‘Lack of trust’ concern raised about Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

Former Aston Martin F1 strategist Bernie Collins has raised concerns about possible trust issues arising between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari.

It has not been the fairytale start to life at Ferrari that Hamilton would have been hoping for following the seven-time world champion’s blockbuster F1 switch from rivals Mercedes over the winter.

Hamilton finished a disappointing 10th in a wet and chaotic season-opener in Australia before things improved in China, where the 40-year-old Briton converted his first Ferrari pole position into a convincing first win in the sprint.

However, Hamilton would go on to finish just sixth in the main grand prix in Shanghai, before he and teammate Charles Leclerc were disqualified for failing separate post-race scrutineering checks.

Hamilton’s Ferrari was deemed illegal due to his plank having excessive wear by half a millimetre, while Leclerc’s car was 1kg under the 800kg weight limit.

The double exclusion cost Ferrari 18 points and has left the Italian team languishing fifth in the constructors’ championship and facing their worst start to an F1 season since 2009.

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari trust issue?

Collins believes the combination of poor strategy calls in Melbourne and operational errors which led to the DSQs in Shanghai potentially risks causing Hamilton to lose some faith in his new team.

"It's a bump because Ferrari had the wrong strategy in Australia, in China they have been disqualified so should have done better, and they arguably had the wrong strategy because Lewis should not have pitted for a second time,” Collins told Sky Sports.

"Lewis was really struggling in the car on Sunday and the car was illegal. The changes in set-up didn't react in the way he wanted to, or he wouldn't have been so slow in the race, and they've been illegal.

"So it is a bump. If they go through it and they find whatever's wrong, then Lewis can get over that pretty quickly. But it's one of these little things that adds to the lack of trust.

"When Sebastian Vettel came to us at Aston Martin, I really wanted him to think we were good at our jobs.

"I really wanted him to go 'if she calls me to pit, I'm going to do it' because I trust the team. Now we have had a strategy thing, a radio thing and now disqualification, so it makes the driver unsure.”

Collins explained that the responsibility to ensure their car is legal fundamentally falls on one individual - Hamilton’s race engineer Riccardo Adami.

“Fundamentally, it’s the race engineer’s job [to ensure] that the car is legal. Each race engineer for each car, it lies with them that the car is legal,” she said.

“They will try and understand why it’s illegal in both instances, in the weight and plank wear. It would be lovely to know if Leclerc was legal on plank wear.

“We know Lewis’ car was legal on weight because all cars are checked on weight. We don’t know if Leclerc was legal on plank wear because his car was not checked for it.”