Lewis Hamilton has hit back in what he sees as an overreaction to his team radio exchanges with his new race engineer on Ferrari debut.

Hamilton would point the finger over at Red Bull’s four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, speaking of verbal “abuse” from the Dutchman towards his race engineer Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase.

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari radio: No ‘abuse’ like Verstappen and GP

At various stages in his first grand prix with Ferrari in Melbourne, Hamilton’s communication with race engineer Riccardo Adami appeared tense, with ex-F1 driver turned Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle criticising the seven-time World Champion for an “angsty” approach.

However, Hamilton has hit back, claiming this situation was blown out of proportion, while accusing the media of staying silent on Verstappen and his “abuse” over the radio to his race engineer GP.

Verstappen and GP are no strangers to team radio bickering, but share a strong bond, with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner previously quipping they are “like an old married couple”.

Speaking ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton said: “Everyone over-egged [the situation]. It was literally just a back-and-forth. I was very polite in how I suggested it.

“I said ‘leave it to me, please’. I wasn’t saying ‘F-you’, I wasn’t swearing.

“It was just at that point I was really struggling with the car and I needed full focus on a couple of things. We’re getting to know each other.

“He [Adami] had two champions or more in the past [sic] and there are no issues between us. Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers – it’s far worse.

“The conversations that Max has had with his engineer over the years and the abuse that the poor guy has taken, and you never write about it, but you write about the smallest little discussion I have with mine.

“We’re literally just getting to know each other. Afterwards, I’m like, ‘Hey bro, I don’t need that bit of information. But if you want to give me this, this is the place I like to do it. This is how I’m feeling in the car and at these points, this is what this is, when I do and don’t need the information’.

“That’s what it’s about. There are no issues and it’s done with a smiley face, and we move forward.”

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After his Australian GP debut, Hamilton would move to praise Adami with their first race as a partnership in the books.

“I think Riccardo did a really good job,” he said. “We’re learning about each other bit by bit. We just need to… after this, we’ll download, we’ll go through all the comments, things I said, and vice versa.

“And generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in the race. Unless I need it, I’ll ask for it. But he did his best today.”

But, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur would highlight communication as an area where improvement is needed going forward.

“It was the first race, the first time that we communicate between the people in the car,” said Vasseur. “We can do a better job.

“I think that this weekend was quite extreme for different reasons, the fact that it is not a permanent track, the fact that the grip is changing a lot, the fact that together with these conditions [wind and rain] I think it’s probably one of the most difficult weekends to manage.

“For sure, it was quite a shock, but it was not the right weekend from us. Next week we’ll have to learn a lot from this weekend, because we made mistakes.

“It was not the issue of Lewis, it was the issue of the team. We need to find the level of communication between the team, the drivers and engineers.”

After the cold, wind and rain of Grand Prix Sunday in Melbourne, dry, warm conditions are expected across the Chinese Grand Prix race weekend.

However, as Hamilton continues his adaptation to Ferrari life, practice time drops from three hours to one as the F1 Sprint format makes its first 2025 appearance in Shanghai.

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