Lewis Hamilton would have finished tenth in the first race of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship
The full exchange between Lewis Hamilton and his new team at Ferrari during the Australian Grand Prix has been released.
Hamilton, seven-time Formula 1 champion, raced for the first time in Ferrari Colors after 12 years with Mercedes.
The Briton made his highly anticipated debut at Albert Park in Melbourne, with huge expectations from fans and members alike.
Unfortunately, Hamilton finished in tenth place, while teammate Charles Leclerc finished two places ahead in eighth.
As for the podium, fellow Briton Lando Norris emerged on top, ahead of world champion Max Verstappen and another Briton in George Russell in a dramatic race that saw one place change after the final result.
Hamilton’s performance clearly came from him during the race too, as he expressed his frustrations with race engineer Riccardo Adami and his team on the radio.
The communications between the 40-year-old and his team made headlines in their own right, with Hamilton swearing when told of his new position at one point in the race, which was ninth.
Following the conclusion of this morning’s race, the transcript of the team’s exchanges was released, and here’s a snippet of one of Hamilton and Adami’s exchanges.
Hamilton : “Let me know where I’m slow. Struggling with driving ability. The car is quick.”
Adami : “Turn 11 and 12… you can use K1 when you are close.”
Hamilton: “Leave me to it, please.”
Adami : “K1 available.”
Hamilton : “Yes, I know. Let go of me, please.”
Hamilton was not happy with his team during the race (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
The driver would later say he had lost the gear synchronization, even giving the engineer more advice, saying: “Please leave it… leave me alone with the DRS. It’s not a problem.”
It wasn’t the end though.
Adami : “Try holding K1. Just for practice. I know it’s hard.”
Hamilton : “I’m not close enough! I’m not close enough. When I get close, I’ll do it.”
In more chilling terms, Hamilton later told his team: “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much? We just missed a great opportunity there,” to which Adami simply said: “Got it.”
During his post-race interview with Sky Sports, Hamilton said his car was “really difficult to drive”, explaining that it was “a lot worse” than he initially thought.
He added: “It was very tricky… it was much worse than I thought it would be, the car was really difficult to drive today. I’m grateful I kept it off the wall, that’s where it wanted to go most of the time.”
Hamilton continued: “A lot of bringing [in] different power units in wet driving, different and set up on the steering wheel. And driving how much more rain was coming… we missed it.
“The information I got was that it was a short shower, and very quick, and it was just the last corner. But then others came along.”
Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok later said in an analysis on Sky Sports that both sides need to understand what kind of communication Hamilton wants, adding that they “need to find their feet”.
