Lewis Hamilton a difficult debut in Ferrari colours at the Australian Grand Prix and he cut a frustrated figure in his messages to his new race engineer Riccardo Adami at the weekend
Martin Brundle has called out Lewis Hamilton over his ‘angsty’ conversations with his Ferrari race engineer during the Australian Grand Prix. The seven-time world champions sounded exasperated with Riccardo Adami as Hamilton made his debut for the Prancing Horse.
The veteran racer endured a difficult first outing for his new team, finishing 10th in Melbourne. A transition is expected for the British Formula 1 star, but there appeared to be some needle in communication between the driver and the garage.
Sunday’s race saw a number of messages pass in a tense manner. Hamilton repeatedly told new race engineer Riccardo Adami to “leave it to me” when he was offered guidance from the pitwall.
Hamilton also moaned as Ferrari gave up on their risky decision to stay out on slick tyres as rain poured down in the latter stages of the race. “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much?” Hamilton said. “Just missed a big opportunity there.”
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While Brundle agreed over the significance of that moment, he was less forgiving of Ferrari’s new star’s approach on the radio. “I don’t understand why Lewis was so angsty with his engineer Riccardo Adami, who I felt was simply trying to pass over relevant and helpful information,” Brundle said in his column.
“It all really fell apart for Ferrari when they rolled the dice on dry tyres on a wet track and lost out heavily on track position for both drivers, and they left Australia seventh in the championship.”
“Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing start to his Ferrari career by any metric,” Brundle added. “Eighth on the grid behind his team-mate Leclerc, losing out a little in the first corner and following Alex Albon’s Williams for what seemed like an age, and then being passed around the outside of the fast turn nine by a spectacularly recovering Piastri on the final lap – consigning Lewis to one point in 10th place – was not where he should be.”
Hamilton reflected on his and the team’s performance following the race. The 40-year-old highlighted Ferrari’s error over the weather.
He said: “I hung out for as long as I could and got the lead at one point, but the guidance just in terms of how much more rain was coming was missing there. So I think we missed out.
“The information that I got was just that it was a short shower, quick, and at the time it was only in the last corner. So for me, I was like, ‘Well, if the rest of the track is dry then I can keep this on track if that’s coming’. But then more came.”
