Lewis Hamilton had a Ferrari debut to forget as he struggled home in 10th at the Australian GP and exchanged awkward messages with his new race engineer.
Lewis Hamilton has been called out for an embarrassing moment following his troubled Ferrari debut. The seven-time world champion’s move from Mercedes to the Italian giants was one of the biggest talking points as the 2025 Formula 1 season got underway in Australia. But Hamilton failed to deliver on the hype after he qualified eighth and finished 10th in the race, with both Ferraris well off the pace-setting McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Hamilton was passed late in the race by team-mate Charles Leclerc and on the final lap by the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who was recovering from a spin triggered by a late-race burst of rain in Melbourne. For much of the race, Hamilton was stuck behind Williams’ Alex Albon, who ended up finishing fifth. As he struggled to make progress, he repeatedly told new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, to “leave it to me” after being given guidance from the pitwall.
Hamilton’s performance and radio messages have been criticised by former Williams team manager Peter Windsor. Speaking on his YouTube channel, the Australian said: “There were a lot of weird radio transmissions going on with Ferrari, almost becoming uncomfortable with Charles Leclerc giving his engineer a hard time.
“And they were giving Lewis a lot of instructions and how to get past Alex Albon, to do with the DRS and various switches. He kept saying, ‘I can handle it, I can handle it’.
“Well, Lewis, you didn’t handle it and you never got past Alex Albon. For a Ferrari driver – admittedly in his first grand prix [with the team] – to be outraced by Alex Albon in the Williams is a bit embarrassing, to be honest.
“I was a bit surprised that Lewis was taking a rather dogmatic approach on the radio because I’m sure on the pitwall they were thinking, ‘what’s going on here, why can’t he get past him?’
While they weren’t on McLaren nor Verstappen’s level, the Ferraris would have finished higher than eighth and 10th had they not stayed out too long on slick tyres following the late rain. Hamilton said: “Unfortunately, at the end, they said it was only a short shower and the rest of the track was dry so I was like, ‘I’m going to stick it out as long as I can, and keep it on the dry’.
“But they didn’t say more rain was coming. And then more came. So I think I was just lacking that bit of information at the end.
“I didn’t have any confidence today unfortunately. I’m going to make some changes next week to the car and to the set-up. There were lots of snaps. I was nearly in the wall most of the time.”
Their performance in Melbourne, on and off the track, has given the Scuderia plenty to ponder ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, which will see the first Sprint race of the season.
