Lewis Hamilton: Focus on radio exchanges with Ferrari race engineer exaggerated and Max Verstappen's 'far worse'
Hamilton says other F1 drivers' in-car conversations with their race engineers, including Max Verstappen's with Gianpiero Lambiase, are harsher; watch the first Sprint weekend of the season at the Chinese GP with coverage starting on Friday morning live on Sky Sports F1
Thursday 20 March 2025 22:19, UK
Lewis Hamilton has described reaction to his radio exchanges with new Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami in the Australian Grand Prix as being "over-egged".
Hamilton experienced a difficult first race weekend with his new team in Melbourne finishing 10th, with Ferrari unexpectedly off the pace after a more promising showing with their 2025 car during pre-season testing.
And it was the seven-time champion's radio communications with Adami that came in for much post-race focus amid discussion during the rain-hit Grand Prix about what information Hamilton wanted in the car from the Italian engineer, and when.
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But Hamilton told reporters on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix: "I mean, naturally, everyone over-egged. It was literally just a back-and-forth.
"I was very polite in how I had suggested it. I said: 'leave it to me, please'.
I wasn't saying 'F you'. I wasn't swearing. So it was just at that point, I was really struggling with the car and I needed full focus on these couple of things.
"We're getting to know each other. He's obviously had two champions or more in the past and there's no issues between us still."
Hamilton drew a pointed comparison with the driver-engineer exchanges over team radio seen elsewhere on the grid, including Red Bull rival Max Verstappen's with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
"Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers, far worse," suggested Hamilton.
"But unfortunately, you [the media] make… the conversation that Max has with an engineer over the years, the abuse that the poor guy's taken and you never write about it, but you wrote about the smallest little discussion I had with mine."
Verstappen's sometimes spiky and combative radio communications with Lambiase did come in for particular focus at the Belgian GP in 2023 after the world champion ranted about Red Bull's execution of qualifying.
Speaking in his TV interviews on Thursday, Hamilton added about his initial messages with Adami: "I don't know why everyone's been so negative about it. I was polite. I always said 'please' at the end.
"When you look at some of the other drivers who have been super vocal, almost abusive, their engineers have taken batterings for years, and mine didn't even take a battering.
"There are a couple of individuals that were quite rude on how we spoke. It's something you learn along the way. From race to race, we're going to get stronger together, and that's the most important part."
Hamilton, who had spent the previous 12 years working with Peter 'Bono' Bonnington at Mercedes to hugely-successful effect, said he and Adami were simply going through the normal process of acclimatisation to a new working relationship.
"Ultimately, we're literally just getting to know each other," he added.
"So afterwards I'm like: 'hey bro, I don't need that bit of information but if you want to give me this, this is the place I'd like to do it'. This is how I'm feeling in the car and, at these points, this is when I do and don't need the information'.
"That's what it's about. There are no issues, it's done with a smiley face and we move forwards."
He added: "Every driver requires different information. George [Russell], for example liked a lot of information.
"For me, I don't like a lot. It can sometimes be overbearing and overloading. But, the relationship between Bono and I took years for us to learn each other. Bit by bit, trial and error, you try different things along the way, and eventually you gel. And Riccardo and I get on super well.
"That was our first race together, the first time he was having to throw those balls into the cockpit. We dealt with 90 plus per cent of those totally fine."
'We're not going to be defined by that one race'
After so long at one team, Hamilton had stressed even before he had properly tested Ferrari's new car for the first time in Bahrain last month that it was going to take him time to acclimatise to Ferrari and their ways of working.
And while their new car's performance in general unexpectedly underwhelmed at Albert Park - particularly in dry qualifying before the challenging rain-hit race threw up fresh curveballs - Hamilton was ultimately not too far away from team-mate Charles Leclerc, who qualified 0.2s ahead and then finished two places higher on the Sunday.
Heading in to race two in red at the Shanghai International Circuit this week - a venue he has won at a record six times - Hamilton said: "I'm just going to set the car up a bit different this weekend.
"To this point, I think I'm still having to witness and take a view and see how the team operates. It's the first weekend to see how they operate on the race weekend is different to testing, how they like to set the car up, the changes they like to make during the weekends.
"I think as I get more and more comfortable and more knowledgeable about the car, I can start making more decisions and say, actually, 'this is where I want to, this is the set-up change I want to go with'. So already this weekend will be, I'm having those discussions and going to lean a little bit more with adding my experience hopefully a little bit more in it. But they've got a lot of experience already.
"I mean, it wasn't the race that we wanted but it's not a moment to throw the toys out the pram. It is what it is. One small thing could have made a big difference in our result, but yeah, we move forward.
"Everyone's still motivated. You got everyone here with their heads high, the energy is still good in the garage. We're not going to be defined by that one race."
Hamilton confident of closing gap to McLaren
Ferrari's meagre five-point haul from Australia represented their worst season-opening result since 2009.
Constructors' champions McLaren, meanwhile, underlined their pre-season status as title favourites impressively locked out the grid's front row and won the race with Lando Norris.
Asked whether he thought he would be in the title hunt after former Mercedes team-mate George Russell suggested McLaren were quick enough to win every race, Hamilton said: "It has only been one race.
"Yes, McLaren has done a great job and they're looking very strong. I can't judge that from one race. They looked very quick on the long runs in testing, the pace in the race, and on all conditions, they look fantastic.
"But that's not how we're approaching each weekend. We're still just taking the time to learn the car and to be able to extract more from it. We definitely have work to do, I don't think we're on the pace of the McLarens, but I think we can close the gap."
Sky Sports F1's live Chinese GP schedule
Friday March 21
- 1am: F1 Academy Practice
- 3am: Chinese GP Practice One (session starts at 3.30am)*
- 5.30am: Team Principals' Press Conference
- 6am: F1 Academy Qualifying*
- 6.45am: Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 7.30am)*
Saturday March 22
- 2.25am: Chinese GP Sprint build-up*
- 3am: Chinese GP Sprint*
- 5.45am: F1 Academy Race 1*
- 6.35am: Chinese GP Qualifying build-up*
- 7am: CHINESE GP QUALIFYING*
- 9am: Ted's Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday March 23
- 2.40am: F1 Academy Race 2
- 5.30am: Chinese GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
- 7am: THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX*
- 9am: Chinese GP reaction: Chequered flag*
- 10am: Ted's Notebook*
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in Shanghai this week for the first Sprint weekend of the season at the Chinese GP, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - No contract, cancel anytime
