiday.

With that in mind, Mail Sport brings you five of Hamilton’s meltdowns from over the years.

The past four seasons have been frustrating for Hamilton and in 2022 he let loose with a verbal barrage at his crew. 

In September 2022, after a Dutch Grand Prix which saw his hopes for a first win of the season fade due to fading tyres, he took out his anger on the team. Hamilton had been leading until 10 laps to go when a safety car was deployed, and most of the grid dove into the pits for fresh soft tyres, while Mercedes kept him out on the mediums.

When racing got underway again, arch-nemesis Max Verstappen got by him, before team-mate George Russell and Charles Leclerc passed to bump him down to fourth.

‘I can’t believe you guys f***ing screwed me, man. I can’t tell you how p****d I am right now,’ he blasted. Hamilton later told Sky F1: ‘I was just on the edge of breaking point with emotions and my apologies to the team because I don’t even remember what I said, I just lost it for a second.’

Unfortunately, the Brit failed to win a race that season, meaning it was the first campaign since his debut in 2007 that he failed to stand on the top of the podium.  

Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were childhood buddies from karting. They grew up together playing football and tennis, even riding unicycles. But their relationship was scorched by tension when they were team-mates at Mercedes. 

The British racing icon was fuming after the 2014 Monaco GP, which saw Rosberg win and claim the lead in the title race. Hamilton felt Rosberg should have been penalised in qualifying, but the German was not, and he went on to claim pole and subsequently the race win.

Mercedes secured a fifth consecutive one-two finish, but Hamilton was fuming. ‘We have one strategist who is absolutely amazing but unfortunately the role in the team is that he has to look out for number one and the second guy comes second. I know from the get-go that I have less of an opportunity to win the race.’

He added: ‘We’re not friends (Rosberg and I). We’re colleagues.’

Asked if their years of knowing each other does not count as friendship, he could not respond. At the end of that season it worked out for Hamilton as he won the title that season on the final day.

But he was not overly gracious when the German finally won the championship in 2016, needing to be persuaded to shake his long-time team-mate’s hand and blaming car issues for why he didn’t take the gong himself.

The 2021 season is when the guard changed. Max Verstappen claimed his first Drivers’ Championship crown on a controversial final day in Abu Dhabi which has not been forgotten. But the race before in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was paranoid, vexatious, and ill-tempered in its own right. 

In a race that was red flagged twice, Hamilton won by 21 seconds, but only after Verstappen was hit with a total of 15 seconds in penalties. 

After the Dutchman undercut him at a corner, colliding with him and veering off track to gain a big advantage – which he later had to give back – Hamilton vented: ‘This guy’s f***ing crazy, man.’

Then, later in the race, Hamilton accused Verstappen of deliberately slowing down in front of him to cause them to collide, which they did. ‘He just brake-tested me,” he said over the team radio. ‘That was dangerous driving.’

And despite winning the race, he later doubled down on his criticism of Verstappen: ‘I’ve raced a lot of drivers in my life, in the (last) 28 years. There’s a few at the top which are over the limit. Rules kinda don’t apply, or they don’t think of the rules. He’s over the limit, for sure. I’ve avoided collision on so many occasions with the guy.’

After the shocking final day of the season, which saw Verstappen overtake Hamilton on the last lap after the race was incorrectly restarted, the Brit was shell-shocked sand later said: ‘I couldn’t quite compute what had happened, the emotions I was feeling inside of me were hard to bear.’

Hamilton’s most recent meltdown from Brazil must be included. 

As previously detailed, Hamilton branded it a ‘disaster’ of a weekend. It was for Hamilton, but not so much for Russell, who qualified in pole position and eventually came fourth. Russell has now outqualified Hamilton on 16 occasions to five this campaign, and outraced him 11 times to six. Hamilton does not take kindly to being second-best.

After a debacle of a weekend, he threatened to quit the Mercedes operation altogether. ‘If this is the last time I get to perform,’ said, hinting at a potential early end to his season, ‘it’s a shame it wasn’t great, but (I’m) grateful for you.’

Speaking after the race, Hamilton doubled down on his criticism of the car, adding that it was enough to make him want to take the rest of the year off. ‘It’s like a plank of wood. It’s like, no suspension,’ he added. ‘It’s bouncing on the tyres everywhere and you can’t get on the power anywhere.

‘It’s just the worst ride, I think the worst ride that we’ve definitely ever had, particularly through corners. It’s just so stiff. But hopefully we won’t have any more bumpy tracks. I think the last three aren’t so bumpy. But yeah, I could happily go and take a holiday.’