“Embarrassing” for Lewis Hamilton to be beaten by Williams in Australia, says F1 pundit

Renowned Formula 1 journalist Peter Windsor has described Lewis Hamilton’s performance on his debut weekend with Ferrari as “embarrassing” after he was beaten by Williams driver Alex Albon in the Australian Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 champion endured a tough start to his stint with Ferrari at Melbourne last weekend, as he finished a distant 10th following a failed gamble to stay out on slick tyres in a late-race shower.

During the middle part of the race, Hamilton’s new race engineer Riccardo Adami provided specific instructions to change the settings on his car to boost his chances of overtaking Albon’s Williams.

But the Briton, who had to split with his long-time engineer Pete Bonington after his move from Mercedes, was heard dismissing Adam’s suggestions on team radio.

“Leave me to it, please,” he said in a message that was shown on F1’s world feed.

While Albon went on to finish a strong fifth, securing Williams’ best finish the 2021 Belgian GP, Hamilton could only salvage 10th place after being overtaken by McLaren’s recovering Oscar Piastri on the final lap.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, former Williams sponsorship manager Windsor expressed his disappointment at the way Hamilton dealt with his race engineer over team radio.

“They were giving Lewis instructions on how to get past Alex Albon, to do with the DRS and the various switches and he kept saying I can handle it, I can handle it,” said Winsdor.

“Well, Lewis, you didn't handle it and you never got past Alex Albon. And I think for a Ferrari driver to get beaten, admittedly in his first grand prix, for him to get outraced by Alex Albon in a Williams is a bit embarrassing to be honest.

“I was a bit surprised that Lewis was taking that rather dogmatic approach on the radio because I'm sure on the pit wall they were thinking what is going on here, why can't he get past him.”

Hamilton developed a harmonious relationship with Bonington during his time at Mercedes, and the Australian GP marked the first time he had a new race engineer in more than a decade.

However, Windsor feels Hamilton and Ferrari should have worked out any communication issues during pre-season testing in February.

“It sounded to me that Lewis was getting agitated at his engineer in race one,” he said in another YouTube video. “And if you say it’s a language issue why didn’t he sort it out in the Bahrain test?

“Or the meetings they have had in Maranello all this time? I can’t believe there is a language issue now they haven’t sorted and they only discovered it in the middle of the Australian GP.”

Windsor was also unimpressed with another conversation between Ferrari’s pitwall and Charles Leclerc, which sparked several memes on social media.

Leclerc’s race engineer appeared to suggest that the water he found in his cockpit had leaked from his drinks bottle, but the lack of a clear message prompted a sarcastic comment from the Monegasque driver.

“There was a lot of weird radio transmissions going with Ferrari, almost becoming uncomfortable with Charles Leclerc giving his engineer a hard time for saying the water you're feeling in the cockpit, by which he meant must be from the water bottle,” explained Windsor.

“But he didn't say all that and then Charles said thanks for stating the obvious. I know that will go viral and everybody will think it is very funny but I don't think it is particularly funny in the middle of the race when an engineer is quite clearly trying to help the driver.”