Lewis Hamilton believes that the struggles between himself and race engineer Riccardo Adami have been overstated, and that the difficulties pale in comparison to the ‘abuse’ that Gianpiero Lambiase has received from Max Verstappen during their time together at Red Bull. The Brit developed an iconic partnership with Peter Bonnington during his 12-year stay with Mercedes, but after leaving the Silver Arrows, Hamilton joined forces with Adami at Ferrari.
At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton repeatedly asked for fewer radio communications from Adami, getting evidently more frustrated each time. These messages were broadcast to the world and were heavily scrutinised by pundits and onlookers.
“Naturally, everyone overegged. It was literally just a back-and-forth. I was very polite in how I had suggested it. I said: ‘Leave it to me, please’. I wasn’t saying ‘f*** you’. I wasn’t swearing.
“At that point, I was really struggling with the car, and I needed full focus on this couple of things. We’re getting to know each other. He’s obviously had two champions or more in the past and there’s no issues between us still.”
The seven-time world champion went on to suggest that he was subject to double standards. “Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers – far worse,” he continued.
“The conversation that Max has with an engineer over the years, the abuse that the poor guy’s taken, and you never write about it, but you wrote about the smallest little discussion I had with mine.
“Ultimately, we’re literally just getting to know each other, so afterwards I’m like: ‘Hey bro, I don’t need that bit of information but if you want to give me this, this is the place I’d like to do it. This is how I’m feeling in the car and, at these points, this is when I do and don’t need the information.’ That’s what it’s about. There are no issues, it’s done with a smiley face and we move forwards.”
Verstappen’s radio outbursts have been criticised by pundits, most notably at the Hungarian Grand Prix last season, but the Dutchman still enjoys a strong relationship with Lambiase and has been defended by team principal Christian Horner and other members of the Red Bull squad.
