Lewis Hamilton’s first race with Ferrari ended rather disappointingly after the Briton only managed to finish in P10.
The seven-time world champion had his work cut out in the opening round of the season, which was marred by adverse weather.
Hamilton spent most of the first half of the race behind Alex Albon’s Williams, who he tried to pass for seventh place.
Peter Windsor felt it was ’embarrassing’ to see Hamilton struggle to get past the Williams on debut for Ferrari, given the sense of anticipation there was around the event.
Martin Brundle also felt that Hamilton would likely not enjoy watching back the overtake made by Oscar Piastri on him in the final laps, causing him to lose out on P9.
Hamilton felt his team missed out on a better result, something Marc Priestley picked up on as being a key factor in the radio messages he sent his team when speaking on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast.
Marc Priestley says Lewis Hamilton radio messages ‘polite’ with Ferrari
The Australian GP was Hamilton’s first race with new engineer Riccardo Adami, having worked with Peter Bonnington over the last 12 years.
Having worked on their partnership throughout the winter break, it was clear there were still some things that needed to be ironed out in their communication chain.
“Lewis had thoughts in his mind when, there were so many elements of rain coming and not coming, the track drying out, Safety Cars, there was a point where Lewis thought they should’ve gambled on dry tyres while everyone else moved to the Intermediates,” said Priestley.
“It did end up being intense rain, so I think in hindsight it wouldn’t have played out differently the risk was too great.
“What was actually interesting was the relationship between the engineers on the radio, it was all very polite between Lewis and his engineers, they were using words like ‘Please’ in these communications.”
Frederic Vassuer angry with one Lewis Hamilton team message
Hamilton struggled in qualifying for the Australian GP, having ran out of sync with the rest of the pack on their set of tyres.
Friday practice looked promising for the Maranello-based squad, but it unravelled in qualifying when the team made a few strategic errors.
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Frederic Vasseur was reportedly frustrated with the indecision from the pit wall, after Adami told Hamilton to stay out on track when there was confusion over whether he should pit for new tyres.
After Hamilton was also heard during the Grand Prix telling his engineer not to repeat messages, it’s clear that the communication chain is something for them to work on in the upcoming races.
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