From Verstappen to Schumacher: six times F1 drivers raced without a radio
Verstappen's Singapore blackout prompts a look back at F1's comms failures
Max Verstappen may have sealed a dominant victory at the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix last weekend, but his race was not without its hiccups. The four-time World Champion suffered a problem with his radio during the event at Marina Bay — and he is far from the first driver to be left talking into the void mid-race.
While Verstappen could hear his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, the Dutchman's responses were inaudible, prompting some creative solutions. Lambiase developed a code of sorts, asking yes/no questions where Verstappen either stayed silent or confirmed with a button press, and the Red Bull team also leant on pit boards to pass on information. It is a tactic with a long history in the sport.
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber – 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix
While only one of Red Bull's cars appeared to be suffering radio issues at Marina Bay in 2026, the team have previously seen the problem hit both sides of the garage — as happened in the rain-affected 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix. After the race was suspended due to heavy downpours, it soon became clear on the restart that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were both struggling to communicate.
Vettel, running fourth and relying on the pit board, was involved in a late-race collision with Narain Karthikeyan while lapping the HRT. The team tried to call him in for safety reasons, but he never heard the message. The German still got his car home in P11, but conceded the Grand Prix had been "very difficult" without radio. Webber, who finished fourth, was so frustrated by the loud static that he admitted tearing the radio out of his helmet in already challenging conditions.
Michael Schumacher – 1999 French Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher was battling Mika Hakkinen for the title in a rain-hit encounter at Magny-Cours when his Ferrari lost contact with the pit wall. The then-two-time World Champion resorted to using hand signals towards his onboard camera — a way of being seen if not heard. It could not prevent a slow pit stop that left him fifth, but it was a memorable piece of improvisation.
Alex Albon – 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix
For Alex Albon, the silence was almost welcome. The Williams driver spent much of the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix without a working radio after losing connection on his laps to the grid, later quipping that it was "pretty peaceful out there." The humour hid a serious point: with communication limited to pit boards, Albon was in the dark about how much damage he was carrying after an opening-lap incident. He ultimately retired rather than risk continuing, underlining just how vital radio messages are.
Max Verstappen – 2021 French Grand Prix
Verstappen's Singapore success was not his first rodeo with comms trouble. In the 2021 French Grand Prix, locked in a tense title fight with Lewis Hamilton, a radio problem in the closing stages meant he could receive messages but not be heard — just as in Singapore. A two-stop strategy let him pass Hamilton for the lead with two laps remaining to claim his third win of the season. Lambiase had advised him to try moving the microphone when convenient, but the gremlins persisted to the flag. Verstappen later played down the impact, noting it only struck after his pit stops were done.
Charles Leclerc – 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
Some drivers take radio glitches in their stride; others let the frustration boil over. Charles Leclerc's 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix was a horror show — a too-short drinks tube left him without water, a slow pit stop was followed by a five-second penalty for speeding in the lane, and the radio added to his woes. He finished P7 and explained afterwards: "One out of four words is not understood by my engineer, because there's just problems with our radios in three, four races. So we need to fix that. And obviously my tone of voice is quite high because I need to make myself heard."
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas – 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix
Red Bull are not alone in losing transmission on both cars — Mercedes suffered the same at a crucial moment in 2017. With Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferraris running one-two, Valtteri Bottas held third ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The plan was to invert the cars so Hamilton, with more pace, could chase the Scuderia pair. But a crack in a fibre optic cable broke the Silver Arrows' entire comms and data system. Team Principal Toto Wolff later said the squad were left to "fly blind."
The issues particularly hit Hamilton. He did pass Bottas but honoured the agreement to hand the place back if he could not pass Raikkonen, conceding the swap could have come sooner without the radio trouble. The net result was Hamilton's deficit to Vettel stretching to 14 points — though as we now know, a strong second half of the year delivered him a fourth World Championship.