Famend System 1 journalist Peter Windsor has described Lewis Hamilton’s efficiency on his debut weekend with Ferrari as “embarrassing” after he was overwhelmed by Williams driver Alex Albon within the Australian Grand Prix.
The seven-time F1 champion endured a troublesome begin to his stint with Ferrari at Melbourne final weekend, as he completed a distant tenth following a failed gamble to remain out on slick tyres in a late-race bathe.
Throughout the center a part of the race, Hamilton’s new race engineer Riccardo Adami supplied particular directions to vary the settings on his automotive to spice up his probabilities of overtaking Albon’s Williams.
However the Briton, who needed to break up along with his long-time engineer Pete Bonington after his transfer from Mercedes, was heard dismissing Adam’s strategies on crew radio.
“Depart me to it, please,” he stated in a message that was proven on F1’s world feed.
Whereas Albon went on to complete a robust fifth, securing Williams’ finest end the 2021 Belgian GP, Hamilton might solely salvage tenth place after being overtaken by McLaren’s recovering Oscar Piastri on the ultimate lap.
Talking on his YouTube channel, former Williams sponsorship supervisor Windsor expressed his disappointment on the manner Hamilton dealt along with his race engineer over crew radio.
“They have been giving Lewis directions on tips on how to get previous Alex Albon, to do with the DRS and the varied switches and he saved saying I can deal with it, I can deal with it,” stated Winsdor.
“Properly, Lewis, you did not deal with it and also you by no means obtained previous Alex Albon. And I feel for a Ferrari driver to get overwhelmed, admittedly in his first grand prix, for him to get outraced by Alex Albon in a Williams is a bit embarrassing to be trustworthy.
“I used to be a bit shocked that Lewis was taking that reasonably dogmatic strategy on the radio as a result of I am positive on the pit wall they have been pondering what’s going on right here, why cannot he get previous him.”
Hamilton developed a harmonious relationship with Bonington throughout his time at Mercedes, and the Australian GP marked the primary time he had a brand new race engineer in additional than a decade.
Nevertheless, Windsor feels Hamilton and Ferrari ought to have labored out any communication points throughout pre-season testing in February.
“It sounded to me that Lewis was getting agitated at his engineer in race one,” he stated in one other YouTube video. “And if you happen to say it’s a language problem why didn’t he type it out within the Bahrain take a look at?
“Or the conferences they’ve had in Maranello all this time? I can’t consider there’s a language problem now they haven’t sorted they usually solely found it in the midst of the Australian GP.”
Windsor was additionally unimpressed with one other dialog between Ferrari’s pitwall and Charles Leclerc, which sparked a number of memes on social media.
Leclerc’s race engineer appeared to counsel that the water he present in his cockpit had leaked from his drinks bottle, however the lack of a transparent message prompted a sarcastic remark from the Monegasque driver.
“There was lots of bizarre radio transmissions going with Ferrari, virtually turning into uncomfortable with Charles Leclerc giving his engineer a tough time for saying the water you are feeling within the cockpit, by which he meant should be from the water bottle,” defined Windsor.
“However he did not say all that after which Charles stated thanks for stating the apparent. I do know that may go viral and all people will assume it is rather humorous however I do not assume it’s notably humorous in the midst of the race when an engineer is kind of clearly making an attempt to assist the driving force.”
