Martin Brundle questions Lewis Hamilton’s “angsty” Ferrari radio responses

Martin Brundle says he doesn’t understand why Lewis Hamilton was “so angsty” to new Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami during the F1 Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished a lowly 10th on his debut for Ferrari, two places behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The race proved to be a major missed opportunity for Ferrari as they got their strategy wrong with the timing of the switch to intermediates from dry tyres.

Hamilton briefly led the race but dropped to eighth for the final stint.

The seven-time world champion then lost a place to Leclerc at the Safety Car restart before losing ninth to Oscar Piastri on the final lap.

One recurring theme throughout the race was hearing Hamilton’s frustration over team radio when talking to his new race engineer.

Adami, who has previously worked with Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, is Hamilton’s race engineer because Peter Bonnington is still at Mercedes.

On several occasions, Hamilton told Adami, “Leave me to it, please”, after the Ferrari engineer recommended different engine switches or advice to aid his chances of overtaking.

Hamilton was disgruntled by Ferrari’s strategy and their incorrect weather forecast.

The 40-year-old told Adami: “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much? We just missed a big opportunity there.”

In his post-race column for Sky Sports, Brundle felt that Adami was simply trying to assist Hamilton with “relevant and helpful information.”

“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 wrote.

“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.”

“Disappointing start to Ferrari career”

It was a poor weekend for Hamilton overall, who struggled for outright speed from the first practice session.

Hamilton qualified a couple of tenths behind Leclerc, whose record at Albert Park against teammates has been poor over the years.

Hamilton lost out at the start and spent most of the race stuck behind slower cars.

He was weak in wheel-to-wheel battle, losing out to Leclerc and Piastri.

Brundle described the weekend as a “disappointing start” to his Ferrari career.

“And on that subject, despite lots of happy words and reasons why he had to learn his steering wheel and other new aspects, Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing start to his Ferrari career by any metric,” Brundle added.

“Eighth on the grid behind his teammate 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.”