Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut was a mixed experience for the Brit (Image: Getty)
’s communications with new race engineer Riccardo Adami have been questioned by . The Sky Sports F1 pundit described the Brit’s tone as ‘angsty’ after the former man repeatedly pushed for fewer comments on the radio. Hamilton formed an iconic partnership with Peter Bonnington during his 12-year stay at , but when the seven-time world champion made the surprise move to , he was unable to lure ‘Bono’ to Maranello with him.
Instead, the 40-year-old is working with Adami, who previously race-engineered for Sebastian Vettel and . The new pairing got off to a shaky start in Melbourne. Adami was keen to coach his driver from the garage, but Hamilton brushed off these attempts, demanding fewer radio messages as he attempted to keep his SF-25 on the soaked Albert Park Circuit tarmac.
Assessing the legendary Brit’s debut, Brundle took a dim view. “And on that subject, despite lots of happy words, and reasons why he had to learn his steering wheel and other new aspects, had a disappointing start to his career by any metric,” he wrote in his column.
“Eighth on the grid behind his team-mate Leclerc, losing out a little in the first corner and following ‘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.
Martin Brundle was not so impressed with Hamilton’s tone (Image: Getty)
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“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. It all really fell apart for 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.”
For Hamilton, the debut was a baptism of fire. The Brit didn’t even know the rain settings for the SF-25 heading into Sunday’s race and was forced to learn on the fly. As others – including Sainz, the man he replaced – made costly mistakes, he at least kept his car pointing in the right direction.
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“I felt like I was in the deep end today,” he said after the chequered flag. “Just everything is new, from the first time I was driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I’ve experienced in the past, the power unit, all the steering functions – all the things are thrown to you, and you’re trying to juggle them.”
The former and driver will hope to enjoy a more harmonious and straightforward weekend in Shanghai, although with just one practice session on the cards ahead of the sprint, Hamilton and Adami will likely be on the back foot once again.