Sky F1’s Bernie Collins was “surprised” by the lack of pace from Lewis Hamilton during the Monaco Grand Prix.

And Collins – the former McLaren lead performance engineer and Aston Martin strategy chief – argued that Hamilton‘s performance becomes more “worrying” for Ferrari when he appeared their “more confident” driver going into the race weekend, the frustrations becoming clear in fresh team radio tensions with race engineer Riccardo Adami.

Lewis Hamilton Monaco GP setback sparks ‘worrying’ observation

Ferrari went some way to making amends for the agony of a double Q2 exit on home soil in Imola by recovering to a double points finish – Hamilton P4 and Charles Leclerc P6 – though going into Monaco, the alarm bells returned for Leclerc and team boss Fred Vasseur.

As it turned out, Ferrari got their expectations wrong, with Leclerc topping every practice session ahead of narrowly losing out on pole position at his home race, McLaren’s Lando Norris taking that coveted grid slot and leading Leclerc across the line on Sunday, that P2 a season-best result for Leclerc.

Hamilton meanwhile was forced to make do with P5, 51 seconds adrift of Norris at the line, 31 seconds down on Max Verstappen one position up the road, and just shy of 48 seconds off the podium, the final spot going to McLaren’s Championship leader Oscar Piastri.

And reflecting on that Hamilton performance during Sky F1’s ‘The F1 Show’ podcast, Collins argued it is “more worrying for Ferrari” that Hamilton’s lack of pace came at a track she says he “loves”, and one which she observed him as carrying more confidence at than Leclerc going into the race weekend.

“I was a bit surprised that at the second pit stop, Lewis had lost enough time that Piastri could box and come out in front of him,” said Collins.

“So the pace was off, and what we’ve seen with the new regulation is that the top five were all pushing. In previous races, that wasn’t the case.

“Lewis just wasn’t able to push and stay with them, which is surprising given how much Lewis loves Monaco.

“He seemed much more confident than Leclerc, so that is more worrying for Ferrari.”

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Hamilton found himself a minute back from the quartet ahead in the closing stages of the Monaco GP, him pressing for that information one of several team radio flashpoints during the race, with Adami not initially giving a straight answer.

Hamilton also misunderstood a “this is our race” message from Adami ahead of his first stop, while post-race, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was forced to play down silence from Adami when Hamilton had asked his race engineer “are you upset with me or something?”

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