SHANGHAI (AP) 鈥� Lewis Hamilton denied there’s frustration with Ferrari race engineer Ricciardo Adami despite frequently shutting down unnecessary radio chatter between them at the Australian Grand Prix.
鈥淓veryone overreacted,鈥� Hamilton said on Thursday.
Hamilton had a miserable debut weekend for Ferrari in Melbourne last week after qualifying eighth and finishing 10th for the final point. That ended preseason testing hype that had the Scuderia as a potential McLaren challenger.
The Brit dismissed talk he was further annoyed by the team’s operations at Albert Park, including a strategic gamble that cost him a potential win and led to an angry rebuke over radio. That was along with unnecessary radio chatter from his race engineer that he had to swat away.
鈥淚 was very polite in how I suggested it, I said, 鈥楲eave it to me please,鈥欌�� Hamilton said. 鈥淚 wasn’t swearing. It was just at that point I was really struggling with a car and I needed full focus on at least a couple of things.鈥�
Hamilton backed his veteran teammate Adami, who previously engineered Carlos Sainz Jr., now at Williams, and retired four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, saying all that was needed was a constructive chat post-race.
鈥淎fterwards,” Hamilon said, “I was like, 鈥楬ey bro, I don鈥檛 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 the point I do and don’t need the information.’
鈥淭hat’s what it鈥檚 about. There’s no issues in it. It’s done with a smiley face, and we move forward.鈥�
He added his recent radio chatter pales in comparison with F1 rivals, including at Red Bull between Max Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
鈥淕o and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers 鈥� far worse,鈥� Hamilton said.
鈥淭he 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.鈥�
Hamilton remains impressively oblivious to the pressure of joining F1鈥檚 most successful team, with the seven-time world champion taking the setbacks in his stride.
鈥淚t (Australia) wasn’t the race that we wanted but it’s not the moment to throw the toys out of the pram, like, it is what it is,鈥� he said.
鈥淥ne small thing could have made a big difference in the result but we move forwards. Everyone is still motivated. You’ve got everyone here with their heads higher and I think that the energy’s still good in the garage, so we’re not defined by that one race.鈥�
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