Damon Hill tells Lewis Hamilton he just learned the harsh lesson every Ferrari driver must realise at the Miami Grand Prix

This season’s Formula 1 Sprint Races appear to be following a similar pattern for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton.

During both Sprint Races this season, Lewis Hamilton has appeared on the podium, winning in China before finishing P3 on Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix.

However, back in Shanghai, Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc had a tough Grand Prix, with the Monegasque driver quicker than the seven-time world champion with a broken wing before they were both disqualified.

This weekend, the highs were lower but the lows were marginally higher, with Hamilton and Leclerc securing 10 points for the team.

It’s a tally that was lower than what Williams earned which will be particularly concerning to Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, and after one-quarter of the races in 2025, Ferrari’s season looks all but over.

Leclerc has been left frustrated by Ferrari’s updates this year, while Hamilton hasn’t been able to get up to speed as quickly as he would have liked after his move from Mercedes.

Ferrari caught many people’s attention during the race with their strategy and the radio messages they delivered to Hamilton and Leclerc when they were running one behind the other on the track, including world champion Damon Hill.

He feels that the 40-year-old has just been taught a valuable lesson about what it means to race for Ferrari in Formula 1.

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Damon Hill thinks Lewis Hamilton learned no driver is ‘bigger than Ferrari’ at the Miami Grand Prix

Hill was commentating on the race for BBC Sport (4/5 10:04 pm) and reacting to the battle between the two Ferraris.

On the team radio, Hamilton’s race engineer Riccardo Adami said, “Keep the DRS to Charles, and go ahead like this, Sainz behind 1.5 [seconds].”

Hill reacted to this and said, “Well, this is it about Ferrari, no one is bigger than Ferrari, even if you’re Lewis Hamilton.

“Lewis will be having things to say about that, they’ve spent an awful lot of money, and they’ll want to see results.

“He’s trying to say to them, ‘Look, I can give you results, but I can’t be…’ before he was interrupted by another message from Hamilton who was back on the team radio and continued, “This is not good teamwork, that’s all I’m going to say.”

The pair eventually swapped position but Hamilton was told to keep Leclerc in DRS range to avoid Carlos Sainz approaching from behind.

However, once the move was done, Hill continued, “I think he’s off, I think he’s up the road.

“It was the right call, I think Lewis’ call was right, he’s got a faster car on the track that can get another car further up the road before the end of the race and I think it was the right move to make.

“Why should he have to battle his teammate? They could keep that up lap after lap and ruin Lewis’ tyres and lose the chance to get extra points.”

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Damon Hill saw Lewis Hamilton deliver the ‘mark of a champion’ during Miami GP weekend

It wasn’t all bad news for Hamilton despite Sunday’s tough showing in Miami.

Hamilton was lauded for a strategy call during the Sprint Race that earned him his podium finish, and Ferrari could learn to react more quickly to what he and Leclerc are saying on the team radio in future.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t continue that good form in qualifying, failing to get out of Q2, although the gap between himself and his teammate was marginal.

Hill praised Hamilton for a champion-like move in qualifying, digging out a great lap to avoid an early elimination under tricky conditions.

Hamilton hasn’t suddenly forgotten how to drive a Formula 1 car, but there are steps forward that Ferrari need to take to extract the most out of their newest driver.