Fred Vasseur must act now after Lewis Hamilton’s unbroadcast radio tension at the Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has turned things around at the Spanish Grand Prix as he will line up fifth for Sunday’s race after a solid qualifying outing.

The seven-time champion had been struggling in practice with an unstable rear end on the SF-25. Teammate Charles Leclerc was ‘considerably ahead’ of Hamilton, with the Brit labelling the car as ‘undrivable’.

Ferrari had pinned hopes on the FIA’s flexi-wing technical directive to edge closer to McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. However, Hamilton was doubtful about its impact on the field, having seen little difference in the simulator.

Sure enough, it did have little effect on the pecking order as McLaren locked out the front row, with Oscar Piastri on pole. But Hamilton did find some performance in qualifying, initially putting his Ferrari P3 with his final run.

Max Verstappen and George Russell beat Hamilton with identical times, leaving the 40-year-old fifth for the Spanish Grand Prix. He outqualified teammate Leclerc in seventh after he ran out of fresh tyres for his final run, but despite the result, desperate action is required on the Brit’s pit wall.

Fred Vasseur must act now after Lewis Hamilton had another tense moment with Riccardo Adami at the Spanish GP

One of Hamilton’s biggest issues since joining Ferrari from Mercedes has been radio communication with his race engineer Riccardo Adami. The pair’s relationship is still relatively new, but it is clear that there are problems with the way they are currently working.

Thus far in 2025, Adami has struggled to relay the right amount of information to Hamilton. This was the case in Monaco, where the Brit came over the radio saying: ‘Are you upset with me or something?’ before seemingly getting no response.

Team principal Fred Vasseur dispelled any potential rift between the two while speaking to the official F1 website after the Monaco GP. He claimed that ‘it’s not a tension’ and that the pit wall was simply waiting for Hamilton to navigate corners before relaying information.

However, miscommunication persisted in Barcelona, as Hamilton suffered a downshift problem during FP3. After the session, the Brit was heard discussing with Adami what to do on an unbroadcast radio exchange.

Adami says to Hamilton: “Try again to downshift now, please. If it’s working, otherwise we box.,” before the 40-year-old tells him that the issue has been fixed: “I just told you it’s working.”

Adami then asks if Hamilton can conduct a start simulation on the grid: “Can you try, take a start?” The Ferrari driver replies with some frustration: “I… Yes,” before his engineer then tells him: “We prefer to box to check.”

Hamilton reiterates that the ‘Downshift [is] working,’ but Adami asks him again to come back to the pits. The Brit ends the exchange by repeating that he can conduct a start on the grid: “I can do the start dude it’s fine.”

The clear tension between Hamilton and Adami is something that Ferrari cannot afford to see continue as they try to salvage a strong position in the championship. Vasseur must act now and get to the bottom of the issue before they fall further behind their rivals.

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Ferrari fans are beginning to lose patience after latest Hamilton-Adami tension in Spain

Martin Brundle says Ferrari ‘mustn’t’ resort to sackings because of their disappointing start to the season. However, Juan Pablo Montoya has urged Hamilton to change engineers due to the miscommunications causing an ‘unhealthy’ environment.

It seems Ferrari fans agree with the Colombian as they took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustrations after hearing the unbroadcast radio.

“Week after week, the same communication issues…” wrote one fan, while another said: “These comms man. Jesus.”

“This is exhausting,” said another disgruntled Ferrari fan. Another user noted that Hamilton is struggling to build the same bond with Adami as he did with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes: “They are just not gelling at all!…miss bono.”

Many fans agree with Montoya that the 40-year-old needs to make a change of engineer. One said: “They actually need a new engineer for LH,” while another user wrote: “I’m beginning to think Ham’s poor performances is due to his engineer.”