Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed his experience of working with his new race engineer at Ferrari, Riccardo Adami, especially after a tense exchange of words during the tricky Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit.
Hamilton’s debut race with Ferrari was no less than an adventure as intermittent rain and multiple safety cars saw the competitive order shift aggressively. Unfortunately for the Briton and his teammate Charles Leclerc, Ferrari missed out on an opportunity by not pitting them early for a switch to intermediate tires, which could have resulted in a much better race finish than the P10 and P8 both drivers secured.
What added to the challenge’s intensity for Hamilton was his first wet race in a Ferrari F1 car. The race was viewed by him as a “crash course” to drive his SF-25 in the wet. The race also saw Hamilton asking Adami on multiple occasions to not offer information that he didn’t need, mainly pertaining to switching to the K1 mode on his car. He also pointed out the missed opportunity to pit early, indicating his friction-filled tone.
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However, the 40-year-old driver said after the race that he was impressed by the way Adami performed his job and suggested that they would review the exchanges from the Australian Grand Prix and then proceed further from there. He said:
“I think Riccardo did a really good job. We’re learning about each other bit by bit. We just need to… after this, we’ll download, we’ll go through all the comments, things I said, and vice versa.
“And generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in the race. Unless I need it, I’ll ask for it. But he did his best today.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur called for an improvement in the communication between the pit wall and the car after the Melbourne race and stressed that Hamilton’s preferences must be understood before the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix. Newsweek Sports reported:
“It was the first race, the first time that we have to communicate between the pit wall and the car, and we can do a better job and know each other more.
“For sure it was not a clean one at all, the strategy was difficult and we need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pit wall but we will learn from Race 1 and it is not an issue.”
He added:
“It was not a shock but for sure it was not a good weekend for us. But we focus on next week [the Chinese Grand Prix] and learn a lot from this weekend because we made a mistakes. [sic]
“We need to improve the communication, understand what Lewis needs from the communication, and it is only in this situation that we can be in the situation. We will be much better next week.”
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