Hamilton’s Ferrari debut race “a crash course” in the wet

Lewis Hamilton believes his first Ferrari Formula 1 start went “worse than I thought it would go” and was “a crash course in driving a Ferrari in the rain” during the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton ultimately finished 10th, albeit after leading for a brief spell when Ferrari gambled on staying out during a sudden downpour in the late stages of the race. This proved to be the wrong call, as Hamilton dropped to ninth after eventually stopping for intermediates, and was later passed by the recovering Oscar Piastri.

The disappointing result came amid a race where Hamilton was getting acclimatised to the Ferrari in wet conditions, and to race engineer Riccardo Adami, who sometimes got short shrift from his driver as the two worked together in a race environment for the first time.

Hamilton told Sky that he expected his first race in red to go a lot better, and later said that it was a significant challenge to get used to his new car and deal with the conditions around him.

“I felt like I was in the deep end today – 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,” said Hamilton.

“Unfortunately at the end they said it was just a short shower and the rest of the track was dry so I was like, ‘I’m gonna stick it out as long as I can. I can keep it on the track.’

“They didn’t say more was coming, so then all of a sudden more came, so I think it was just lacking that bit of information at the end.

“I didn’t have any confidence today in it unfortunately, so I’m going to make some changes next week to the car.

“Today was the braking and the rear stability, particularly on power – there was lots of snaps, I was nearly in the wall a lot!”

Hamilton put his radio communication issues down to he and Adami simply getting used to each other, particularly as Hamilton formed a working relationship with Mercedes engineer Pete Bonnington that spanned 12 years.

He explained that they would regroup afterwards to “move forward” and praised the job that Carlos Sainz’s former engineer did throughout the weekend, noting that the grand prix was a “crash course” in getting used to his new surroundings.

“I think Riccardo did a really good job – I think we’re learning about each other bit by bit,” said Hamilton.

“After this we’ll download, we’ll go through all the comments, things I said, and vice versa.

“I’m generally 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 and we’ll move forward.

“I’m grateful I got through it and came out with a little bit of something, at least at one point. Obviously I didn’t go off or spin today, but lacking pace for sure.

“I do believe the car has more performance than we were able to extract this weekend and it was even less performance, for example, in the race, but I think it’s all settings.

“I’ve learned a huge amount this weekend; there’s a lot to take away from it. I’ve got some changes I’m going to make for next week and see how it goes, but today was a crash course in driving a Ferrari in the rain.”

Hamilton and Adami’s radio messages

Lap 14

RA: You can use K1 [overtake] when you’re close.

LH: Leave me to it, please.

RA: K1 available.

LH: Yes, I know. Leave me to it please.

Lap 28

RA: Avoid into 9 DRS, suggest upshift and then DRS.

LH: Please leave it, I’m learning the car as I go mate. Leave me to it with the DRS, it’s not an issue.

Lap 31

RA: Try to hold the K1, just for practice, I know it’s difficult.

LH: I’m not close enough. I’m not close enough. When I’m close, I’ll do it.

RA: Understood.

Lap 47

RA: This is the wettest part. You are leading the race.

LH: Yes…it’s very slippy rain. There’s more rain coming down.

Lap 49

LH: Thought you said it wasn’t going to rain? Think we missed a big opportunity there. What position am I in, P9 again?

RA: P9.

LH: ****

Autosport says…

Hamilton previously enjoyed a long and successful partnership with Bonnington

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

When you’ve formed a successful working relationship with someone for over a decade, someone who has gathered an understanding of how to manage your quirks and needs, it’s difficult to start fresh with someone else.

The moments of tension between Hamilton and Adami were symbolic of that; it’s likely that Hamilton faced the same with Bonnington during 2013, but the pair eventually formed a compelling duo either side of the radio waves and Bonnington eventually learned how to gee up his driver in the pit-to-car communications.

The good thing is that the frostiness on the radio should start to melt once Hamilton and Adami become more accustomed to dealing with each other. They’ll have to work at it; Hamilton needs to explain to Adami what he needs, and Adami will need to start understanding Hamilton’s mentality in the car – with that, he’ll learn when to relay information and when to withhold it. That the rain call came too late was a Ferrari misstep, not an Adami one; Charles Leclerc was also left out for too long.

But the other side of the garage gives an example of how working relationships can develop with time; Leclerc had worked with Xavi Marcos Padros as the voice in his ear for a long time, and needed a couple of races to get in synch with new engineer Bryan Bozzi last year. But it works now, arguably better than the Leclerc/Padros relationship did – even mid-race in Australia, the two shared a joke about Leclerc’s wet seat.

It’ll improve in time – luckily, people spend so long in each others’ pockets in F1 that it should be a relatively swift process.