Explosive radio transcript revealed as Lewis Hamilton loses it with Ferrari race engineer at Australian Grand Prix
An exchange between Lewis Hamilton and his new team at Ferrari during the Australian Grand Prix has been released.
Hamilton, a seven-time Formula One champion, raced in Ferrari colours for the first time after 12 years with Mercedes.
The Brit made his highly-anticipated debut at Albert Park in Melbourne, to huge expectations from fans.
Unfortunately, Hamilton finished in 10th place, while teammate Charles Leclerc finished two places ahead in eighth.
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As for the podium, fellow Brit Lando Norris came out on top, ahead of world champion Max Verstappen and another Brit in George Russell in a dramatic race which saw a place change after the final result.
Hamilton's performance seemingly got to him during the race too, as he voiced his frustrations to race engineer Riccardo Adami and his team over the radio.
The communication between the 40-year-old and his team made headlines alone, as Hamilton swore when he was told of his new position at a point in the race, which was ninth.
Following the conclusion of the race this morning, the transcript of the team's exchanges have been released, and here is a snippet of one of Hamilton and Adami's exchanges:
Hamilton: “Let me know where I am slow. Struggling with drive-ability. The car is snappy.”
Adami: “Turns 11 and 12... You can use K1 when you are close.”
Hamilton: “Leave me to it, please.”
Adami: “K1 available.”
Hamilton: “Yes, I know. Leave me to it, please.”
Later, the driver would say that he lost gear sync, even giving the engineer more advice, saying: “Please leave it... Just leave me to it with the DRS. It’s not an issue.”
That wasn't the end, though.
Adami: “Try to hold the K1. Just for practice. I know it’s difficult.”
Hamilton: “I’m not close enough! I’m not close enough. When I’m close, I’ll do it.”
In more frosty words, Hamilton later said to his team: “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much? We just missed a big opportunity there,” to which Adami simply said: “Understood.”
During his post-race interview with Sky Sports, Hamilton claimed his car was 'really hard to drive', explaining that it went 'a lot worse' than he thought at first.
He added: “It was very tricky... It went a lot worse than I thought it would go, the car was really hard to drive today. I’m grateful I kept it out of the wall, that’s where it wanted to go most of the time.”
Hamilton went on: “A lot to take [in], different power unit in the wet, different driving and setup on the steering wheel. And the guidance of how much more rain was coming… we missed out.
“The information I got was that it was a short shower, and real quick, and it was just the last corner. But then more came.”
Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok later said in an analysis on Sky Sports that both parties need to understand what kind of communication Hamilton wants, adding that 'they need to find their feet'.
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1, Sport
Joshua Nair